ebus, Vaillant and tapping into the bus data

[Harry Bloomfield]

Another update, and I am still totally clueless, and all at sea on this....

I rather upset John30 (ebusd) it seems, buying a ebus powered wifi ebus adaptor, and recommending it in his forum to another. He claims it overloads the ebus, and corrupts the data, but I seen no evidence of that - my boiler and it's controls have continued to work as normal.

Rpi 5 has been delivered, I've installed Bookworm 64, and after a bit of a battle with the HDMI display not functioning as expected, I have found the way to past that issue - display device powered up first, then power up the Pi..

What's the next step, ebusd? How (in simple English please), do I install that? Keep in mind, I know nothing at all about Linux!

 

[hllns]

Another update, and I am still totally clueless, and all at sea on this....

I rather upset John30 (ebusd) it seems, buying a ebus powered wifi ebus adaptor, and recommending it in his forum to another. He claims it overloads the ebus, and corrupts the data, but I seen no evidence of that - my boiler and it's controls have continued to work as normal.

The spec says overall consumption on the bus shouldn't be greater than 100mA so this possibly might violate the spec, I've not measured the consumption of an esp board but the Vaillant Wireless base units are labelled as 50mA, it's possibly in the realms of "works with this setup but not that setup", the paranoid safest works with everything option is what has been done with the "official" boards.

Rpi 5 has been delivered, I've installed Bookworm 64, and after a bit of a battle with the HDMI display not functioning as expected, I have found the way to past that issue - display device powered up first, then power up the Pi..

What's the next step, ebusd? How (in simple English please), do I install that? Keep in mind, I know nothing at all about Linux!

Debian don't have their own official package for it but you can add a custom package source for it (based on https://github.com/john30/ebusd-debian), do the following in a terminal window:

1) Add the signing key so debian will trust the sources in the next section
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings && sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/keyrings/ebusd.gpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-]debian/master/ebusd.gpg

2) Add the ebusd package download location
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ebusd.list https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-debian/master/ebusd-default-bookworm.list

3) Make sure the package source listings are up to date
sudo apt update

4) Install the pre-built ebusd package (it will also automatically want to install any extra software that it needs)
sudo apt install ebusd


Configuring it is a whole other game in itself, to start off you'll need to tell it to talk to your board, instructions are here: https://adapter.ebusd.eu/v31/steps.en.html#ebusdcfg

1) You will need to start a shell as the root user:
sudo bash

2) Then edit the file as described on the web page above, by default it's looking for an ebus adapter on USB:
nano /etc/default/ebusd

3) Change the scanconfig target to point at your wifi ebus board:
EBUSD_OPTS="--scanconfig -d ens:192.168.0.50:9999"
You'll need to change the IP address and possibly the TCP port (9999) above to match what your board is using, you'll want to stick the wifi board on a static DHCP IP allocation or static IP address as if the address changes it'll all break obviously.

From that point you can start doing queries with ebusctl or a script or MQTT to query data. Hopefully this is enough to get some of it running.

 

[spile]

Is the RPI overkill for some of these projects? I like the considerably cheaper ESP32 (less than £10) for my home automation projects.

 

[hllns]

An esp device is fine for attaching to the physical ebus and converting it but ebusd which does the useful decoding and querying does need to run somewhere, doesn't need to be a Pi but it does need to be able to talk to the adapter.

 

[morqthana]

Anyway, take your trolling elsewhere..

I wasn't trolling - why on earth assume that someone who disagrees with or challenges you can only be doing so cynically, purely to cause an argument?

I guess other people's hobbies can often seem ineffably bizarre. Trainspotting, for example.

I know nothing at all about Linux!

If hllns' advice is what you need, it looks like you'll have to learn....

 

[Why Not Indeed]

I wasn't trolling

You contributed nothing to help the OP, your question was about the motivations of the OP rather than the subject matter and you started an argument. And your post was deleted. If you weren't trolling, what were you doing?

 

[Why Not Indeed]

Is the RPI overkill for some of these projects?

Yes - if you've already got a server somewhere to run ebusd on then using a Pi just for the physical connection is overkill. The "official" adaptor shield comes with an ESP controller.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

From that point you can start doing queries with ebusctl or a script or MQTT to query data. Hopefully this is enough to get some of it running.

Thank you very much for that! I am yet to get around to trying it, because there was a bit of a hiccup yesterday.....

The Pi failed to show up on the display, it wouldn't ping, when powered up it showed a red LED, which changed to a solid green. I thought I had killed it somehow, so just put it to one side temporarily. I was also busy trying to see if I could fix the PSU inside an LCD TV too. I was also a bit concerned it was running hot, despite no processing load. It just has tiny, postage stamp sized heat-sinks fitted, no cooling fan, but I understand it should throttle, if it gets too warm.

[EDIT] I have just remembered - It suggested there was un update available, so I accepted. I think it failed right after that, though I didn't connect it at the time..

Busy this morning, swapping mobile providers, so I've just got back to the Pi....

I checked the volts from the proper Pi PSU, suspecting the heat might be due to over-voltage, it's fine 5.08v. Reinstalled the OS on the SD card, and tried booting it back up, no display, but I could ping it just fine.

 

[morqthana]

You contributed nothing to help the OP, your question was about the motivations of the OP rather than the subject matter and you started an argument. And your post was deleted. If you weren't trolling, what were you doing?

I asked why he wanted to do it, and it seems to me that it makes hardly more sense than ticking off the registration numbers of railway locomotives, or aeroplanes, in a little book ever did.

But there seems little point me trying to discuss it with someone who flatly refuses to believe, or simply cannot understand, that suggesting what I think is a more socially valuable use of someone's time and intellect than what I think is a pointless use of it is not an utterly cynical comment disingenuously made for the sole purpose of creating an argument for self-gratification.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

2) Then edit the file as described on the web page above, by default it's looking for an ebus adapter on USB:
nano /etc/default/ebusd

3) Change the scanconfig target to point at your wifi ebus board:
EBUSD_OPTS="--scanconfig -d ens:192.168.0.50:9999"
You'll need to change the IP address and possibly the TCP port (9999) above to match what your board is using, you'll want to stick the wifi board on a static DHCP IP allocation or static IP address as if the address changes it'll all break obviously.

It ran into problems, and nano /etc/default/ebusd wasn't created ...

harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings && sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/keyrings/ebusd.gpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-]debian/master/ebusd.gpg
harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ebusd.list https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-debian/master/ebusd-default-bookworm.list
--2025-02-06 15:09:14-- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-debian/master/ebusd-default-bookworm.list
Resolving raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)... 2606:50c0:8003::154, 2606:50c0:8000::154, 2606:50c0:8001::154, ...
Connecting to raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)|2606:50c0:8003::154|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 101 [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ebusd.list’

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ebusd.lis 100%[=============================================================>] 101 --.-KB/s in 0s

2025-02-06 15:09:15 (10.8 MB/s) - ‘/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ebusd.list’ saved [101/101]

harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo apt install ebusd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package ebusd
harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo bash
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry# sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings && sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/keyrings/ebusd.gpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-]debian/master/ebusd.gpg
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry# ^[[200~sudo wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ebusd.list https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-debian/master/ebusd-default-bookworm.list
bash: $'\E[200~sudo': command not found
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry# ^[[200~sudo apt update
bash: $'\E[200~sudo': command not found
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry# sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease
Hit:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security InRelease
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates InRelease [55.4 kB]
Get:4 https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm InRelease [3,667 B]
Err:4 https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm InRelease
The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY E30CF1F4E8C8272C
Hit:5 http://archive.raspberrypi.com/debian bookworm InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY E30CF1F4E8C8272C
E: The repository 'https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm InRelease' is not signed.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry#
root@Rpi5:/home/harry# sudo apt install ebusd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package ebusd

 

[Why Not Indeed]

You've pasted some nonsense in there - get rid of the "^[[200~" before "sudo" and you should be fine.

 

[hllns]

"The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY E30CF1F4E8C8272C"
Step one has failed so it doesn't recognise the packages as signed, looking at it closely an extra character crept in to the URL when it was pasted in to the post.

sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/keyrings/ebusd.gpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-debian/master/ebusd.gpg

Should work.

Then just carry on from step 3.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

You've pasted some nonsense in there - get rid of the "^[[200~" before "sudo" and you should be fine.

The "^[[200~" was a copying and pasting error, on the way back from Rpi, to PC. it wasn't in the original, on the Rpi..

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

"The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY E30CF1F4E8C8272C"
Step one has failed so it doesn't recognise the packages as signed, looking at it closely an extra character crept in to the URL when it was pasted in to the post.

sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/keyrings/ebusd.gpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-debian/master/ebusd.gpg

Should work.

Then just carry on from step 3.

Brilliant! That appears to have worked

harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings && sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/keyrings/ebusd.gpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-]debian/master/ebusd.gpg
harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo wget -q -O /etc/apt/keyrings/ebusd.gpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/john30/ebusd-debian/master/ebusd.gpg
harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease
Hit:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.raspberrypi.com/debian bookworm InRelease
Hit:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates InRelease
Get:5 https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm InRelease [3,667 B]
Get:6 https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm/main armhf Packages [465 B]
Get:7 https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm/main arm64 Packages [469 B]
Fetched 934 B in 1s (1,529 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see it.
harry@Rpi5:~ $ sudo apt install ebusd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libcamera0.3 libwlroots12 lxplug-network
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
libmosquitto1
The following NEW packages will be installed:
ebusd libmosquitto1
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 402 kB of archives.
After this operation, 213 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/main arm64 libmosquitto1 arm64 2.0.11-1.2+deb12u1 [85.9 kB]
Get:2 https://repo.ebusd.eu/apt/default/bookworm bookworm/main arm64 ebusd arm64 24.1 [316 kB]
Fetched 402 kB in 0s (1,167 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package libmosquitto1:arm64.
(Reading database ... 149022 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libmosquitto1_2.0.11-1.2+deb12u1_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking libmosquitto1:arm64 (2.0.11-1.2+deb12u1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package ebusd.
Preparing to unpack .../archives/ebusd_24.1_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking ebusd (24.1) ...
Setting up libmosquitto1:arm64 (2.0.11-1.2+deb12u1) ...
Setting up ebusd (24.1) ...
Instructions:
1. Edit /etc/default/ebusd if necessary
(especially if your device is not /dev/ttyUSB0)
2. Start the daemon with 'systemctl start ebusd'
3. Check the log file /var/log/ebusd.log
4. Make the daemon autostart with 'systemctl enable ebusd'
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.36-9+rpt2+deb12u9) ...
harry@Rpi5:~ $

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Oh dear....

Having got that installed on the Rpi, I turned back to the ebus powered to wifi adaptor, and found it not producing data, could telnet into it, nor access it's web page, but it pinged just fine. I then tried to reset it, linking TO-EBUS (GPIO20) to Grnd, it didn't reset, then tried again, power it via it's USB C and it still wouldn't reset.

The way I tried the reset, was - power off, link the pins, power on, count to five slowly, open the pins. Is there another way?