I decided about my setup. Cancelled the wifi module and ordered the bas module, will attach it to a kaku acm 2000 builtin module so I can control it using my existing rfxcom.
Add a temperature sensor in the bathroom, some automations et voila!
Both other options (vasco wifi or rf module) will take too much time to investigate after the heater is in place and will have a negative impact on waf factor. (why should I use the ha app, it is working well for weeks on the vasco app → end of story )
However: there are dimmer switches… maybe maybe that could work to control the power? Basically it is a heating element. Or is that too simple of a thought?
That is too bad! I was curious for your findings on the wifi module, especially about the whole heating controller.
If you configure the desired bathroom temperature to 25 degrees and it is currently 20, will it start heating at 100% power (power=on)?
And if the desired temperature is reached, will it stop (power=off)? Or will it continue heating at a lower power supply? I.e. less amps being provided?
Of not, will it just stop, let the temperature slowly decrease and then turn on again at full capacity? And keep doing this flickering? Which sounds pretty inefficient yo me and also not good for any relay switch that would be inside the wifi / rf unit (and also not for our Shelly, smart switch, … Or similar).
My main question is: is it really on/off, or is there also something between on and off?
If we find out how the RF or wifi unit is controlling the heater, we could mimic that with home automation.
Yes, i was thinking the same thing about dimmers, too!
@henrykuijpers too bad indeed, but the investment versus chance of succes and waf factor made me end up to this decision.
As far as I know (installation is week 33 soonest) it is on-off. So 0% or 100%. As the bathroom is not that big I do not expect a lot of flickering. There will and must be a temperature sensor in place (aqara zigbee) to tell the beast to stop. Thinking about 5 minute on-off or so. Should be enough. The switch should be able to handle that, or… ? It is the kaku acm-2000 which is capable of switching 2000 Watts.
The dimmer is a different story… just try to find one >1000 Watts…
Try the setup first, if all fails then it will be soon enough to order the wifi thing. Or rf maybe as I have an rfxcom in place.
So for now I will stop spoiling this topic, as my solution is not what te original request was about
Will update with live findings ofcourse.
By the way: Vasco identifies clearly in their documentation that connecting the heater to domotica is possible using the BAS connector only (disclaimers about sensors blah). To me it seems that is always a 0%-100% option?
People are working on the new shower now and all goodies were delivered yesterday. At first I ordered both bas connector and E-Volve WiFi module. Then I decided to go for just the bas connector, which will be switched by means of a kaku relay to be integrated in HA using an external temp/humidity sensor🙂
So I cancelled the bas + E-Volve WiFi combo.
Guess what? Now I have both the bas connector AND the bas + E-Volve WiFi combo
I can play around with it, only disadvantage is I cannot connect it to the heating as the other bas will be used there. That shouldn’t be a problem however. It has an external sensor for checking ambient temperature. Should at any case provide data to swithch the E-Volve WiFi, regardless if the heater is connected or not.
Any suggestions on how to check what the thing is doing? Is wireshark the best option to sniff? Anyone else already made some progress, just to prevent reinventing the wheel…
And some pics, the E-Volve WiFi sticker tells me BT?
It would be very interesting to connect the Wifi unit and then figure out what happens when the unit decides that the desired temperature is not the current temperature.
It should start to heat the radiator, of course. But we seem to have determined that the heating is either on or off.
It would be interesting to measure the voltage as well as the amperage of the power going into the radiator unit. Maybe it is somehow able to handle different currents, causing the unit to not always heat at full power?
With regards to trying to add the wifi unit into home assistant, we would need to be able to send commands to the unit and/or receive data from the unit.
The easiest way to do that is of course to install the Vasco app, which allows you to operate the radiator. When pushing a button (i.e., turn on the radiator), something should happen:
Either something is sent to the Vasco cloud, or something is sent directly to the radiator
Indeed, a tool such as Wireshark would allow you to intercept that piece of communication and figure out what is happening there. Things such as the endpoint that is being called, the (JSON? XML?) payload that is sent, authentication tokens?, … etc.
As soon as that is known, we could try to make those requests outside of the Vasco app. Something that in the end can be done from a HA integration module.
@erickranendijk I sent you a message on Facebook, btw, maybe we can communicate a bit more efficiently.
@henrykuijpers there are 2 of me. Really Did not receive anything… and do preferrably not use messenger.
But to be honest, after my findings of today I’ll leave the unit inside its box until time permits to play around.
I unboxed the wifi module and connected it to mains. No radiator attached as that is still living in its box waiting to be installed. Currently there is no need for heating unless you like temperatures above 35C.
The unit turned on and presented a blue light meaning it is ready to pair in BT. Installed the app, and ran the wizard to hook up the wifi module to my network. Timeout.
Tried to reset the module according to the manual. No response. Power cycle. No response. Reset again and it gave me an alternating red and green flashing light. Used the prescribed reconnect procedure. No luck. Tried different times, still no luck.
Done. Unhooked it and have put it back in the box. Could be it is really missing the heating, winter project. For now it will be the Kaku relay combined with the bas connector and the aqara temp sensor. Which looks surprisingly much alike the sensor provided with the wifi unit.
I could not help to open the wifi module and make some pics. It seems hackable to me. ESP chip and exposed i/o without header pins.
I am also about to purchase an electric vasco radiator and was wondering if there has been any progress with regard to integrating it into home assistant @erickranendijk and @henrykuijpers ?
Hi, no not from my side anyway. Module is still in the box and a simple switch (klikaanklikuit) combined with a Aqara temperature sensor works like a charm. No need for struggling with the app. Just added a climate integration for it (default HA) and have set-up the default temperature of 18 degrees Celcius, combined with some automations to raise and lower the temperature on specific times of the day. Easy peasy.
Currently using it with a Shelly Plus 1PM, in combination with configuring the desired temperature etc.
The BAS connector is nothing but a simple blue and brown wire, without any additional prints or whatever, that is a simple on/off. As soon as you turn it on, the radiator will start heating like crazy. If you turn it off, it cools down. That’s it.
I still haven’t tried (or even dared to try) if you can do “fase afsnijding” (RC) or “fase aansnijding” (RL) with the radiator. It would be very nice to be able to do that; it would allow you to not let the radiator always go fullblown.
But, then again, the BAS connector doesn’t give any sort of intelligence or anything. It’s just a piece of plastic with 2 wires inside.
Do you experience any problems by turning on the heater with the Shelly?
Is it one with a blower?
Because in the manual it states that you may not use and external switch because the blower could not handle it… but i don’t get the sense of that…
Hi @WouterN, I haven’t tried that yet. I think I also didn’t dare trying it yet. If I break the radiator with that, it’s quite an expensive thing to break.
Are you considering trying this out?
I’ve only seen dimmers (suited for lights) for RC/RL. They can usually handle 100-200 watt, the radiator is 500 watt or more.
Thanks for your reply. I’ve also noticed that 1kW dimmers are not widely available. My heater has a dedicated cable running to the switch cabinet, so I considered integrating the following dimmer in an enclosure and controlling it with an ESP module via a 0-10V signal. LED-dimmer 1-10V 1000W | Led Wereld
The main benefit of using a phase-cut dimmer—whether phase cut-off (RC) or phase cut-on (RL)—with the heater is that it allows for precise control over continuous power draw.
However, I’m leaning towards a simpler approach. One option would be to implement pulsed control, cycling the heater on and off at set intervals to adjust average power consumption. Given the heater’s high thermal mass, this would approximate the desired effect, though it wouldn’t provide perfectly continuous power output.
Ultimately, I think I’ll go with a Shelly 1PM, paired with a Shelly Add-on and a DS18B20 temperature sensor and implement a simple pulse control. I was thinking of a PWM control with a cycle period in the range of ±5(?) minutes.
)
