I am new here in the forum and since today user of a Home Assistant instance on a Rasp Pi 4.
Since I already have some IOT devices in the house, which I have controlled so far via gateways and apps, I now wanted to bundle “everything” in one central place.
Right at the beginning I now encountered the following difficulty. How do I get my HomeMatic EQ3 HM-CC-RT-DN heating thermostats integrated into Home Assistant?
I have downloaded the HomeMatic add on from the store, but to be honest I can’t really get any further.
I would be very happy if someone could explain to me how to integrate the heating thermostats.
My hardware on which the HA instance runs:
Raspberry Pi 4 b 4GB,
16 GB SD
Do I need any other hardware such as a zigbee module?
Hi @mosdev Welcome to Home Assistant!
HomeMatic devices use their own communications protocol and need their own adapter to communicate.
The HomeMatic add-on is limited to using either a HM-MOD-RPI-PCB or HmIP-RFUSB to interface with your devices.
I have not used this add-on, so I cannot say much more about it. I prefer the RaspberryMatic add-in which works well for me.
Remember that the HM-CC-RT-DN only works with the older HomeMatic protocol not the newer HomeMaticIP.
The advantage of a hardware solution is surely the stability and performance or? Are there any disadvantages other than the one-time purchase price.
In principle, I would only need the HM-MOD-RPI-PCB which I plug an play on the RaspPi 4 and then my Homematic devices can be found in the HomeMatic Add On?
Have actually in addition to the thermostats also the corresponding eQ3 window contact, should also be connected to it or?
Hey! You are on the right path. Just to give you another option: I use an independent RPI with a RPI-RF-MOD and RaspberryMatic to communicate with my Homematic devices, then connect them with Home Assistant via the TCP/IP network. I went with this solution as I already had the RPI and my Home Assistant runs on a non-RPI device. (An alternative to the RPI+… soliuton would be an off-the-shelf CCU2/CCU3.)
I like my setup as it decouples the two concerns and not every part of my home automation depends on the reliability of one computer.
Is this the better solution for everyone? Certainly not. In the end its up to you
If you do not have a Homematic CCU gateway and decide to do it on the RPi, then you need a HmRF radiomodule. They come in both USB and RPi Hats versions.
You can add the Thermostat, window contact and the TRV into a Group in HomeMatic and they will all work togther to control the valve.
Again, I have not tried the HM-MOD-RPI-PCB, so do your research but yes that would give you the simplest solution. But be aware of the issues with using SD Card if you have one.
What @ThomDietrich says is correct, but if you are just starting off this will get you up and running quickly and you can look at more complex solutions later.