I use Home Assistant mainly to control my KNX home.
Good it works out of the box, just extracted the knx config from ETS5 (xml) and a script generated the knx config for Home Assistant.
Now, I have mainly two types of controls:
1- lights (on-off and dimmable)
2- covers
The issue is that covers are controlled using (physical) push buttons that control knx relays.
There is one button to go down , and one to go up. But those buttons do no stay pushed, they are push-button so effectively when physically acting on them it sends a on-off request .
I used previouly KNXweb2 (and still) for which I created a widget that precisely do: send on, wait 100ms, send off, for a pulse.
Question: what would be the native way in hiome assistant to do that ? an automation, like: if this object is given “on”, wait 100ms and set again to off ?
I would prefer this to be declarative in configuration.yml rather than creating an automation for each cover… (In the extractiong script covers are clearly identified).
How are your covers controlled? Is there an actual blind actuator? These usually have a dedicated address to move the cover up on 1 and down on 0 (or vice versa, I never remember). This is what the cover entity expects.
Are your hardware buttons konventional switches attached to 2 channels of abinary sensor?
The cover motor is of type “bubendorff MG”.
It has 4 wires:
Permanent Phase
Neutral
Up (when put to Phase)
Down (when put to Phase)
It can be configured so that either:
1- a transient pulse on up/down starts the the movement until either it reaches the end or a new pulse is received on either direction
2- or the movement is going only when the direction is put on phase and stops when phase is removed.
I am using mode 1- since 7 years. (in knxweb) (with 8 covers)
I made a mistake when I purchased these special motors instead of purchasing the more standard and simple 3 wire… (neutral, Up Phase, Down Phase).
The covers are currently controlled like this:
1- actuator: eibmarkt SA.12.16
2- binary switch adapter: Albrecht Jung universal push button sensor 2094NABS TP 104E01, in fact it is “freebus Tasterschnittstelle”
3- a pair of standard push-button (with spring) connected to 2-
When I push the “up” button, this sends the “on” signal to the actuatoir, which close the relay, which put the phase on the “up” wire, and cover starts moving. Then almost immediately I release the button, this removes the phase from the “up” wire, but cover continues …
On the Home assistant I click twice on the “switch” to have a relatively quick on-off …
Now I try to get the same as with knxweb (using custom widget) in home assistant…
Maybe it is time to revert to proper standard actuators for covers, like eibmarkt JA.6.230… or other, but that is some investment … that’s why I am looking for a software solution.
This device has a timer function (Treppenhaus). Maybe you can just use it to trigger the internal relais for 1sec (or even less). The status CO of the channel would reset your switch then (status_address).
This paired with some Logic (maybe from the very same device) could get you a new GA that triggers the timer function of one Channel on “1” and the other channel on “0”. You’d have the poor mans cover actuator and could use HAs cover entity
I’m not very good at HA automations, but this can surely be done from HA too.
