Does anyone know of a guide to the interconnection technologies used by current Viessmann devices?
My old Viessmann Vitodens 200-W gas condensing system boiler (type WB2C) will soon need to be replaced. The various parts of the system are interconnected using the proprietary KM-Bus 2-wire bus. Works fine but no external connection.
I really wanted to replace it with a Viessmann Vitocal 200-A air source heat pump (ASHP). After a lengthy investigation, I have concluded that even with the UK government grant the disruption and cost are higher than I am prepared to accept. It supports the proprietary KM-Bus so some of the existing system could have been reused. If I later decided to upgrade my MVHR to a Viessmann Vitovent 300-C then that could be connected using Modbus which is also used between the internal and external units of the ASHP. The Vitocal 200-A has a WiFi option for external connection.
So I’m thinking of replacing the old Vitodens 200-W with the latest Vitodens 200-W (type B2HF). Should be simple, right? The latest model uses the proprietary PlusBus 2-wire bus. The wiring can be reused but the KM-Bus devices will need to be replaced with PlusBus devices. It does have integral WiFi for external connection. No Modbus for possible future direct integration with the Vitovent 300-C. The Vitodens 200-W appears to have CAN bus with a very expensive option for a WAGO MB/RTU gateway.
To add to the confusion the Vitodens 200-W (type B2HF) is compatible with the Vitotrol 300-E. This has an encrypted 2.4 GHz low power radio connection to the boiler and an optional 2.4 GHz WiFi connection for automatic software updates. Would be really handy if it is a Matter or Zigbee certified device! However, the low power radio connection could be proprietary.
Is the Vitotrol 300-E low power radio connection the future for connecting Viessmann domestic devices? I see from Funkfernbedienung Vitotrol 300-E that the Vitoair FS ventilation unit is supported (maybe it is an alternative to the Vitovent 300-C)?.
Even if the Vitotrol 300-E was a Zigbee (or Matter) Certified Product there is no guarantee than it could be used by Home Assistant.
It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has experience with the Vitotrol 300-E. Otherwise, I will have to wait until I have a new gas boiler installed and try one myself …
1538 Low power radio (“ZigbeeEnable”) Activation of low power radio. Required for connecting external sensors such as the ViCare climate sensor and remote control units such as the Vitotrol 300-E.
I now have a Viessmann Vitodens 200-W (Type B2HF-19) and a Vitotrol 300-E. The low power radio on both is Zigbee and the EUID and Install Code are available for both devices. nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 confirms that there is (encrypted) traffic between them on channel 11.
The Add component option in the ViCare App (Version 3.30.0) suggests that only ViCare Smart Climate components (Thermostat, Climate Sensor, Range Extender, …) can be added. I tried adding one of my Danfoss Ally thermostatic valves with the QR Code but it wouldn’t recognise it. Then tried manually inputting the EUID and Install Code which was accepted! Didn’t complete because the device wasn’t in pairing mode. Scope for further experimentation.
@JohnConnett did you make any progress with your vitodens 200-W B2HF viessmann boiler? I just moved to a house with this model and I’d like to have a cloud-free HA integration if possible… Like all “free” cloud services, it’s only a matter of time before the free API become so crippled it’ll be unusable
I have obtained a Viessmann 7963223 ViCare Climate Sensor and added support for it to Zigbee2MQTT. It seems to work like a regular temperature and humidity sensor. I’m running it powered by USB (no battery) which should allow it to also operate as a Zigbee router.
I’m hoping to sniff the Zigbee traffic when connecting this Climate Sensor to the Vitodens 200-W + Vitotrol 300-E network to learn some more, including obtaining the network key so that I can decrypt more traffic. It seems likely that there will be plenty of manufacturer specific data …
It will be interesting to see what devices can be added to the Viessmann Zigbee network. The ViCare App seems to require devices with an Install Code (18 bytes). Many recent devices provide one as a QR Code but there appears to be no standard format. So long as it is possible to dig out an EUI-64 and Install Code they can be entered manually. However, the system might reject non-Viessmann devices …
I’ve heard of Viessmann One Base which appears to have ambitions to control more than just heating (eg. door locks, lights, cameras, music, washing machines, and so on). I don’t have any more details. Viessmann took over wibutler so, maybe, it is something to do with the wibutler alliance? I have nine Danfoss Ally™ Radiator Thermostats and it would be really handy if they could be better integrated with the heating system.
One annoyance with my Vitodens 200-W is that it occasionally loses the WiFi connection. It doesn’t even reconnect when I power off and on my Mikrotik WiFi access points. Only thing that works is power cycling the boiler at the mains.
I think I have the same problem. It has happened twice so far since I set up wifi access about 2 months ago (last time was last night actually).
The boiler still responds to local network pings via wifi but the vicare app can’t connect to it so it seems to be an issue with their poor cloud service or more likely an unrecoverable client program crash on the boiler side that doesn’t get auto-restarted… Replacing this monstrosity with something local would be amazing
When it happens to my boiler a little green right-arrow appears next to the signal strength indicator on the display. The settings in Information internet (eg. Ipv4 address) appear to have been cleared.
My suspicions are that this is a problem with the WiFi code in the boiler. I’ve seen no similar problems with other WiFi devices on my network. However, it could be a problem with the combination of the boiler and Mikrotik access points. Evidence of the same problem with these boilers with other WiFi hardware would be useful to help confirm that the problem is with the boilers.
Ok so in my case it seems to be a different issue since the boiler wifi connection is still up (my simple ping monitoring doesn’t go down) but there is no connection in the vicare app or HA until I “reboot” the boiler.
If that matters my AP is a Unifi U7 Pro.