[OpenTRV-dev] Dongle

Sat Nov 14 21:20:51 UTC 2020

Hi Gary,

I can confirm that setting a new key is easy to do, even without prior experience with Radbots. You need to open the case of the Radbot to get access to the pins on the PCB and then connect a serial port to them. The easiest way to do that is by connecting a serial-to-USB adapter like this one: https://thepihut.com/products/usb-to-ttl-serial-cable. You can then use the CLI via any terminal emulator connected to the virtual COM port that the adapter creates.

I had to open my Radbot all the way to expose the PCB, but you could conceivably use long bogo pins through the battery hatch, but I think that would take you longer than opening the case.

I’m not sure what you’re using (or planning to use) to monitor the signal, but whatever you use, it needs to now the key of the Radbot to decrypt its messages. (Thus you need to set a key that is known to you via the serial port.) In my case, I had an old RTL-SDR dongle lying around which I could use to confirm that there is regular activity on and around 868 MHz to confirm that the Radbot is alive before getting into it. It took a bit of coding effort, but I can now receive the messages on a raspberry pi with a cheapo 868Mhz transceiver and it works fairly reliably. 

Cheers,

Christoph

From: OpenTRV-dev <opentrv-dev-bounces at lists.opentrv.org.uk> On Behalf Of Damon Hart-Davis
Sent: Saturday, 14 November, 2020 18:58
To: Gary Gladman <gary.gladman at talktalk.net>
Cc: Closed list for developer discussions <opentrv-dev at lists.opentrv.org.uk>
Subject: Re: [OpenTRV-dev] Dongle

Hi,

The only Radbot that currently exists as stock is Radbot 2.

If you want to do the comms you’d need to associate the ID (at the hub/controller) and have the same key set for all the devices to be listened to and in the things listening:

    https://github.com/opentrv/OTWiki/wiki/Command-Line-Interface

In practice that means that you’d need to create a secret key, put it in the Radbot(s), and in the hub/controller, and associate the Radbot IDs at the hub/controller.

The left-most pad is +ve (next to the +ve battery spring) and the right-most is -ve (0V/GND).  I realise that you could probably make a temporary arrangement easier with crocs on the battery springs, then only the RX and TX pads need something held to them.

The two pads next to the +ve pad are RX and TX.  There’s no secret here: I’m just reading this off the board.

Rgds

Damon

On 14 Nov 2020, at 18:47, Gary Gladman <gary.gladman at talktalk.net <mailto:gary.gladman at talktalk.net> > wrote:

So to be clear Radbot and Radbot 2 are the very same thing even though they are both described as Radbot?

Still unclear how this connection is to be achieved – any detailed photos of your setup to clue the less knowledgeable of us in?

Luckily I have a REV2 but when I attempted to use it as a stats hub it saw nothing. Attempts to further diagnose also saw nothing. I know the REV2 I have is not broken. I am pretty convinced that I have enough Radbots that one of them must be successfully transmitting. Clearly I am doing something wrong/not understanding.

Can you be more prescriptive/descriptive about what you had to do to get this setup working as obviously I am missing something?

Having tried to submit fixes etc to OpenTRV and had no success I struggle with “nothing stops others ...” – something  clearly is stopping me – any help would be appreciated?

Regards Gary

Sent from my fingers.

From: Damon Hart-Davis <mailto:dhd at exnet.com> 
Sent: 14 November 2020 17:58
To: Gary Gladman <mailto:gary.gladman at talktalk.net> 
Cc: Damon Hart-Davis <mailto:dhd at exnet.com> ; Closed list for developer discussions <mailto:opentrv-dev at lists.opentrv.org.uk> 
Subject: Re: [OpenTRV-dev] Dongle

Hi,

Radbot 2 is the thing that is in stock and you can buy now from Amazon or direct from radbot.com <http://radbot.com/> .

The serial port is on those pads above the battery contacts.  We haven’t published a dongle 3D design but it’s nothing magic.  If all you needed to do was to talk to the CLI to load in a new key then you would only need 4 contacts (0, Vcc, TX, RX) long enough to do that, so something bodged should do.

Look on github.com/opentrv <http://github.com/opentrv>  for the hub and boiler controller designs, which are fully published (h/w and s/w), eg I’m using a REV10 for boiler control:

    https://github.com/opentrv/OpenTRV-Arduino-V0p2/tree/master/Arduino/hardware/REV10

and a REV2 for my stats hub (being listened to by the also-published Java running on a RPi):

    https://github.com/opentrv/OpenTRV-Arduino-V0p2/tree/master/Arduino/hardware/REV2

We’ll probably still get to ARM, as part of const-reduction work.  I think I can categorically state that it won’t be an M1!

The radio will be useful for some commercial applications but not for many domestic uses.  So we have a choice whether we build and support 1 or 2 SKUs (product lines) for example.

At the moment most of our energies are going into getting sales, eg as part of GHG and ECO3.  If Vestemi is successful and generating revenues then potentially more TLC can be spent on OpenTRV.  Nothing stops others contributing to OpenTRV regardless.

Rgds

Damon

On 14 Nov 2020, at 17:40, Gary Gladman <gary.gladman at talktalk.net <mailto:gary.gladman at talktalk.net> > wrote:

Hi

I watched your presentation (http://www.earth.org.uk/smart-radiator-valves-talk-20201112.html) with great interest.

You mention several topics - Radbot 2, access to the serial connection, JSON stats receivable by the OpenTRV stats hub and boiler controller.

Would it be possible to expand?

What is Radbot 2 as opposed to Radbot? When is it due to become available?

How is access to the serial port acheived and/or does it involve an unavailable "Dongle"?

Is this also true for Radbot?

How would an "OpenTRV stats hub and boiler controller" be obtained?

What happened to Arm as a solution?

What is the point of the radio interface in Radbot if supplementary commercial access does not also exist?

Activity on OpenTRV seems to have practically ceased. The benevolent dictator approach seems to have ensured stability BUT also that further progress being made is unlikely without something changing. What is your view?

I apologise if I have misunderstood anything but information on any front seems incredibly scarce and gas been for a long time.

Regards

Gary

On 20 April 2019 at 09:07 Damon Hart-Davis <dhd at exnet.com <mailto:dhd at exnet.com> > wrote: 

Hi, 

At the moment we don’t have any spares that I’m aware of. 

Rgds 

Damon 

On 18 Apr 2019, at 13:22, Gary Gladman <gary.gladman at talktalk.net <mailto:gary.gladman at talktalk.net> > wrote: 

On the interest list the "Dongle" was mentioned.

Would it be possible to obtain one?

_______________________________________________ 
OpenTRV-dev mailing list 
OpenTRV-dev at lists.opentrv.org.uk <mailto:OpenTRV-dev at lists.opentrv.org.uk>  
http://lists.opentrv.org.uk/listinfo/opentrv-dev

_______________________________________________ 
OpenTRV-dev mailing list 
OpenTRV-dev at lists.opentrv.org.uk <mailto:OpenTRV-dev at lists.opentrv.org.uk>  
http://lists.opentrv.org.uk/listinfo/opentrv-dev

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.opentrv.org.uk/pipermail/opentrv-dev/attachments/20201114/6dce9b89/attachment.html>