Homebridge plugin for Itho Daalderop mechanical fan units

This verified Homebridge plugin exposes your Itho Daalderop mechanical fan unit to Apple HomeKit by using the WiFi Add-on module. So you can use the Home App to control your fan units and integrate into your Home Automations.

Features

• Control your mechanical ventilation unit from within the Home App
• Use your mechanical ventilation unit in your Home Automations
• Exposes an Air Quality Sensor with CO2, Humidity and Temperature measurements
• Supports both MQTT and HTTP API. The HTTP API is enabled by default

Requirements

It is required to have installed and configured the WiFi Add-on module for your fan unit. More info about this module and for a complete list on what mechanical ventilation models are supported, please take a look at Arjan Hiemstra's GitHub repository or this forum thread on Tweakers.net (Dutch): Itho Daalderop - open source wifi control add-on module.

MQTT

Using the MQTT API is optional, the plugin will use the HTTP API by default as it requires no additional software to be present in your network.

However, using MQTT is recommended as it does not require polling the API every few seconds, the plugin will just respond to data send to the MQTT broker.

If you want to use the MQTT API, you will need to install and configure a MQTT broker on your local network. I recommend using Mosquitto. The IP address of the MQTT broker is required to configure the plugin in Homebridge and in the WiFi Add-on module.

Installation

This plugin requires Node 14 or higher to be installed.

npm install -g homebridge-itho-daalderop

Or use the Homebridge UI to install the plugin:

1. Go to your Homebridge UI and click on "Plugins"
2. Search for Itho Daalderop and select the plugin Homebridge Itho Daalderop from @jvandenaardweg and click "Install"

Configuring the plugin

I recommend using the Homebridge UI to configure the plugin settings, as it gives guidance on what settings are required.

1. Go the the plugin settings in the Homebridge UI
2. On the plugin page click on "Settings" for Homebridge Itho Daalderop
3. Let the plugin know if you have a built-in CO2 sensor in your fan unit or if you have a non-CVE unit like the HRU-350, DemandFlow, QualityFlow or HR
4. And choose between using MQTT or the HTTP API and fill in the required settings
5. Save the config
6. Click the little QR code icon for the plugin and enable the bridge. Save it and restart Homebridge
7. After restarting Homebridge, click the QR code icon again and scan the QR code with your iPhone using the Home App. This will add the plugin bridge to your Home App
8. Your Mechanical Ventilation unit should now be available to configure in the Home App

Example config

Below is an example config for the CVE-S Optima Inside with a built-in CO2 sensor and using the MQTT API.

{
  "platform": "HomebridgeIthoDaalderop",
  "name": "Itho Daalderop",
  "api": {
    "protocol": "mqtt",
    "ip": "192.168.1.21",
    "port": 1883
  },
  "device": {
    "co2Sensor": true,
    "nonCve": false
  },
  "verboseLogging": false
}

About manual speed control

The plugin allows full manual speed control from 0% to 100% and everything in between. However, your fan needs to be able to support such speed commands. It is known that speed commands send to CVE unit's with a built-in CO2 sensor (like the CVE-S Optima Inside) are overruled by the internal speed control of the fan. This means you can't have fine grained control over your fan speed, and are limited to "low", "medium" and "high" speed settings.

This also applies to non-CVE devices like HRU-350, DemandFlow, QualityFlow or HRU Eco Fan. These devices do not support manual speed control, we can only use the "low", "medium" and "high" speed settings.

If you have such a device, please add the device configuration option to your config.json file. For a built-in CO2 sensor set the co2Sensor option to true. If you have a non-CVE device set the nonCve option to true. Or use the Homebridge UI to set these options. The plugin will then automatically map the speed in the Home App to the respective virtual remote commands, which will allow you to control the fan speed in 3 steps. The mapping is as follows:

Home App speed	Virtual remote command	HomeKit Active state
0%	low	inactive
33%	low	active
67%	medium/auto	active
100%	high	active

The Home App will automatically "snap" to the nearest speed setting, so you don't have to worry about setting the speed to 33% or 67% exactly.

You can also remove the CO2 sensor from the device itself. Just unplug it from the internal board. This will allow you to use the full manual speed control, but you don't receive any Carbon Dioxide reading from this sensor anymore in the Home App for the Air Quality Sensor. Make sure you have removed the device configuration option completely.

Troubleshooting

If you have any issues with the plugin, please enable the verboseLogging configuration option in the Homebridge plugin and check the Homebridge logs for any errors and debug messages.

Feel free to open an issue on GitHub if you have any questions or problems.