MAX! by EQ-3 - multiroom thermostat components

MG11

Hi, guys!

A couple weeks ago I gave a try to the MAX! thermostats for the heating made by EQ-3. They are available in Germany and are quite cheap (compared to another brands). Here is the website, unfortunately only in German language: http://www.eq-3.de/produkte/max-heizungssteuerung/max-hausloesung.html

My first installation was a 1-room solution with 2 thermostats, 1 x wall-component and MAX! Cube LAN Gateway. And what a surprise - it worked like a charm. 10 Minutes of setup and that's it! I was so excited - so I bought + 11 x thermostats and 4 x wall-components and voila ... same procedure, no troubles! Now my whole house heating is under control. The components have a good range (868.3 MHz, >40 Meters through 3-4 walls in my house). And the Cube LAN Gateway gives you an access to the system over the Wifi (WLAN), so you can control the heating through the browser or an iOS/Android App.   

But I really like my Homey. And I wanna Homey and MAX! to be friends! Now my question: since there are lot of 3d Party Apps for the MAX! - so it should be possible to control MAX! heating system with Homey over the MAX! Cube LAN Gateway. If I understand it right - this should work the same way like the MiLight App for Homey do?  

What do you think?
Is there someone who's working on it? 

Thanks, guys!

MG11

BTW: the internet connection to the MAX! portal is not required to control the heating system over WiFi.
F.e. there is an Android app "MAX! Remote" - it connects direct to the local IP of the MAX! Cube LAN Gateway. 

RobinVanKekem

There is a Javascript module available:
https://github.com/ivesdebruycker/maxcube

So developers who have the MAX! Cube LAN Gateway should be able to create an app for it!

MG11

That's nice!
But unfortunately I'm not a developer. I hope some of dev-backers here could help. That would be awesome!

Pils

@MG11 Does thet MAX cube also give back the current room temperature instead of just the temperature which is set?

I now have a few danfoss LC13 thermostats and they work, but they don't give back the current room temperature, that's a pitty. Als0 the LC13 is a lot more expensive, so if the max would work with homey it would be perfect!

_Marc_

I'm looking into this product aswell and they are being sold by Conrad.nl

They also provide downloadable manuals.
http://www.produktinfo.conrad.com/datenblaetter/550000-574999/560896-an-01-hu-Max_Cube_LAN_gateway.pdf

JBenjamins

Hi all,

I have a Cube LAN gateway and one thermostat for sale (new) as I went for Honeywell Evohome after all. If interested contact me.

Thanks,
Tom

MG11

Pils MAX Cube does give back the current room temperature.
But the official browser-app show the current room temperature with an additional wall-component only. The 3d party Android app "MAX! Remote" shows the current room temperature - measured by the thermostat, no wall-component is required. 

JBenjamins why Honeywell Evohome? It's so much more expensive! I would have to pay over 1K EUR for the same setting at my home.  Do you see any big advantages of Evohome?   

JBenjamins

Hi,

@MG11 I don't recall the exact rationale anymore, but the most important for me was the ability to have a single thermostat create a demand for the heating to switch on, with opentherm, which is not possible 'out of the box' with the eq-3. At least not at the time. But yes, it *is* expensive, I spent close to 1k for my setup, including 8 thermostats.

DaneeDeKruyff

@JBenjamins most important question remains; is it worth the 1K? Does it work as advertised/expected? Would you buy it again? I'm looking into a multiroom system and still not sure what to buy. 

Motha

I'm using the eQ-3 MAX! system for about a year now, and am super satisfied with it. One of the best "smart" investments I made so far. Five thermostats (containing a thermometer) on five radiators placed in five rooms (zones) control the temperature around the house, using district heating (NL: stadsverwarming). After tweaking the schedule during the first week or so, I never have to manually adjust temperature anymore. My living room has a wall mounted thermostat as well, but I now know I don't actually need/use it.

Especially nice is the eQ-3 MAX! Eco button placed next to the front door, switching all rooms to a eco (lowered) setting with one button click when leaving the house. Back to auto (normal schedule) setting again with one button click when you arrive home again. Other (non geek) family members understand and use it.
I added three eQ-3 MAX! window/door sensors, triggering the lower setting for that room automatically when a window/door is opened there. These sensors will be part of my alarm system as well, when the software is ready for it.

Don't compare it with €1k+ high end heating systems though, eQ-3 is an entry level / low budget system, constructed with plastic parts. I added metal conversion rings worth €50 to mount the thermostats properly and improve looks, and am glad I did. But regarding value for money, I find it unmatched. It probably pays for itself over time by saving energy costs. I bought my parts at conrad.nl.

Looking at FHEM, where some folks did a great job on reverse engineering and software support, creating a Homey app should be possible. But as far as I know, isn't available yet. Emile showed it some love long ago, placing it on the backlog on Trello... but probably has other stuff with higher priority to do first. If my patience runs out, I might try to hack something together myself.

@RobinVanKekem: Thanks for pointing us to the library at https://github.com/ivesdebruycker/maxcube ! That could speed up progress significantly

fuzzybear

There is also a nodejs module on GitHub 

https://github.com/georg90/max-control

Maybe this can help with anyone who is able to make an app for the MAX!

Motha

Indeed, but it's kinda old, and https://github.com/ivesdebruycker/maxcube seems to be more actively developed.

Another interesting source might be Dmitry Kazakov's software published on http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/max_home_automation.htm
If you have a server nearby (Raspberry Pi for instance) running this software, this could come in handy to allow Homey to communicate with eQ-3 MAX! via api simple api calls (http requests), until a Homey app is available. It can function as a webserver or MQTT broker, bridging the gap between Homey and the MAX! cube.

MG11

Well, 3 months later I'm still very satisfied with eQ-3 MAX! 
And I still hope someone of you - genius developers - would be able to create a Homey app.  

Jschuetz

Would be awesome!

Motha

Yay! I noticed some eQ-3 news in Emile's software status update

Meanwhile I also tried Pimatic, which offers an eQ-3 MAX! plugin, supporting their heaters, thermostats and contact sensors out of the box, via the MAXcube. What a pleasant surprise!

Pimatic and its plugins are also built on node.js, so it's probably very useful as an example for a eQ-3 Homey app. I use MQTT for the communication between Homey and Pimatic. This gives the option to use the Pimatic frontend as a dashboard for Homey stuff. And vice versa, feed Homey with Pimatic sensor information and actors, including eQ-3. You can control your heater via Homey (voice command, workflow, etc.) this way.

Some eQ-3 heaters and contact sensors:
(grey vertical bars on the right show all valves are 0% open == closed)

Beam

Looking forward to get the Max! Eq-3 connected to the Homey !
I've been experimenting with a Raspberry pi and got the temperatures and valve position on the display using FHEM. Yet I struggled to use those readings and build smarter logic with it. So when I saw that the eq-3 app was about to be released, I bought the Homey!
I'm particularly interested in the valve positions, so I can build a flow to activate the boiler control when any valve is more than 20% open.
The next challenge after that is to move from on/off switching to using OpenTherm... Suggestions & experiences are always welcome !

Jschuetz

I am using openhab2 for home kit & Alexa to control my max! cube. But it would be cooler if i could use all devices in homey. I know that many people in Germany are using max! because it's very cheap instead of tado/ z-wave thermostats/bosch and all the other expensive solutions. For example you can buy 3 max! thermostats or 1 of the other expensive solutions. And the window sensors are very cheap and steady.

Example: 1 max! thermostat 17-19 €
Window Sensor > 16 €

Mikeleetje

is there any news about a app for the max?

Alphajoe

I would also be interested whether this will be implemented. If so, you'd have another customer.

larsmachiels

I am also still waiting for this app.

mveck

Pils said:

@MG11 Does thet MAX cube also give back the current room temperature instead of just the temperature which is set?

I now have a few danfoss LC13 thermostats and they work, but they don't give back the current room temperature, that's a pitty. Als0 the LC13 is a lot more expensive, so if the max would work with homey it would be perfect!

As far as I know (using the Homematic devices from EQ-3) they do give access to the current temperature on Qivicon. I never tried the Max! but I know that the cube software shows the current measured temp as well.