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IO Homecontrol

edited September 2015 in Questions & Help

Hi,

I remembered that IO Homecontrol is implemented in Homey "Out of the Box", but can't find this anymore. Can someone give me more information about IO Homecontrol and Homey?
IO Homecontrol is used by Velux, Somfy etc.

Thanks!

Greetz,
Gerard

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Comments

  • BasPostBasPost Member
    edited September 2015

    Nope, isn't supported by Homey (yet) It is a closed protocol, which operates on 868 MHz. Athom has contact with Somfy about it, I thought Emile mentioned it, but no news yet about that.
    I would really like support for IO though, because I have 2 Somfy IO motors myself. I'm almost about to change that for RTS (433 MHz) motors, but I hold on an keep my fingers crossed, hopefully IO will be supported in the near future.

    EDIT:
    Here it is, just a little search on the forum...
    https://forum.athom.com/discussion/comment/1554/#Comment_1554

  • Thanks. I've got 1 Velux skylight with rolling shutter and rollerblind, all controlled by IO. Also 1 Somfy IO motor in a rollerblind, so support would be nice.

    Thanks again.

  • @Emile: have you got more information about this?

  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom

    No definitive answer yet. Basically, they want us to integrate their chip, which is not going to happen. So we're investigating how hard their protocol is to recreate :-)

  • nice! Great to hear that it is on the "list". Keep us informed!

  • Old fashioned reverse engineering, nice.

  • @emiel: can you do something with this website?

  • BumblezBumblez Member
    edited September 2015

    Exactly what department are you in contact with, Emile?
    Maybe if several of us (potential) customers contacted them, we could convince them that having the Homey "universal remote control system" support their product, would add incredible value to their product... plus it would be very good (free) advertisement for them... Homey would mention on their website that Somfy is a fully supported product, which could easily result in more Somfy's sold.
    Would be worth a mention that there are even people who already own Somfy and are considering switching to a different product because Somfy has no Homey support :)

  • StefanStefan Member
    edited September 2015

    Hi @Bumblez and others. Let me give you a (hopefully) short introduction to the wonderful company of Somfy. I will try to summarize the different conversations as well as possible. Why it is hard to officially support IO Homecontrol / make a partnership / do mutual free advertising:

    1) Somfy France vs Somfy ROW (rest-of-world): Somfy France is a relatively large company with quite some marketshare. They also act like that, trying to leverage existing customers to sell them more (kind of a lock in). Also, their strategic decisions are carried out world wide, which gives the local offices some problems/challenges with partnerships: They have to act like the dominant player, also if that is not true in their market.

    2) IO homecontrol can be seen as Somfys (currently abandoned) Z-Wave. They have engineered a standard for communication, with hardware modules ready to be placed on devices. The problem was: It didn't took off apart form their own portfolio (and some early partners). Result: filling out a form on the website does nothing and according to LinkedIn no-one really works for IO-Homecontrol anymore (although some did). This leaves an open standard that is very closed.

    3) Due to the combination of 1) and 2), local Somfy offices are quite happy to collaborate and that we are integrating RTS unofficially. They want the partnership and for us to support IO Homecontrol too, but have no knowledge of the technique or protocol whatsover.

    Meanwhile, Somfy France rather sees we license/buy IO Homecontrol hardware, as they are seeking to leverage and monetize their (domestically dominant) position. Also, because the IO Homecontrol 'doesn't work without their hardware' (and probably because they spent too much money making it). Because of the costs per device and severley limited position of IO Homecontrol in the overall (EU/worldwide) market (RTS still is sold more), integrating their hardware is a no go. Because IO Homecontrol is not yet fully known on the internet, integration therefore will stay tricky, but due to the above, a partnership to get a hold of the official protocol will also be impossible, at least until we reach a much larger scale. Therefore, @RobinVanKekem 's solution seems to be the best option ;)

    Volunteers are welcome. We will also investigate it as soon as we find some time. We will stay in touch with Somfy, but are not expecting any IO-Homecontrol-software-protocol-extending-partnerships soon.

  • Acting like a typical French company so it seems... :-\

  • With all the upcoming domotica and integration needs, that strategy will eventually fail.
    This kind of marketing techniques deserve a nice little boycot of their products - but hey - that's just me :-)

    No Somfy for me.

  • From what I read between the lines, their trying to force sell the chipset. A bit like how Apple does it.

    It can work if their products are being sold by resellers.

    Domotica isn't large and maybe if Homey is large enough Athom can force them.
    Until then reverse enginering would be the only option.

    Since more Domotica products would like to have IO Homecontrol integrated it's possible more people are reverse enginering their product.

  • BasPostBasPost Member
    edited September 2015

    I thought Athom would give a try to reverse engineer the IO protocol to unofficial support it, like they already do with the 433MHz Somfy RTS. They only need time and of course support of the community.
    I would suggest to gather all information which can be found on the internet about IO and share it here to help and support Athom.

    I have both Somfy RTS and IO motors for my roller shutters. First roller shutters I bought where the IO, but never thought of Domotica integration that time, 2 years later I bought the RTS, which works just as fine as the IO, but integrated in different Domotica systems I had. I'm even thinking of buying RTS motors and ditch the IO motors...

  • I agree with @BasPost
    Have already been searching although I have the RTS of Somfy ;-)

  • Before starting (Or deciding if it makes sense to start) a new topic, what about Becker motors? Does anybody have any idea if they follow some known protocol? I know they use 868 MHz. With the shipping of Homey and thus better testing facilities coming closer, I like to know if I do double work or not. And this topic is about sunscreens, so chances are there anybody knows...

  • Hi,

    Any news about the reverse engineering project?

    Thanks.

  • Hi,

    Any news?

    Thanks!

    Grtz,

    Gerard

  • Anyone?

    It's crucial for me to know if IO homecontrol will ever work with Homey before I buy one. When IO homecontrol isn't and wont be supported, there's no need to buy a Homey for me.


    Thanks.

    Greetz

    Gerard

  • Hi,

    Anyone with time and experience who wants to reverse engineer the IO-Homecontrol together with me? I've got an Velux IO-homecontrolled window with roller shutter and rollerblind so we can test it on that.

    Thanks!

    :-)

  • Any update on the support of the Somfy IO protocol?

  • Any update on the support of the Somfy IO protocol?

    Maybe @Athom can comment ?
  • Hello,

    Please, maybe @Athom can update any information about this?
  • Hello, as @gvanrekum to me is crucial to know if you guys could figure smth out. Lots of people i know is in the same situation. They own the f**ing somfy io roller shutter motor ( i own three) and they (me) cant afford to change them because we want to buy Homey. So depending your efforts we could go for it or dont...:P. 

    Ok being serious, is there in the near future, any possibility to include this protocol into homey?@emile@Athom?

    Thanks!
  • Quick said:
    Hello, as @gvanrekum to me is crucial to know if you guys could figure smth out. Lots of people i know is in the same situation. They own the f**ing somfy io roller shutter motor ( i own three) and they (me) cant afford to change them because we want to buy Homey. So depending your efforts we could go for it or dont...:P. 

    Ok being serious, is there in the near future, any possibility to include this protocol into homey?@emile@Athom?

    Thanks!
    I'm in the same position. I own 6 io roller shutters motors and for sure not planning to replace them for ( as i believe ) inferior and more insecure RTS motors.
    I really would like to know what @Athom ;, @Emile or even @Annemarie would have to say about this as Homey won't have any benefits for me if this cannot be supported. My Philips Hue bulbs can work on most other systems and so are my Nest Thermostat + Smoke detectors(3)  , My Samsung TV (Tizen operated) currently also does not work on a Homey and the Visonic Powermax app can only be installed via another route.
    I really appreciate if someone @Athom can have a say about this. You all have been so quiet on this topic.
    What only does work (sort of ) at this stage is my Onkyo receiver, Somfy RTS sunscreen motor and some greenware sockets. Replacing a sunscreen RTS motor for an io motor is in my opinion now cheaper if i would to hook everything up on a new Tahoma Box ( incl Zwave).

  • So it seems like I'll have to put some zwave relays between these devices to get it automated? 

    Officially I'm not allowed to do that because I'm not the owner of the house but second and more important: 
    I switched to homey because of multiple protocols but now after one week it seems like I might as well better sticked to my zwave controller. 

  • As Somfy doesn't want to support other  I suggest someone hacks the Somfy-France company and sends the documentation to Athom. Either that or convince the French headquarters to open up the protocol voluntarily...
  • At this moment I'm ready to order my new sunblinds. Only I need to choose if we want the RTS or the RTS IO motor.

    I think after I read this forum thread, it's the best choice to take the RTS motor and not the RTS IO motor. (Because I want to controll my blinds with Homey.)

    Is that correct or is there any update about the RTS IO support on Homey?

    Thanks in advance.
    Kind regards.
  • Hi Dennis,

    That's correct, IO Homecontrol is still a no-go - and we don't know if we'll be able to integrate it sometime. As of now, IO is closed, secured and not yet known on the internet.  RTS will work though.
  • Thanks Stefan!

    I will order the blinds with the RTS motor!
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