ABB free@home

ABB Free@home

Eliona app for ABB Free@home integration

Simply smart. ABB-free@home® turns the house or apartment into an intelligent home. Whether blinds, lighting, heating, air conditioning, door communication, or scenes. Easily remote-controlled via a wall switch, with a laptop, or with a smartphone. Very convenient. Extremely comfortable. Very energy-efficient. Particularly attractive: compared with conventional electrical installations, costs are only minimal.

This app enables access to ABB Free@home systems directly in Eliona via the ABB ProService Portal. The user can monitor values, browse statistics, control Free@home devices, and, above all, network ABB devices with systems from other manufacturers.

Installation

The ABB Free@home app is installed via the app store in Eliona.

Assets

The ABB Free@home app automatically creates all required assets and asset types.

Structure Assets

The following asset types are created only to create a structure in Eliona:

• floor: Represents a specific level in a building.

Attribute	Description
Id	Floor identifier
Name	Floor name
Level	Floor level

• room: Represents a specific room on a floor.

Attribute	Description
Id	Room identifier
Name	Room name

• System: Represents a central system that controls multiple devices.

Attribute	Description	Filterable
ID	System ID	x
GAI	GAI	x
Name	System name	x

• Device: Represents a specific device in the system. Devices are linked to their respective systems and locations in the Eliona asset tree.

Attribute	Description	Filterable
ID	Device identifier	x
GAI	GAI
Name	Device name	x
Location	Device location

Channels

Channels are linked to devices. These channels provide the actual functionality:

• Switch: A normal light switch.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
SwitchState	Switch state	Input
Switch	Switch	Output

• Dimmer: A channel for controlling lighting intensity.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
SwitchState	Switch state	Input
DimmerState	Dimmer state	Input
Switch	Switch	Output
Dimmer	Dimmer	Output

• HueActuator: A channel for controlling colored lighting.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
SwitchState	Switch state	Input
DimmerState	Dimmer state	Input
HSVState	HSV state	Input
ColorModeState	Color mode status	Input
ColorTemperatureState	Color temperature status	Input
Switch	Switch	Output
Dimmer	Dimmer	Output
HSVHue	HSV hue	Output
HSVSaturation	HSV saturation	Output
HSVValue	HSV value	Output
ColorTemperature	Color temperature	Output

• RTC: Room temperature controller.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
SwitchState	Switch state	Input
CurrentTemp	Current temperature	Input
SetTempState	Set temperature state	Input
Switch	Switch	Output
SetTemp	Set temperature	Output

• RadiatorThermostat: Thermostat for a radiator.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
SwitchState	Switch state	Input
CurrentTemp	Current temperature	Input
SetTempState	Set temperature state	Input
StatusIndication	Status indication	Input
HeatingActive	Heating active	Input
HeatingValue	Heating value	Input
Switch	Switch	Output
SetTemp	Set temperature	Output

• HeatingActuator: Heating control unit.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
InfoFlow	Info flow	Input
ActuatorFlow	Actuator flow	input

• WindowSensor: Sensor for detecting window position.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
Position	Position	Input

• DoorSensor: Sensor for detecting door position.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
Position	Position	Input

• MovementSensor: Sensor for detecting movement.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
Motion	Motion	Input

• Scene: Represents a scene.

Attribute	Description	Subtype
SwitchState	Switch state	Input

Configuration

More information on configuring apps can be found ↗ here.

The ABB Free@home app is configured by defining one or more authentication credentials. The following data is required for each configuration:

Attribute	Description
abbConnectionType	Type of connection. Currently only "ProService" is supported.
apiKey	API key provided by ABB
orgUUID	UUID of the ProService organization
enable	Flag to enable or disable retrieval from this API
refreshInterval	Interval in seconds for device discovery. This is an expensive operation and should not be less than 3600 s
requestTimeout	API request timeout in seconds
assetFilter	Filter for asset creation; further details can be found in the app README
projectIDs	List of Eliona project IDs for which this device should collect data. For each project ID, all assets are automatically created in Eliona.

The configuration is done using a corresponding JSON structure. As an example, the following JSON structure can be used to define an endpoint for app permissions:

{
  "abbConnectionType": "ProService",
  "apiKey": "api.key",
  "orgUUID": "org-uuid",
  "enable": true,
  "refreshInterval": 3600,
  "requestTimeout": 120,
  "assetFilter": [],
  "projectIDs": [
    "10"
  ]
}

Configurations can be created in Eliona with this structure under Apps > ABB Free@home > Settings To do so, select the /configs endpoint with the POST method.

After the configuration is complete, the app starts continuous asset creation. Once all discovered devices have been created, the user is informed via Eliona's notification system.

After configuration

After the application is configured, it searches for systems connected to the configured ProService account. On all of these systems, a user named "eliona_ProService" is automatically created, which is later used to control the devices. This account must be activated locally on these systems.

To activate the account, log in to the SysAPs, look under "User settings" for a user named "eliona_ProService". Activate this user and make sure it has the correct access rights to control the devices.

Troubleshooting

Error message "Faulty device

Some devices have an error that causes the system to classify the device as "faulty" when it writes datapoints. The system then no longer sends data to these devices and makes them uncontrollable.

However, the devices are not defective; the sysAP only needs to be restarted and the devices will respond again.

ABB is aware of this error and is working on a way to fix it. If you encounter this problem repeatedly, please let us know so we can address it.

Troubleshooting with GraphQL

ABB has a GraphQL playground for its Smart Home API: https://apim.eu.mybuildings.abb.com/adtg-api/v1/graphiql

You can log in to the playground either with your MyBuildings account or with your ProService account.

{
  PSOrganization{dtId} # should not work for a normal user
}
{
  User{userName} # should return the username of the user who created the token
}

To check what relationship you have to the systems, you can use this query:

{
  UserDevice {dtId} # the dtId should appear here - if the user is the owner of the sysap
  CustomerDevice {dtId} # the dtId should appear here - if the user is the installer who invited the user as a customer
}

Please note that ABB currently does not recommend using the same user account for ProService and MyBuildings portals. This leads to some issues that can be worked around but are not desirable.

Optimizing requests

ABB has implemented a way to analyze resource usage by the current user:

{
  ServerDescriptionService
  {
    consumedRequestCosts # returns the sum of the costs caused by this user (should be reset to 0 at night)
    requestCosts # returns the costs of this query (in your case mainly affected by 1 per loaded object + 1 per DataPointRequest)
  }
# ... add the rest/normal query here
}

We have made a lot of effort to reduce resource consumption. Nevertheless, querying the app for new devices is a very resource-intensive process that can be further optimized if there is a need for it.