I am quite disappointed in the Danfoss Ally app and looking for other options to integrate to Danfoss Ally radiators. Danfoss Ally Gateway offers a possibility to integrate through cloud API. It should be a pretty standard API with OAuth2 authentication.
How difficult would you say developing an app to control Danfoss Ally radiators through API would be? I am primarily planning to use the app for my own purposes only as then I would not need to make the devices dynamic, but I could “hardcode” my devices into the app.
I have some background as developer in the past and lately I have worked on some minor projects with Groovy etc. I noticed there are examples using OAuth2 available. Would you say that I should give it a shot or would I be doomed right from the start?
Also, is it possible to develop an app that only runs in my own Homey without exposing it to the Marketplace in any way?
Yes, it is well documented. But the question is more that is it really difficult to make everything actually work reliably. All the documentation looks a bit intimidating to start from scratch. Like do you have to be an experienced developer to really be able to do that?
I will probably try something out myself at some point. But, if any developer is interested in developing an App for Danfoss Ally Gateway (through cloud Ally API) then I am able to offer my Gateway for testing purposes.
Danfoss Ally Gateway itself covers not only radiators, but also hydronic underfloor heating control with Icon/Icon2. And Icon does not connect to Homey currently at all. So an App using the Danfoss Ally API would then allow Homey to also control underfloor heating, which is a use case that is not possible at the moment at all. I believe there might be many people with Homey and Icon/Icon2 and struggling with this.
I just came to the same conclusion. I’ve installed the Danfoss Icon2 today, accompanied by radiator thermostats. The official app seems to be a bit… bare. Also it seems that they need to overwrite the zigbee connection the devices have with the Ally gateway.
I cannot promise anything, but I’m planning on creating a Danfoss Ally API app anytime soon. I’ve tinkered around with a few things and recently released my first app (Spotify Connect) which uses an Oauth2 API as well. Don’t quote me on this - time is scarse on my end. And for now top priority is to get the system working in harmony with my heatpump which unfortunately is not the case at the moment.
//Edit: most challenging part is that Danfoss doens’t have a SDK available (like Spotify has) and all parts should be coded by hand. I just created a developer account and there is little to no info to find (in plain sight) what endpoints can be used to do what. “Issue commands” probably is what we would need. Let me say I’ve seen APIs documented better then what I’m looking at right now.
Ok. I’m not an active developer myself so it is probable that you get this done before me. Congratulations if you do.
I will have the exact same problem in the future. I am going to invest in Icon2 for underfloor heating somewhere in 2025 and currently I don’t see how it could be integrated to Homey. Except perhaps through Home Assistant, but that is a bit weird option.
I believe this is another proof that multihub setup will be the new normal. I mean, with Danfoss especially, there is a clear use case to use external temperature measurements and optimizing the whole heating logic with Danfoss internal logic and limit the external control to just setting the target temperature. I believe myself that it’s better to let Danfoss hub brain to do it’s job. Heating is anyway something where you want a reliable system without any hickups and using Ally Gateway with Danfoss devices seems like a winning ticket to me. It’s just that the target temps should come from a system that knows about energy prices…
Danfoss has also hinted that there might be a Matter support in the future. I asked this in a support ticket and they said: “If Matter support is a critical requirement, I recommend keeping an eye on Danfoss’s official announcements and updates regarding future product developments”. I think it would be a really smart move from them to implement Matter as that would instantly enable integrations to multiple ecosystems and hubs. It’s just that I don’t still believe it’s coming very soon from Danfoss…
I’m on the same page as you: my main goal would be to have parameters readable and usable in automation and just some basic actions like setting temperature / mode. All the hard work should be done by the unit you’ve paid for: the icon2.
The things I’m after is “set radiator thermostats off when leaving the house” kind of stuff. And perhaps using the temperature and humidity sensors in the rooms.
I have no knowledge on the benefit of Matter (yet). But by the looks of your message it’s a new (communication) standard? Would Matter allow multiple connections (for instance: connected to the Ally Gateway AND with a Matter connection to be controlled externally)? Because if not, you’d still lose the brains of the Icon2.
Let’s keep in touch for a bit and see what we can do. As said: my focus right now is getting the Icon2 system working with my heatpump and gas boiler. As soon as that’s working I’ll try to setup a few quick tests asap.
Matter is a versatile communication protocol that kind of wraps everything together. So for example you can have a hub that works as bridge between the Zigbee devices connected to the hub and the LAN. So the “bridge hub” can expose those devices with their capabilities to everything else in the same LAN through wifi for example. And the best thing is that Matter is truly brand independent so the standard ensures all devices easily work together. And Homey has supported Matter for a moment already. So for example Aqara hub exposes Awara thermostats to LAN and Homey can control those Aqara thermostats through the brigde, which is the Aqara hub. And as Matter is a standard accepted by different brands, you don’t actually need any specific apps in Homey. I for example have a Hue bridge connected to Homey through Matter and all my lights and motion sensors are visible in Homey without any app. But the problem is that Danfoss Ally Gateway does not support Matter yet at all. I believe Matter will be a more and more strong standard in the future and Danfoss simply has to implement Matter at some point, but it may take a while.
