While the [APP][Pro] Balboa handles very well the cloud based ControlMySpa (CMS) and Balboa BWA cloud connected devices. I do prefer local connectivity and control of devices. For quite some time I have had CMS for automating the spa heating and other routines. But lately Balboa has been making changes on their API and of course the community app will break. In addition the CMS service has been occasionally unreliable.
So, I bought a BWA Wifi adapter also and plugged it in the spa. The spa has a RS-485 bus which allows nicely multiple controllers on it. Now the normal control panel, CMS and BWA are happily controlling the spa.
BWA has local TCP port open and there is a Ruby app that can bridge the device to MQTT with Homie Convention compliant topic structure. GitHub - ccutrer/balboa_worldwide_app: Ruby library for communication with Balboa Water Group's WiFi module or RS-485
First I tried to use MQTT Hub App for Homey | Homey and it’s Homie Discovery device, but that has it’s limitations on device capabilities as it allows only the standard Homey capabilities.
Here is how I set it up
Install Balboa Worldwide App gem
First install Balboa Worldwide App gem as described MQTT/Homie Bridge on a spare Raspberry Pi
> sudo apt install ruby
> sudo apt install ruby-dev
> sudo gem install balboa_worldwide_app
> sudo curl https://github.com/ccutrer/balboa_worldwide_app/raw/main/contrib/bwa_mqtt_bridge.service -L -o /etc/systemd/system/bwa_mqtt_bridge.service
Modify the /etc/systemd/system/bwa_mqtt_bridge.service fot the MQTT server and the target BWA device:
[Unit]
Description=Balboa Spa MQTT Bridge
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/bwa_mqtt_bridge mqtt://localhost/ tcp://bwa_spa_hostname_or_ip:4257/
Environment="LOG_LEVEL=WARN" "LOG_VERBOSITY=0"
Restart=always
RestartSec=3s
Type=notify
NotifyAccess=main
WatchdogSec=60
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
In the above the mosquito mqtt server happens to run already on the localhost, you will need to allow anonymous connections from localhost. Replace bwa_spa_hostname_or_ip with your spa’s hostname or IP-address. Used fixed IP for the bwa wifi adapter.
There is also a user=cody in the file for the service’s run as user, remove that.
Finally enable and start the bridge service:
> sudo systemctl enable bwa_mqtt_bridge
> sudo systemctl start bwa_mqtt_bridge
Configure a new advanced virtual device with Device Capabilities
Configure [APP][Pro] Device Capabilities - Enhance the capabilities of devices to add an advanced virtual device for the various capabilities published by the BWA Bridge to MQTT:
I mapped the homie/bwa/spa/ topics as Virtual Device capabilities:
| Topic | Data type | Settable | Format | Device Capability Type | Show as Capability | Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| heating-mode | enum | x | ready,rest,ready_in_rest | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | Heating Ready Mode |
| heating | boolean | true,false | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | Heating | |
| temperature-range | enum | x | high,low | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | High Range |
| current-temperature | float | 0 - 42 | Numberfield | Temperature (Measure) | Temperature | |
| target-temperature | float | x | 10 - 40 | Numberfield | Temperature (Target) | Target Temperature |
| circulation-pump | boolean | true,false | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | Circulation | |
| pump1 | boolean | x | true,false | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | Pump 1 |
| pump2 | boolean | x | true,false | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | Pump 2 |
| pump3 | boolean | x | true,false | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | Pump 3 |
| light1 | boolean | x | true,false | Button | On/Off (Button tab) | Light |
For the buttons that have unsettable topics, use also the Non-Clickable option.
Using MQTT Client to connect the topics the the device capabilities
To talk with the MQTT server you will need the MQTT Client App for Homey | Homey app configured for your environment.
Then using advanced flows setup a number of topic triggers and actions from the device capabilities.
Read-only status information
The state of heating and the circulation pump are read only values, so no need to catch a trigger. Don’t forget to set those as Non-Clickable in the AVD.
Water temperature
I have a ESP32 with DS1820 sensor to measure the exact water temperature and report it a bit more often than CMS nor BWA will do. CMS reports at 1 degree resolution and BWA 0.5 degrees.
So I have a special flow to update information from that.
Target temperature
Values from BWA to AVD
Values from AVD to BWA
Heating mode and Temperature Range
Values from BWA to AVD
Values from AVD to BWA
Pumps 1 - 3
Number of pump controls varies on your spa, mine has three some may have less.
Values from BWA to AVD
Values from AVD to BWA
Repeat for the number of pumps you have.
Light
Values from BWA to AVD
Values from AVD to BWA
