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eibd and Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi works really well as a KNX controller, programmed e.g. in Python. To do anything you need a working EIBD somewhere on the network, and the Pi is a great fit to host that daemon.

Raspberry Pi works really well as a KNX controller, programmed e.g. in Python. To do anything you need a working EIBD somewhere on the network. The Pi is an excellent fit for hosting that daemon — I suggest following the steps from http://ekblad.org/knx/pi.html, which describe installing EIBD on Linux.

Below is the short version, or you can use the great script from http://michlstechblog.info/blog/raspberry-pi-eibknx-ip-gateway-or-router-with-the-pi/ to download directly on the Raspberry Pi after running sudo su. Grab it with:

sudo su
 wget http://michlstechblog.info/blog/download/shell_scripts/install_eibd.sh

Available options to pass when running install_eibd.sh:

  • –enable-ft12         FT1.2 support
  • –enable-pei16         BCU1 support
  • –enable-tpuarts       TPUART support
  • –enable-eibnetip     EIBnet/IP router support
  • –enable-eibnetiptunnel     EIBnet/IP tunnelling support
  • –enable-usb                   USB-KNX adapter support
  • –enable-eibnetipserver     EIBnet/IP server support

Run the install:

chmod a+x install_eibd.sh
./install_eibd.sh --enable-usb --enable-tpuarts --enable-eibnetip --enable-eibnetipserver

Manual install (no script):

  • grab the latest pthsem from http://sourceforge.net/projects/bcusdk/files/pthsem/
  • grab the latest bcusdk from http://sourceforge.net/projects/bcusdk/files/bcusdk
  • in your target directory on the Pi, unpack: tar xvfz pthsem_2.0.8.tar.gz
  • then run:
  • cd pthsem-2.0.8
  • ./configure
  • make
  • sudo make install
  • go back to where bcusdk is, e.g. cd ..
  • then run:
  • tar xvfz bcusdk_0.0.5.tar.gz
  • export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib
  • ./configure --with-pth=yes --without-pth-test --enable-onlyeibd --enable-eibnetip --enable-eibnetiptunnel --enable-eibnetipserver
  • make
  • sudo make install

EIBD needs /usr/local/lib added to the dynamic library search path; do that with e.g.:

  • echo "/usr/local/lib" | sudo tee -a /etc/ld.so.conf.d/bcusdk.conf
  • sudo ldconfig

Then test it:

sudo route add 224.0.23.12 dev eth0
sudo touch /var/log/eibd.log
sudo chown $USER /var/log/eibd.log
/usr/local/bin/eibd -D -S -T -i --eibaddr=0.0.1 --daemon=/var/log/eibd.log --no-tunnel-client-queuing ipt:192.168.10.10
/usr/local/bin/groupsocketlisten ip:127.0.0.1

Where 192.168.10.10 is the address of the KNX-IP router. Let's see if traffic is visible on the KNX bus:

/usr/local/bin/groupsocketlisten ip:127.0.0.1

We can also fire a packet to turn on a light at address 1/0/4:

groupswrite ip:127.0.0.1 1/0/4 1

Or turn the light off (assuming an actuator or dimmer is wired to 1/0/4):

groupswrite ip:127.0.0.1 1/0/4 0

EIBD also works with USB-KNX adapters — so you can build a KNX-IP router much cheaper than commercial offerings.