Home Assistant Upgrade

Visually enriched dashboards for your Velbus installation

The needs for integrations with other systems (such as heat pumps, smart lighting, charging stations and sound systems) are growing, as is the need for clear operation via smartphone and tablet. Thanks to Home Assistant on the Signum IoT gateway, this is no longer a dream.

Since October 2023, we started the gradual rollout of this new software on existing Velbus installations with a Signum. This migration is free of charge but does require completing a short wizard. After this, your Velbus installation is displayed in a modern and simple way. Afterwards, integrations with more than 2,500 systems are possible via Home Assistant.

In this blogpost we guide you through the exciting features of Home Assistant and how to set up your Velbus installation with it.

Discover the features of Home Assistant

Let us show you what Home Assistant can do.

Follow our step-by-step setup guide

Setting up Home Assistant with Velbus takes only 30 minutes!

Frequently Asked Questions

Some questions already have an answer, have a look at our FAQ's.

Home Assistant Features

Stylish and easy to use dashboards for your Velbus installation

Home Assistant shows you your Velbus installation in a easy and clean overview, grouping your controls in their corresponding room. Controlling devices, light points, LED strips, thermostats, blinds, etc. is a breeze with the touch-to-change interface. It doesn't matter if you use your smartphone, tablet or smartphone, it always looks good!

Visualize your energy use

If you have an energy meter in your Velbus installation, comprehensive energy dashboards are a must have in your Home Assistant setup. Have a look at detailed graphs to better understand your energy consumption and use it to optimize your lifestyle and energy bill!

Link your smart devices with Velbus

Home Assistant will be your central hub to link all your smart devices in your home. Via integrations, you can link with over 2.500 smart systems, enriching your dashboards with their data and creating smart actions between devices that couldn't talk to each other before.

Your heating pump (MELcloud, Daikin, Viessmann ViCare), charging station for your EV (wallbox, Smappee), sound system (Sonos, Spotify, Bose SoundTouch, IKEA SYMFONISK ), smart lighting (Philips Hue, IKEA TRÅDFRI), smart plugs (Tuya, Shelly) are just a few examples of integrations that are possible.

Create smart automation actions

With Home Assistant you can link physical buttons in your Velbus link installation to trigger actions with other integrations. 

For example, if you have favourite radio stations that you want to listen to without reaching for your phone, that's a few automation clicks away!

First, create the buttons with their names in your Velbus control panel and then use automation on that button to select an online radio station, playing it on your connected smart speaker (e.a. a Sonos wireless speaker).

One place to control your sound

One you have linked your smart speakers and your Spotify account, you can use Velbus to control your playlists! Create next track, previous track, volume+, volume-, play/pauze buttons on your Velbus control panels and link them via automation actions together. Finally one place to control your home's music entertainment.

See what happens and what happened

Thanks to the local data capture of home assistant, you can go back in time by looking at your home's history reports. Never miss an event that happened or when a certain button was pressed. Offering comprehensive hourly, daily, monthly and yearly overviews, you can analyze your behavior and automate actions to elevate your smart home.

Easy user control

Add users and give them access to selected dashboards, making sure your family can use your smart home installation like you want it.

Each user can create their own experience, making sure the remote control of your home is tailored to your needs.

Step-by-step setup guide

There are two ways to get Home Assistant on your Signum IoT gateway: start with a 'fresh' Signum, strait out of the box OR migrate your current Signum with OpenHAB to Home Assistant.

Warning: you will need physical access to your Signum and be connected via a local network connection. Upgrading your Signum via cloud connection is not possible.

New installation ('fresh' out of the box Signum)

First, make sure your Velbus installation has been fully configured via our Velbuslink Software and you have given every button and relay channel a proper name. This will make your dashboards in Home Assistant instantly ready to be used. 

Navigate to your Signum by following the 'Go to Signum' button in the Velbuslink Software or by navigating directly to your Signum IP address in your favorite browser. Make sure the Signum has a stable internet connection!

During the Quickstart, you will be notified that an update is available for your Signum:

If you start the Home Assistant Upgrade, you will be redirected to the migration page:

You will need to physically press the RMT button on the Signum. Carefully remove the cover with a flat screwdriver from your Signum module and press the RMT button briefly (1/2 second).