Zehnder Q350 Lan C + Options Box

[BartW]

Hi,

Me trolling again, about MVHR now...

 

Quick and simple:

- Zehnder Q350

- Loxone shebang

- Zehnder Lan C (for app prettiness)

- Zehnder Options box (for options )

 

Focusing on the Options:

- I can see the wiring schematics allow boost switches all grouped together on one set of pins. Great! Does that mean that I could use logical signals from Loxone room stats and presence sensors (in any algorithm I imagine) that would trigger the brain (Loxone mini server) and close a selected dry relay of choice, which in turn would send a volt free signal to the Options Box and switch on the boost?

 

- the box comes with many more "options" (I am abusing the word, I know...):

 

 

 

 

I could not find any further information about the meaning of all of those other icons above. One suggests there is a kitchen hood. Could I use that to send the signal from the kitchen cooking hood to apply boost? Mind racing, sorry!

 

And if none of the above gets any further use, then is there a way of sending a "boost" signal whilst omitting the Options Box completely? (and saving £300?)

 

 

 

PS. Q350, as well as Options Box, and Lan C come with an Ethernet port. I can appreciate Cat6 is to be plugged into Lan C box, but could it equally be plugged into any of the other two? Or would they also need a separate connection?

 

 

 

 

Many thanks!

 

Bart

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by BartW

[Dan F]

You can do everything and get all stats using https://wiki.loxberry.de/plugins/comfoconnect/start.  If you use this approach there is no need to connect anything else, so it's just single cat cable and no need for options box.

[BartW]

5 minutes ago, Dan F said:

You can do everything and get all stats using https://wiki.loxberry.de/plugins/comfoconnect/start.  If you use this approach there is no need to connect anything else, so it's just single cat cable and no need for options box.

 

Thanks Dan. I read this article, too.

 

I am guessing I would need RaspberryPi in order to be able to run this? Is it not false economy? Ok, I assume the Raspberry is cheaper than the options box, but does this not add another layer of complexity?

 

 

[Dan F]

1 minute ago, BartW said:

 

Thanks Dan. I read this article, too.

 

I am guessing I would need RaspberryPi in order to be able to run this? Is it not false economy? Ok, I assume the Raspberry is cheaper than the options box, but does this not add another layer of complexity?

 

Another alternative is homeassisant which has a plugin and then bridge to loxone.  Yes you need a raspberry pi, but you can do a lot of other stuff with Loxberry too and it seems you are planning to buy/install the Lan C box anyway. 

 

If you want to avoid raspberry pi then by all means use the options box (it looks like it costs a lot more than a raspberry pi though) just need to note that I think it's mostly inputs, you aren't going to get any stats (temp, humidy, fan speed) from it I don't think.  You might also want to check that you can use both LAN C and Option Box at the same time.

 

Lastly you can use the ComfoConnect KNX and Loxone KNX extension but then is more costly and complex, especially if not using KNX for anything else.

[BartW]

6 minutes ago, Dan F said:

 

Another alternative is homeassisant which has a plugin and then bridge to loxone.  Yes you need a raspberry pi, but you can do a lot of other stuff with Loxberry too and it seems you are planning to buy/install the Lan C box anyway. 

 

If you want to avoid raspberry pi then by all means use the options box (it looks like it costs a lot more than a raspberry pi though) just need to note that I think it's mostly inputs, you aren't going to get any stats (temp, humidy, fan speed) from it I don't think.  You might also want to check that you can use both LAN C and Option Box at the same time.

 

Lastly you can use the ComfoConnect KNX and Loxone KNX extension but then is more costly and complex, especially if not using KNX for anything else.

Thanks,

I actually considered building a complete KNX lighting infrastructure, but ended up tipping towards a much simplex Loxone setup (with its limitations).

 

Lan C and Options Box connect through a four wire cable to each other, and then back to the Q350 via the same. Humidity and CO2 are going to be read by Loxone sensors. It was only the ability of using them as triggers and boosting the MVHR that I was trying to work out, but it sounds like Loxberry would give me total control over any functions / speeds.

 

[Dan F]

7 minutes ago, BartW said:

Lan C and Options Box connect through a four wire cable to each other, and then back to the Q350 via the same. Humidity and CO2 are going to be read by Loxone sensors. It was only the ability of using them as triggers and boosting the MVHR that I was trying to work out, but it sounds like Loxberry would give me total control over any functions / speeds.

Yes, bascially everything you can do via the app, plus all the stats you can get from the app.  You do need to set up Loxberry and MQTT etc. but it's a one-time setup.

[BartW]

2 minutes ago, Dan F said:

Yes, bascially everything you can do via the app, plus all the stats you can get from the app.  You do need to set up Loxberry and MQTT etc. but it's a one-time setup.

Sounds great and tempting. As you rightly noted, option box is nearly £300 and so is Lan C. Raspberry being less that £150?

[Dan F]

23 minutes ago, BartW said:

Sounds great and tempting. As you rightly noted, option box is nearly £300 and so is Lan C. Raspberry being less that £150?

£70 and it's a whole computer running linux.  Mine does all my DALI lighting too.  They aren't that easy to get hold of currently thats only slight issue, but I'm sure you'll find stock somewhere before you need it.

 

https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-kits-and-bundles/products/raspberry-pi-starter-kit

Edited January 5, 2023 by Dan F