Lights and blinds control is the heart of a home control system. Many different brands provide the ability to control lights, blinds and many other appliances within a home.

Table of Contents Lights and blinds KNX Philips Hue myStrom Flic Button Shelly Specific services

One of the most widespread systems is Konnex (KNX), having evolved from the former European Installation Bus (EIB). The most common connection system makes use of a twisted pair (TP) which carries power and signalling. Yet KNX signalling can also be exchanged over powerline (PL), radio frequency (RF) and Ethernet Industrial Protocol (IP).

One can connect to KNX trough a serial port, with an USB dongle or via Ethernet. The xPL KNX service addresses these devices through the knxd service.

Philips Hue mainly controls lights from buttons or a mobile application. Devices connect either via a Zigbee mesh to an Ethernet bridge or can be controlled via Bluetooth.

Additionally to allow to build an ecosystem with its buttons, sensors, switches, lights and mobile applications, myStrom allows to control devices from other brands. Its REST API allows to integrate buttons and lights over Wi-Fi with the xPL REST service.

The Flic Buttons are Bluetooth devices for home automation. They communicate over Bluetooth to a hub which can be a phone, a tablet or a Flic Hub. The hubs allows a great number of integration schemes, out of which the HTTP Request can be used to integrate Flic Buttons to the xPL REST service.

Shelly provides relay and dimmer switches (including LED strips controllers), bulbs and a controller with a configurable display. Devices connect via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, wired Ethernet and Z-Wave. They are controlled via an app, a web page or a REST API. The xPL HTTP requests service allows to use the REST API.

Additionally to the services linked to a standard or a brand, as presented above, some specific scripts add their flavour to the home:

• xpl-colourClock trigs on xpl-clock ticks and updates the colour displayed by a Shelly LED strip