eQ-3 Max Cube message protocol decrypted: Part 4, the ‘C’ word
In this part of unravelling the secrets of the eQ-3 Max Cube, I shall tell something about the Configuration Message Response, or the C Message Response. Like the H and M messages, the C message is one of the messages that the cubes sends when connecting to it for the first time. Also the message can be requested by using the c: command.
The configuration message contains, as the name would suggest, configuration data for a specific device which has been paired to the Cube. This means that, when a connection has been made to the Cube, a C message response will be received for each device that has been paired to the Cube.
Like the M message, the C message contains a comma separated list of strings in the form of
C:03f25d,7QPyXQATAQBKRVEwNTQ0OTIzAAsABEAAAAAAAAAAAPIA==
The first field contains the address of the device in HEX form. Because the eQ-3 software displays addresses in decimal notation, the address in this example would be 0x03f25d = 258653.
The second and last field contains a Base64 encoded string with the configuration data for the device (as identified by its address). The decoded bytes will look something like this for the Cube device itself
0000: ed 03 f2 5d 00 13 01 00 ........ 0008: 4a 45 51 30 35 34 34 39 JEQ05449 0010: 32 33 00 0b 00 04 40 00 23...... 0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ff ........ 0020: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ 0028: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ 0030: ff ff ff ff 0b 00 04 40 ........ 0038: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 41 .......A 0040: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ 0048: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ........ 0050: ff ff ff ff ff 68 74 74 .....htt 0058: 70 3a 2f 2f 6d 61 78 2e p://max. 0060: 65 71 2d 33 2e 64 65 3a eq-3.de: 0068: 38 30 2f 63 75 62 65 00 80/cube. 0070: 30 2f 6c 6f 6f 6b 75 70 0/lookup 0078: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 0090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 0098: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 00a0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 00a8: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 00b0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 00b8: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 00c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 00c8: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ 00d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 45 ......CE 00d8: 54 00 00 0a 00 03 00 00 T....... 00e0: 0e 10 43 45 53 54 00 03 ..CEST.. 00e8: 00 02 00 00 1c 20 ......
The first 18 bytes seem to contain the same type of information for all devices (except the Cube which seems to have one difference). The rest of the information is device specific.
So the first 18 bytes contain the following information
Position Length Information =================================================== 00 1 Data Length 01 3 Address of device 04 1 Device Type 05 1 Room ID 06 1 Firmware version 07 1 Test Result 08 10 Serial Number
So in the example above, the data length would be 237 bytes (0xed), the address is 0x03f25d (which is the same as the first field of the C message), the device type is 0 (meaning the Cube device itself). The Room ID and firmware version seem to be combined to the firmware version only when it concerns the cube device where Room ID is the LSB and Firmware version the MSB both of which are BCD encoded. So in this specific case the firmware version of the cube is 0113 which equals to 1.1.3. I haven’t got a clue where the field test result is for. It always seems 0. Lastly in the common block of device data, the serial number of the device is specified. In this case JEQ0544923.
The device type, as we have already seen in the M message is encoded as
///
/// Enumeration of possible Max Device Types.
/// The int value of the enumeration is important since it links
/// to the device type number in the MAX device.
///
public enum MaxDeviceType
{
Cube = 0,
RadiatorThermostat = 1,
RadiatorThermostatPlus = 2,
WallThermostat = 3,
ShutterContact = 4,
EcoButton = 5
}
The device specific bytes are specific (hence device specific ;)) for a certain device type. The first byte in the generic part gives us the total of bytes in the C message so we know how long the message should be and what to expect. When it comes to the C message for the Cube, I don’t have much data available yet. So there are a lot of unknowns here as you can see
Position Length Information =================================================== 0012 1 Is Portal Enabled 0013-0054 66 Unknown 0055-???? ?? Portal URL ????-00ed ?? Unknown
The only thing I know now is the flag which indicates if the portal function has been enabled or not. And the Portal UR itself. In this case the URL seems to be http://max.eq-3.de:80/cube. In contrast to other fields the URL does not seem to have a field length specified as the first byte. Instead, the URL string seems to be terminated with a null byte. At the end of the message we can see some time zones specified but its unsure for me what the exact meaning is. So for now, this is the Cube C message.
For a radiator thermostat the decoded message looks something like this
0000: d2 06 c9 41 01 01 18 ff ...A.... 0008: 4b 45 51 30 33 35 32 32 KEQ03522 0010: 37 36 24 20 3d 09 07 18 76...... 0018: 03 f4 0c ff 00 41 20 41 .....A.A 0020: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 .A.A.A.A 0028: 20 41 20 45 20 45 20 45 .A.E.E.E 0030: 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 41 .E.E.E.A 0038: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 .A.A.A.A 0040: 20 41 20 41 20 45 20 45 .A.A.E.E 0048: 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 .E.E.E.E 0050: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 .A.A.A.A 0058: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 45 .A.A.A.E 0060: 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 .E.E.E.E 0068: 20 45 20 41 20 41 20 41 .E.A.A.A 0070: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 .A.A.A.A 0078: 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 .E.E.E.E 0080: 20 45 20 45 20 41 20 41 .E.E.A.A 0088: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 .A.A.A.A 0090: 20 41 20 45 20 45 20 45 .A.E.E.E 0098: 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 41 .E.E.E.A 00a0: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 .A.A.A.A 00a8: 20 41 20 41 20 45 20 45 .A.A.E.E 00b0: 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 .E.E.E.E 00b8: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 .A.A.A.A 00c0: 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 45 .A.A.A.E 00c8: 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 .E.E.E.E 00d0: 20 45 20 .E.
We can see that the data block is 210 (0xd2) bytes long. The address is 0x06c941 or decimal 444737. The device type is 1 (which means it’s a radiator thermostat) and it belongs to room 1. The firmware version is 24 (0x18) and the test result, whatever it means, is 255 (0xff). Finally the serial number is KEQ0352276.
The device specific bytes contain the following information
Pos Len Information
================================================================
12 1 Comfort Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
13 1 Eco Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
14 1 Max Set Point Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
15 1 Min Set Point Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
16 1 Temperature offset in degrees celsius * 2 + 3,5
17 1 Window Open Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
18 1 Window Open Duration in minutes * 5
19 1 Boost 3 MSB bits are duration:
value is in minutes * 5
but value 7 means 60 min.
5 LSB bits are valve opening
in % * 5
1a 1 Decalcification 3 MSB bits are day of week:
Saturday = 0 etc.
5 LSB bits are time in hours
1b 1 Max Valve Setting in % * 255 / 100 (so to get
valve setting use
value * 100 / 255)
1c 1 Valve Offset in % * 255 / 100
1d 182 Weekly Program Schedule of 26 bytes for
each day starting with
Saturday. Each schedule
consists of 13 words
(2 bytes) e.g. set points.
1 set point consist of
7 MSB bits is temperature
set point (in degrees * 2)
9 LSB bits is until time
(in minutes * 5)
For the above example data this translates to
Raw Decoded
================================================================
Comfort Temp 24 18 degrees Celsius
Eco Temp 20 16 degrees Celsius
Max Temp 3d 30,5 degrees Celsius
Min Temp 09 4,5 degrees Celsius
Temp Offset 07 0 degrees Celsius
Win Open Temp 18 12 degrees Celsius
Win Open Dur 03 15 minutes
Boost f4 111 10100 -> 60 minutes, 100 %
Decal 0c 000 01100 -> Saturday, 12:00 hours
Max Valve ff 100 %
Valve offset 00 0 %
Weekly program 41 20 0100000 100100000
-> 16 degrees, until 24:00
etc.
For a wall thermostat the decoded message looks something like this
0000: ce 0a 12 bd 03 01 10 ff ........
0008: 4b 45 51 30 37 30 34 37 KEQ07047
0010: 35 32 24 20 3d 09 41 20 52....A.
0018: 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 A.A.A.A.
0020: 41 20 41 20 45 20 45 20 A.A.E.E.
0028: 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 E.E.E.E.
0030: 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 A.A.A.A.
0038: 41 20 41 20 41 20 45 20 A.A.A.E.
0040: 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 E.E.E.E.
0048: 45 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 E.A.A.A.
0050: 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 A.A.A.A.
0058: 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 E.E.E.E.
0060: 45 20 45 20 41 20 41 20 E.E.A.A.
0068: 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 A.A.A.A.
0070: 41 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 A.E.E.E.
0078: 45 20 45 20 45 20 41 20 E.E.E.A.
0080: 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 A.A.A.A.
0088: 41 20 41 20 45 20 45 20 A.A.E.E.
0090: 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 E.E.E.E.
0098: 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 A.A.A.A.
00a0: 41 20 41 20 41 20 45 20 A.A.A.E.
00a8: 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 E.E.E.E.
00b0: 45 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 E.A.A.A.
00b8: 41 20 41 20 41 20 41 20 A.A.A.A.
00c0: 45 20 45 20 45 20 45 20 E.E.E.E.
00c8: 45 20 45 20 06 18 f4 E.E....
We can see that the data block is 206 (0xce) bytes long. The address is 0x0a12bd or decimal 660157. The device type is 3 (which means it’s a wall thermostat) and it belongs to room 1. The firmware version is 16 (0x10) and the test result, whatever it means, is 255 (0xff). Finally the serial number is KEQ0704752.
The device specific bytes contain the following information
Pos Len Information
================================================================
12 1 Comfort Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
13 1 Eco Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
14 1 Max Set Point Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
15 1 Min Set Point Temperature in degrees celsius * 2
1d 182 Weekly Program Schedule of 26 bytes for
each day starting with
Saturday. Each schedule
consists of 13 words
(2 bytes) e.g. set points.
1 set point consist of
7 MSB bits is temperature
set point (in degrees * 2)
9 LSB bits is until time
(in minutes * 5)
cc 3 Unknown
For the above example data this translates to
Raw Decoded
================================================================
Comfort Temp 24 18 degrees Celsius
Eco Temp 20 16 degrees Celsius
Max Temp 3d 30,5 degrees Celsius
Min Temp 09 4,5 degrees Celsius
Weekly program 41 20 0100000 100100000
-> 16 degrees, until 24:00
etc.
Since the shutter contact and eco switch doesn’t seem to have configuration data (and I don’t yet own them so can’t verify it either), this concludes this part of the series.
eQ-3 Max Cube message protocol decrypted: Part 3, the ‘M’ word
In this part of the series of articles about the Cube Message Protocol, I’m going to discuss the Metadata message, the ‘M’ message. It is one of the messages that the cubes sends when connecting to it for the first time. Also the message can be requested by using the m: command.
The metadata contains, as the name already tells us, metadata about our collection of eQ-3 devices.
Like the H message, the M message contains a comma separated list of strings in the form of
M:00,01,VgIGAgpMaXZpbmdSb29tDMAeAwRIYWxsC64PBQhCYXRoUm9v=
The first two parameters are (yet) unknown. The third and last string is a Base64 encoded string. It contains the definitions for all rooms (or groups if you will) and devices. The decoded bytes will look something like this
0000: 56 02 06 02 0a 4c 69 76 V....Liv
0008: 69 6e 67 52 6f 6f 6d 0c ingRoom.
0010: c0 1e 03 04 48 61 6c 6c ....Hall
0018: 0b ae 0f 05 08 42 61 74 .....Bat
0020: 68 52 6f 6f 6d 06 c9 22 hRoom...
0028: 04 07 42 65 64 52 6f 6f ..BedRoo
0030: 6d 0b aa e9 01 09 48 6f m.....Ho
0038: 62 62 79 52 6f 6f 6d 06 bbyRoom.
0040: c9 41 06 09 53 70 61 72 .A..Spar
0048: 65 52 6f 6f 6d 0c c0 51 eRoom..Q
0050: 0f 03 0a 12 bd 4b 45 51 .....KEQ
0058: 30 37 30 34 37 35 32 13 0704752.
0060: 54 68 65 72 6d 6f 73 74 Thermost
0068: 61 74 48 6f 62 62 79 52 atHobbyR
0070: 6f 6f 6d 01 01 06 c9 41 oom....A
0078: 4b 45 51 30 33 35 32 32 KEQ03522
0080: 37 36 15 52 61 64 69 61 76.Radia
0088: 74 6f 72 48 6f 62 62 79 torHobby
0090: 52 6f 6f 6d 52 65 61 72 RoomRear
0098: 01 01 06 c8 0c 4b 45 51 .....KEQ
The metadata contains the following information
Position Information
===================================================
00: Meta Data Magic. Should always be 0x56
01: Meta data version. Should always be 0x02
02: Number of Rooms
xx-(yy-1): Meta Data for each room.
yy: Number of Devices
(yy+1)-zz: Meta Data for each device
The magic number and meta data version always seem a fixed number. Perhaps the meta data version will be increased when a new meta data version is composed by eQ-3. So perhaps it’s best to check in your code that both numbers are 0x56 and 0x02 and log a warning if they ever change.
After the first two bytes, the next byte indicates the number of rooms (or groups) as defined in the Cube followed by a sequence of blocks of data, one for each room. The metadata for each room looks something like this
0000: 02 0a 4c 69 76 V....Liv
0008: 69 6e 67 52 6f 6f 6d 0c ingRoom.
0010: c0 1e ..
Position Information
=========================================
00: Room ID (1 byte)
01: Length of Room Name (1 byte)
02-(xx-1): Room Name
xx: Room Master Address (3 bytes)
In the above example, the Room has an ID of 2, contains a name of 10 (0x0a) characters which is LivingRoom and has an address of 0x0cc01e which translates as decimal 835614.
After the sequence of rooms, the next byte contains the number of devices followed by a sequence of blocks of data, one for each device. The metadata for each device looks something like this
0050: 03 0a 12 bd 4b 45 51 .....KEQ
0058: 30 37 30 34 37 35 32 13 0704752.
0060: 54 68 65 72 6d 6f 73 74 Thermost
0068: 61 74 48 6f 62 62 79 52 atHobbyR
0070: 6f 6f 6d 01 oom.
Position Information
==========================================
00: Device Type (1 byte)
01: RF Address (3 byte)
04: Serial Number (10 bytes)
0E: Length of Device Name (1 byte)
0F-(xx-1): Device Name
xx: Room ID
In the above example the device type is 3, the address is 0x0a12bd which translates as decimal 660157. The serial number for this device is KEQ0704752. The name is 19 (0x13) bytes long with the value of ThermostatHobbyRoom. Lastly, the device is part of room with ID 1.
I have defined the device type, in C#, as an enumeration with the following definition
/// <summary>
/// Enumeration of possible Max Device Types.
/// The int value of the enumeration is important since it links
/// to the device type number in the MAX device.
/// </summary>
public enum MaxDeviceType
{
Cube = 0,
RadiatorThermostat = 1,
RadiatorThermostatPlus = 2,
WallThermostat = 3,
ShutterContact = 4,
EcoButton = 5
}
So in the above example the device (type 3) would be a Wall Thermostat Device.
And that’s it for the M message!
eQ-3 Max Cube message protocol decrypted: Part 2, the ‘H’ word
Last time I explained how to find the available Cubes on the network and get their IP-addresses.
This time we will say Hello to the Cube. And polite as it is, it will always reply with a nice Hello back.
When we connect to the Cube for the first time (with the correct IP-address on port 62910, or port 80 for older firm wares) we get a bunch of welcoming messages, the H, M, C and L responses.
Furthermore, when we send an h: message (by simply sending h:\r\n) we also get the H response. The H response is a comma separated list of fields starting with H: (like all Cube messages start with a character and a colon) An example of the H response with all fields:
H:JEQ0544923,03f25d,0113,00000000,299ca43f,00,32,0d0c1d,1013,03,0000
00: Serial Number : JEQ0544923
01: RF Address, hexadecimal : 03f25d
02: Firmware version : 0113
03: Unknown : 00000000
04: HTTP Connection ID, hexadecimal : 299ca43f
05: Duty Cycle : 00
06: Free Memory slots : 32
07: Encoded Cube Date : 0d0c1d
08: Encoded Cube Time : 1013
09: Clock Set (not sure what it is) : 03
10: unknown : 0000
The address and firmware should look familiar because they are also present in the UDP answer when finding a cube. I have yet to familiarise myself with the duty cycle and free memory slot fields. For the time being, I store them and ignore them. Same goes for the Clock Set field.
Lastly, the date and time (which the cube uses internally) are a bit encoded. You have to split the date into its bytes, so 0d, 0c and 1d. These (hexadecimal) figures represent year, month and day. In this case it would be 13, 12, 29 which is the 29th of December, 2013.
Same goes for time. Split it in bytes, so 10 and 13. These represent hour and minutes. In this case it would be 16, 19 which would be 16:19.
The cube date and time can be important to keep watch of because, obviously, the cube uses this time for its own weekly program.
Next time I shall talk about the ‘M’ (Meta Data) Response message which will tell us which rooms (or groups as they are called internally in the Cube) and devices are present.