BTicino MyHOME, next to the rest of the house.

What it is

BTicino MyHOME, also sold under Legrand, is a bus system for lighting, shutters, heating, a burglar alarm and buttons that call up scenes. Everything hangs off one bus, and that bus is reached through a BTicino gateway: an F454, an MH202, an MH200N or a MyHOMEServer1.

Whoever has such an installation usually runs it with the MyHOME app. Lenou talks to the same gateway, and puts the points, zones and buttons next to the rest of the house.

How it connects

OpenWebNet, BTicino's own open protocol, over TCP on the house network. No cloud, no Legrand account.

Lenou keeps two connections. A listening one that stays open and passes on every change on the bus at once — someone switching the kitchen light shows up in the app within a moment. And a command one that opens only when there is something to ask or send, and closes again after twenty seconds of silence. A gateway has only a handful of places; every open connection is one fewer for the MyHOME app and the scenario module.

Commands go one at a time and wait for the gateway's confirmation. Signing in uses the gateway's OpenWebNet password, the newer HMAC sign-in, or no password when the gateway trusts the box's address.

If a gateway still has the password it left the factory with, it works straight away — and Lenou says it is still on it, when connecting and in the log. Such a gateway deserves a password of its own.

What Lenou reads and controls

Lighting

On and off per point, per group or for the whole house. Dimmers in ten steps or per percent.

Shutters

Up, down and stop. With an advanced actuator, a position in percent too.

Heating

Per zone the temperature, the setpoint, the mode (automatic, manual, off, frost protection, holiday), heating or cooling, and whether the valves are open. The setpoint can be set from 5 to 40 °C, in half degrees.

Burglar alarm

Armed or not, alarm, each zone active or not, battery and network. Read only: Lenou does not arm or disarm a MyHOME alarm, not even when asked.

Buttons

CEN and CEN+ buttons and scenarios count as push buttons. A press can start a rule in Lenou.

Gateway

Reachable or not, and which firmware it runs.

Connecting: scan and walkthrough

The installer enters the gateway's address, and the password if it is not the default. Lenou then reads the bus — with questions only, a scan cannot switch anything — and lists every point it finds: "Point 11", "Point 14", ready to be named.

Which point is which lamp, a MyHOME installation does not know in words. That is what the walkthrough is for: start it, walk through the house and press a switch. Lenou says at once which point that was. A name, a room, and on to the next. Buttons that call up a scene become buttons in Lenou this way.

Only a real change counts as a press. If the MyHOME app or a scenario module asks the whole bus meanwhile, the walkthrough is not thrown off by it.

What that means in the app

• The MyHOME lights sit in the same rooms as a Hue lamp or a Sonos, with the same tiles.
• A button in the hall can start a Lenou scene that also lowers the Somfy screens or puts the heat pump in another state.
• The MyHOME heating zones sit next to the heat pump and the air conditioning, in one overview.
• The alarm's state is on the overview, and can start a rule — a notification, the outside lights on.
• If the connection to the gateway drops, Lenou says so, and comes back by itself as soon as the gateway answers again.

Honest limits

• Checked on a real F454, reading only: the sign-in, the state of lights, shutters, heating, alarm and gateway, and how long the gateway keeps connections open.
• Control is in progress. Switching, dimming, shutters and setpoints are built and tested against a simulated gateway, but not yet sent on a real installation. That happens on site, with the installer present.
• The HMAC sign-in of a MyHOMEServer1 follows BTicino's document, but has not yet been tried against a real MyHOMEServer1.
• Sound (the separate audio bus with amplifiers per room) and energy management over MyHOME are not included.
• The burglar alarm stays read only. That is a choice, not a gap.