ABB free@home Addons

The free@home smart house automation system can be extended with the use of addons, if desired. An ABB free@home Addon can be installed to the free@home System Access Point and can provide additional functionality, such as integrating new devices from external vendors into the free@home system, so that they can be controlled just like normal free@home devices using the free@home apps, used in in timers or scenes, and so on.

From a technical point of view, ABB free@home Addons are Node.js archives that are deployed to the System Access Point of the end-user and run there in a container. The addon as access to the local-api on the System Access Point and can therefore create and control (virtual) devices, communicate with external devices (e.g. using a REST API provided by that device) and so on.

Target audience

This documentation describes how to develop new addons for the free@home system. As such, this documentation is aimed primarily at developers - device vendors or simply enthusiasts with basic development experience. No detailed knowledge of the free@home system is required, other than being able to use it. Some basic knowledge of TypeScript and Node.js are expected though, see the prerequisites for details.

Overview

To get started immediately, please refer to the walkthrough.

The remainder of this documentation gives further details on ABB free@home Addons.