RAMSES ESP — Indigo Plugin

An Indigo Domotics plugin for the RAMSES-ESP USB gateway, providing local radio control of Honeywell Evohome heating systems via the RAMSES-II protocol — no cloud dependency.

Overview

The RAMSES-ESP is an ESP32-S3 + CC1101 RF USB dongle that bridges the Honeywell Evohome 868 MHz radio network to MQTT. This plugin connects to that MQTT stream and creates native Indigo thermostat devices for each Evohome zone — giving you live temperatures, setpoint control, and zone mode tracking entirely locally.

Why local? The Honeywell EU cloud has proven unreliable. This plugin bypasses the cloud completely — if your RAMSES-ESP gateway can hear the TRVs, the plugin works.

Features

• Auto-discovery — Gateway ID and zone thermostats discovered automatically from the radio message stream
• 12-zone support — All Evohome zones created as native Indigo thermostat devices
• Live temperatures — Updated from 30C9 broadcasts (every few minutes)
• Setpoint control — Set heat setpoints via Indigo UI, action groups, schedules, or scripts
• Zone modes — Tracks schedule vs permanent override (from 2349 messages)
• Zone names — Auto-renames devices from Evohome controller (opcode 0004)
• RAMSES folder — All zone devices created inside a dedicated Indigo device folder
• Robust MQTT — Auto-reconnects on broker restart; all devices go offline cleanly on disconnect
• No cloud — Fully local via MQTT; works when Honeywell EU servers are down
• Bundled paho — paho-mqtt 1.6.1 included; no separate installation needed

Requirements

Requirement	Details
Indigo	2025.2 or later (API v3.4+)
Python	3.11+ (bundled with Indigo 2023.2+)
Hardware	RAMSES-ESP USB gateway
MQTT broker	Any (e.g. Mosquitto running locally)
Heating system	Honeywell Evohome with RAMSES-II TRVs

Credentials — IndigoSecrets.py vs IndigoSecrets_example.py

This plugin (along with all CliveS Indigo plugins) reads sensitive values from a shared master credentials file at:

/Library/Application Support/Perceptive Automation/IndigoSecrets.py

File	Purpose	Real data?	Committed to GitHub?
IndigoSecrets.py	Working file the plugin reads at runtime. Keep a backup in a password manager.	YES	NO — listed in .gitignore
IndigoSecrets_example.py	Template only — empty placeholders. Shipped in the plugin bundle.	NO	YES

If you do not have IndigoSecrets.py, copy IndigoSecrets_example.py from the plugin bundle to that location and fill in your values. Or skip IndigoSecrets.py entirely and enter values via the plugin's configuration dialog — IndigoSecrets.py wins over the dialog when both are set.

If a required value is set in NEITHER source the plugin logs an ERROR pointing the user to either fill in the matching field or add the key to IndigoSecrets.py.

Installation

1. Go to the Releases page and download RAMSES_ESP.indigoPlugin.zip
2. Unzip — you will get RAMSES_ESP.indigoPlugin
3. Double-click RAMSES_ESP.indigoPlugin — Indigo will install it automatically
4. In Indigo: Plugins → Manage Plugins — enable RAMSES ESP
5. Open Plugin Config and enter your MQTT broker details

Configuration

Setting	Description	Default
Broker Host	IP address of your MQTT broker	192.168.1.x
Broker Port	MQTT port	1883
Username	MQTT username (if required)	—
Password	MQTT password (if required)	—
Gateway ID	Auto-filled on first connection	(auto)
Debug Logging	Verbose protocol logging	Off

Leave Gateway ID blank — the plugin discovers it automatically from the RAMSES/GATEWAY/+/info topic within seconds of connecting.

How It Works

Evohome TRVs  →  868 MHz radio  →  RAMSES-ESP dongle  →  MQTT  →  Plugin  →  Indigo devices

The plugin subscribes to RAMSES/GATEWAY/<gw_id>/rx and processes three opcodes:

Opcode	Meaning	Action
30C9	Zone current temperature	Updates temperatureInput1 state
2309	Zone setpoint	Updates setpointHeat state
2349	Zone mode / override	Updates zone_mode state
0004	Zone name	Renames the Indigo device

Setpoint commands are published to RAMSES/GATEWAY/<gw_id>/tx as W 2309 RAMSES-II packets.

Device States

Each zone device exposes these states:

State	Type	Description
temperatureInput1	Float	Current zone temperature (degC) — shown in device list
setpointHeat	Float	Current heat setpoint (degC)
zone_mode	String	schedule or permanent override
zone_controller_id	String	Evohome controller address e.g. 01:091567
zone_name	String	Zone name from Evohome controller
last_seen	String	Timestamp of most recent message
online	String	true / false (MQTT connectivity)

Controlling Setpoints

Use Indigo's native Set Heat Setpoint thermostat action — no custom action needed.

From a Python script:

dev = indigo.devices[963505712]  # Zone device ID
indigo.thermostat.setHeatSetpoint(dev, value=21.0)

Or directly via the plugin:

plugin = indigo.server.getPlugin("uk.co.clives.ramses.esp")
plugin.executeAction("requestZoneUpdate", deviceId=dev.id)

RAMSES-ESP Gateway Setup

The gateway must be configured to connect to your MQTT broker. Via USB serial (115200 baud):

mqtt user <username>
mqtt password <password>
mqtt broker mqtt://<broker_ip>:1883
reset

Note: Use the mqtt:// URL prefix — bare IP addresses cause a connection failure.

Logging

Every log line is prefixed with a millisecond timestamp [HH:MM:SS.mmm] so events can be correlated tightly with other CliveS plugins (Device Activity Monitor uses the same convention).

To turn the prefix off (or back on) at any time:

Plugins → RAMSES ESP → Toggle Timestamps in Log (on/off)

The setting is stored in pluginPrefs (timestampEnabled) and persists across restarts. Defaults to ON.

Version History

Version	Date	Changes
1.2.9	23-May-2026	Millisecond timestamp [HH:MM:SS.mmm] prefix on every self.logger line via plugin_utils.install_timestamp_filter(); new "Toggle Timestamps in Log" menu item.
1.2.7	10-May-2026	Plugin version is now read dynamically from Info.plist (self.pluginVersion) — no separate Python constant. Added bundled plugin_utils.py with log_startup_banner() invoked in __init__, plus MenuItems.xml with a Show Plugin Info menu callback. Hardcoded broker IP fallback removed; PluginConfig default cleared. _read_prefs now logs ERROR if no broker host is configured in either IndigoSecrets.py or PluginConfig. IndigoSecrets.py imports split into per-key try/except so a missing single key doesn't blank the rest. PluginConfig version note refreshed (was stuck at 1.1.8).
1.2.6	05-May-2026	Add 5-minute delay before sending "gateway offline" Pushover notification — prevents spurious alerts on brief gateway hiccups. Restored alert is only sent if the offline alert actually fired.
1.2.5	08-Apr-2026	Gateway offline/restored Pushover notifications via Pushover Indigo plugin.
1.2.4	04-Apr-2026	MQTT broker migrated from .140 to .160 after Home Assistant VM decommission; broker now runs natively on the Indigo Mac.
1.1.8	24-Feb-2026	Setpoint command log lines downgraded to debug-only; RAMSES ESP entries no longer interleave with EvoHome script output in event log
1.1.7	24-Feb-2026	Fix HomeKit showing OFF: enable SupportsHvacOperationMode + ShowCoolHeatEquipmentStateUI; re-fetch device after replacePluginPropsOnServer(); add SetHvacMode handler to lock zones to Heat
1.1.6	24-Feb-2026	Add hvacHeaterIsOn (flame indicator) and hvacOperationMode updates on temp refresh for HomeKit
1.1.5	24-Feb-2026	Seed zone_name from device name on startup for zones where 0004 has not yet been received
1.1.4	24-Feb-2026	Send RQ 0004 on startup to populate zone_name states
1.1.3	23-Feb-2026	Fix Zone 0 controller ID being wiped by direct TRV messages; fix misleading success log after publish failure
1.1.2	23-Feb-2026	Downgrade pre-NTP gateway timestamp log from WARNING to INFO; remove unhelpful "Check SNTP config" advice (firmware limitation)
1.1.1	23-Feb-2026	Fix hvacHeaterIsOn state error on new zone device creation
1.1.0	23-Feb-2026	Migrate zone devices to native Indigo thermostat type; add actionControlThermostat(); remove custom setpoint action
1.0.5	22-Feb-2026	Fix last_seen epoch timestamp when gateway NTP not synced; fix zone_mode defaulting to "unknown"
1.0.4	22-Feb-2026	Fix zone name auto-rename; add 0004 opcode parsing
1.0.3	22-Feb-2026	Zone devices created in "RAMSES" folder; last_seen shows clean local time
1.0.2	22-Feb-2026	Fix gateway ID corruption when pref value contained concatenated IDs
1.0.1	21-Feb-2026	Fix MQTT reconnection; add validatePrefsConfigUi()
1.0.0	21-Feb-2026	Initial release

Known Limitations

• RAMSES-III not supported — New Honeywell firmware (post-2025) uses a different protocol; the ramses_rf library also does not support it
• SNTP on gateway — The RAMSES-ESP firmware accepts the sntp server command but does not persist it to NVS (firmware limitation); timestamps may show as 1970 epoch until this is fixed upstream — the plugin handles this gracefully by using local system time
• Local Override mode — If a TRV dial is turned manually, the TRV enters local override and ignores remote setpoint commands until returned to AUTO position
• Heat-only — Plugin supports heat zones only; DHW and cooling not implemented

Related Projects

• ramses_esp — The RAMSES-ESP gateway firmware
• ramses_rf — Python RAMSES-II protocol library (used by the HA integration)
• ramses_cc — Home Assistant integration using ramses_rf

Acknowledgements

• Protocol details from the ramses_rf project
• paho-mqtt 1.6.1 bundled from the Eclipse Paho project (EPL-2.0 / EDL-1.0)

License

MIT — see LICENSE