ioBroker Adapter: DuoFern Stick

This adapter connects a local Rademacher DuoFern USB Stick to ioBroker. It is designed for installations where DuoFern devices should be integrated locally without an additional cloud service.

Features

• Serial connection to the Rademacher DuoFern USB Stick
• Configuration of serial port, baud rate and dongle serial in ioBroker Admin
• Reception and parsing of DuoFern telegrams
• Automatic creation of detected devices below devices.*
• Device and capability catalogue for many DuoFern device classes
• State handling for shutters, tubular motors, actuators, dimmers, sensors, remotes and thermostats
• Control states for pairing, unpairing, status broadcast and raw telegrams
• Partial state updates to avoid overwriting existing values with incomplete telegram data
• Protection against unintended reset of runningTime to 0
• Optional raw telegram logging for diagnostics

Supported device classes

The adapter contains a device and capability catalogue for several DuoFern device classes, including:

| Device class | Examples | | --- | --- | | Shutters / belt winders | RolloTron Standard, RolloTron Comfort Master/Slave | | Tubular motors | Tubular motor, tubular motor actuator, tubular motor controller | | Venetian blinds | Troll Comfort, Troll Basis, Connect actuator | | Actuators | Universal actuator, socket actuator, light and switching actuators | | Dimmers | Dimming actuator, dimmer | | Sensors | Sun/wind sensor, environmental sensor, motion detector, smoke detector, window/door contact | | Remotes / transmitters | Hand transmitter, wall switch, HomeTimer, flush-mounted transmitter | | Heating | Room thermostat, radiator actuator | | Gate / special devices | SX5 / gate controller |

Depending on the detected device type, only suitable or observed states are created. This avoids showing every theoretical state for every device.

Requirements

• ioBroker with js-controller 6.0.11 or newer
• Node.js 20 or newer
• ioBroker Admin 7.6.17 or newer
• Rademacher DuoFern USB Stick
• Access to the serial device of the USB stick

On Linux, the ioBroker process must have permission to access the serial device. Common paths are:

/dev/ttyUSB0
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Rademacher_DuoFern_USB-Stick-if00-port0

Using the stable /dev/serial/by-id/ path is recommended because it normally stays the same after rebooting or reconnecting the USB stick.

Installation

Install the adapter through ioBroker Admin using the custom adapter installation from a GitHub URL or from an uploaded package file.

After installation:

1. Create an adapter instance named duofernstick.0.
2. Open the adapter configuration.
3. Enter the correct serial port of the DuoFern USB Stick.
4. Start the adapter.
5. Check the connection state at duofernstick.0.info.connection.

Configuration

The main settings are available in the Admin configuration page of the adapter instance.

| Setting | Description | | --- | --- | | serialPort | Serial port of the DuoFern USB Stick | | baudRate | Baud rate, default: 115200 | | dongleSerial | Serial number of the DuoFern stick, usually starting with 6F | | autoCreateDevices | Automatically create detected devices | | statusOnStart | Request device status when the adapter starts | | preserveUnknownValues | Preserve existing values when incoming telegrams are incomplete | | createOnlySupportedStates | Create only suitable or observed states per device | | debugRaw | Log raw telegrams for diagnostics |

Object structure

The adapter creates the following main object tree:

duofernstick.0
├── info
│   ├── connection
│   ├── lastRawTelegram
│   └── lastError
├── control
│   ├── pair
│   ├── unpair
│   ├── statusBroadcast
│   └── raw
└── devices
    └── <deviceId>
        ├── serial
        ├── deviceType
        ├── deviceTypeName
        ├── lastSeen
        ├── rawTelegram
        ├── command
        ├── getStatus
        ├── up
        ├── down
        ├── stop
        ├── position
        └── ...

The exact number of states depends on the detected device type.

Central control states

Start pairing

duofernstick.0.control.pair = true

Starts pairing mode of the stick.

Start unpairing

duofernstick.0.control.unpair = true

Starts unpairing mode of the stick.

Send status broadcast

duofernstick.0.control.statusBroadcast = true

Requests status information from known or reachable devices.

Send raw telegram

duofernstick.0.control.raw = <HEX_TELEGRAM>

Sends a raw telegram as a hexadecimal string. This is mainly intended for diagnostics and development.

Device control

Depending on the device type, the following writable states may be available:

| State | Meaning | | --- | --- | | up | Move shutter or blind up | | down | Move shutter or blind down | | stop | Stop current movement | | toggle | Toggle command | | position | Target position in percent | | getStatus | Request device status | | manualMode | Manual mode | | timeAutomatic | Time automation | | sunAutomatic | Sun automation | | duskAutomatic | Dusk automation | | dawnAutomatic | Dawn automation | | windAutomatic | Wind automation | | rainAutomatic | Rain automation | | level | Dimming or switching level | | state | Switch state |

Example state IDs:

duofernstick.0.devices.<deviceId>.up
duofernstick.0.devices.<deviceId>.down
duofernstick.0.devices.<deviceId>.stop
duofernstick.0.devices.<deviceId>.position

Status values

Typical read-only status values are:

| State | Description | | --- | --- | | position | Current position in percent | | moving | Device is currently moving | | direction | Movement direction: up, down, stop or unknown | | runningTime | Runtime in seconds | | lastSeen | Timestamp of the last received telegram | | rawTelegram | Last telegram received from this device | | deviceType | DuoFern device type code | | deviceTypeName | Detected device name |

Incoming telegrams are handled as partial state updates. If a telegram does not contain a runtime value, an already existing runtime value is not automatically reset to 0.

Troubleshooting

The adapter does not connect to the stick

Check the following points:

• The configured serial port exists.
• The ioBroker user has permission to access the serial device.
• The USB stick is passed through to the correct host, container or virtual machine.
• No other process blocks the serial port.
• The baud rate is configured correctly.

Useful Linux commands:

ls -l /dev/ttyUSB*
ls -l /dev/serial/by-id/
dmesg | grep -i tty

No devices are created

Check the following points:

• autoCreateDevices is enabled.
• Raw telegrams appear in info.lastRawTelegram.
• debugRaw is enabled for diagnostics.
• A DuoFern device or remote control action has been triggered.

Values look unstable or implausible

Check the following points:

• Whether several devices are detected with the same or an incorrect ID.
• Whether raw telegrams are received completely.
• Whether the correct device type is detected.
• Whether the device actively sends status values or only answers once after startup.

For diagnostics, the following information is useful:

• Adapter version
• ioBroker version
• Node.js version
• Operating system, Docker, VM or Proxmox setup
• Serial device path of the USB stick
• DuoFern device type
• Relevant raw telegrams
• ioBroker log output during startup and device actions

Changelog

0.1.29

• Fix GitHub workflow requirements for Node.js 22/24 adapter tests, restore the recommended concurrency configuration and document the current release for the ioBroker checker.

0.1.28

• Fix jsonConfig layout, node.js workflows and translations

0.1.27

• Added jsonConfig i18n files for all required ioBroker languages.
• Removed legacy Materialize admin page because jsonConfig is used.
• Replaced plain timers with adapter timers for ioBroker checker compliance.

0.1.26

• Restored the proven DuoFern runtime logic and kept compatibility with the current GitHub/ioBroker package structure.
• Keeps support for the previous port configuration and the newer serialPort alias.

Older changelog entries are kept in CHANGELOG_OLD.md.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 iobroker-community-adapters