WDTC-20 Firmware Update

[virtualadam]

I heard there is an firmware update recommended for the WDTC-20...

1) What are the issues if running on the old firmware?

2) How can you find out if a particular model requires the update (or already has it)?

3) If the update is required, what is the process to have it updated if purchased through HomeSeer?

[Rupp]

I heard there is an firmware update recommended for the WDTC-20...

1) What are the issues if running on the old firmware?
You may have Z-Wave routing issues.
2) How can you find out if a particular model requires the update (or already has it)? This is a good question. I do know if you have had your stat more than a month or so then it has the older z-Wave library in it which has the routing bug. Hopefully someone who has spoken to Wayne Dalton can confirm versions that have the issue and versions that have the fix.

3) If the update is required, what is the process to have it updated if purchased through HomeSeer?It has to be shipped back to Wayne Dalton for a firmware chip upgrade

There are a couple of users that have shipped theirs back but as far as I know none have responded with the results.

[rmasonjr]

I expect one of mine back tomorrow. I'll update this thread if I can find any answers regarding the firmware change.

[Rupp]

I expect one of mine back tomorrow. I'll update this thread if I can find any answers regarding the firmware change.

Thanks.

[rmasonjr]

Do we ship it back to Wayne Dalton directly, or to HomeSeer?

Ship to Wayne-Dalton:

send an email to homesettings at wayne-dalton dot com

Inquire about the Z-wave routing issue in your thermostat and request to send it back. They will reply with address to send it.

Thanks
Rob

[rmasonjr]

To tell if you have the latest firmware in your WDTC-20, hold the bind button for a few seconds. If you get a green LED in the LCD screen, you have the latest firmware. You can also remove the circuit board screws and look at the Z-Wave chip - it should have a mark indicating it has the latest firmware.

Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06wRu89RlHg

Hope this helps...

[Cal7]

Mine seems to be the old one. And I just bought it from Homeseer. Very recently in fact. I put my order in on the 24th of last month. They must have "Just" made this change. I suspect nobody has this update unless they have only just ordered it. And then hope they don't get one that has been on the shelf for a week.

I wonder if I should ask for an update? How do I tell if this is going to affect me? Routing issues. OK, but what does that mean? Is there a thread where that is explained better. I had a difficult time getting this to work. Finally the beta let me talk to it properly.

I think I'm OK. But I'd hate to run into problem during the winter when I need it vs now during the summer when I just bought it but can do without it for a bit.

[rmasonjr]

It's hard to say what would affect you. In my setup, my Z-wave network (22 nodes) was severely impacted when my WDTC-20s were used to route info back to the z-troller through 9.6 devices. In my HS log, there were errors about failed sending commands to z-wave devices.

If you are not having problems, then it is probably not worth the effort sending it back. WD told me that most users would not benefit from the upgrade; just those receiving routing errors.

[Cal7]

Thanks. I think I'll hold off for a bit then.

[cerjzc]

Rob,

I have one WDTC-20 installed and just received my second one to install on the top floor. I'm thinking about just sending them in one at a time to go ahead and get the upgrades done before getting the second one in place. Can you give me an idea of how long the turnaround was on getting the thermostat back once you sent it in?

Couple other questions: the errors you were seeing in the HS logs were they just the standard messages that it could not send to a zwave device? And has that problem gone away since the firmware was upgraded?

Thanks,
Jeff

[rmasonjr]

Rob,

I have one WDTC-20 installed and just received my second one to install on the top floor. I'm thinking about just sending them in one at a time to go ahead and get the upgrades done before getting the second one in place. Can you give me an idea of how long the turnaround was on getting the thermostat back once you sent it in?

Couple other questions: the errors you were seeing in the HS logs were they just the standard messages that it could not send to a zwave device? And has that problem gone away since the firmware was upgraded?

Thanks,
Jeff

Turnaround was actually pretty good. For example, I sent it via USPS priority mail on a Thursday, they received it saturday and shipped it out on Monday and I got it Wednesday. While I waited, I installed a cheap-o thermostat to keep the house cool.

What prompted all of this was the following in my logs:
Warning Failed sending Z-Wave command to device(s): Master Bedroom Robs Lamp (Q4)
Also present were hard error messages like C<4> or others.

I have not re-installed my second thermostat yet - plan to do that over the weekend. I also have 5 more Z-Wave switches to install, which will bring me up to 27 nodes. I want to get everything installed, then run some optimizations and let it run for a while to ensure everything is running ok.

Let us know how it turns out for you - good luck!

[cerjzc]

Well they were fast on getting it upgraded and back to me. I received it back today and will see about removing the other one from the network tomorrow and install this new updated one. Then I will ship them the second unit and once it returns see about getting it installed for the other floor. I will report back any issues on the newly upgraded one once I have had it running a few days.

Thanks,
Jeff

[cerjzc]

Well I'm having some problems trying to get things going again after removing the original thermo and replacing it with the upgraded one. I removed the original from the z-troller and HS and then tried to add the new one.

I found the device and appeared to download it correctly, but in HS it is showing up now as 3 devices Z-wave Root Device, Z-wave Sensor Multilevel and Z-wave Switch Binary.

After restarting HS the Z-wave thermostat plug-in will not load at all. The section were it normally shows:

Found plug-in: ZWave Thermostats, version: 2.4.0.0

Does not get displayed. I have restarted multiple times and tried redownloading the plug in and adding the z-wave thermostat section directly to the settings.ini file, but can not get anything to work. I'm not at home right now, but guess I will try removing the device again and see if the plug-in will load then. I'm not sure why having that device would cause the the plug-in not to load, but so far nothing I have tried has worked.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Rupp]

Well I'm having some problems trying to get things going again after removing the original thermo and replacing it with the upgraded one. I removed the original from the z-troller and HS and then tried to add the new one.

I found the device and appeared to download it correctly, but in HS it is showing up now as 3 devices Z-wave Root Device, Z-wave Sensor Multilevel and Z-wave Switch Binary.

After restarting HS the Z-wave thermostat plug-in will not load at all. The section were it normally shows:

Found plug-in: ZWave Thermostats, version: 2.4.0.0

Does not get displayed. I have restarted multiple times and tried redownloading the plug in and adding the z-wave thermostat section directly to the settings.ini file, but can not get anything to work. I'm not at home right now, but guess I will try removing the device again and see if the plug-in will load then. I'm not sure why having that device would cause the the plug-in not to load, but so far nothing I have tried has worked.

Thanks,
Jeff

Rick intergrated the Z-Wave stat plugin code into HomeSeer so not finding the plugin shouldn't be a problem.

[cerjzc]

Rupp,

Thanks for the reply. The plug-in was being found before removing the thermo and replacing it with the one with the upgraded firmware. Are you saying now that we should no longer need the hspi_zwavetherm.dll in the HS directory? Also when it is not being detected on startup nothing shows up on the interfaces page so I'm not sure where I'm supposed to configure it and startup doesn't show anything about a thermostat being detected.

I' going to see about trying to remove and readd the new one again to see if it starts working again.

Thanks,
Jeff