Temp + & - don't seem to work

[swanie2000]

VER 3.0.0.2
VER 3.0.0.68 HS3

The Upstairs Heat set point, and the Upstairs Cool set point as seen here from a cut out of my home page (first picture)

Both Set Point values step up and both Set Point values step down when I run the event below(second picture). The home screen updates, and the values change correctly.

The problem is that the thermostat doesn't actually move it's set points up or down, as you would expect, as view from the wall display unit (WDU).

Is there something I am doing wrong?

[nfrobertson]

I will test this after work. Until then, a couple questions.

I assume from the Home screen you can locate those setpoint devices and exercise the + and - control buttons and they work correctly? Meaning, press + and the setpoint increases on the HS3 device and on the thermostat too?

Can you also confirm for me that you are receiving updates back from the thermostat: temp, humidity (if equipped) and button presses like mode or temp up/down ?

[swanie2000]

I will test this after work. Until then, a couple questions.

I assume from the Home screen you can locate those setpoint devices and exercise the + and - control buttons and they work correctly? Meaning, press + and the setpoint increases on the HS3 device and on the thermostat too?

Can you also confirm for me that you are receiving updates back from the thermostat: temp, humidity (if equipped) and button presses like mode or temp up/down ?

Very good points. I will double check these two things, and report back.
I Won't be home for about another 10 hours. I'll let you know...

[nfrobertson]

I ran a similar test by creating two events, one up and one down for both setpoints like you did. I made the trigger manual for simplicity sake but it's the action being taken that we care about here.

When I run either event I can see the HS3 cool and heat devices go up or down appropriately and I can also see my SH 2441 TH thermostat cool/heat setpoints also go up or down. I set the mode to Auto so I can see both setpoints change. However, I also tried another test where I set the mode to Off and then ran the up event five times. The HS3 devices did change. I waited about 10 minutes (Insteon network traffic etc.) and then switched the thermostat mode back to Auto and sure enough the values were set.

Below is screen capture of the test events and of the log showing one run up and down.






What type of thermostat are you controlling?

Have you turned on the Debug logging on the config page so you can see more detail in your log?

[swanie2000]

OK,
I have two Venstar T1800 thermostats. I had to pull the unit off the wall to get the model number off the back. There is a small piggy back board hooked up to the back, with smartlabs name on it, the insteon address, REV 2.30, and 3111 on the sticker. I am not 100% sure about the downstairs thermostat, as I only took the upstairs unit off the wall, it was closer. I bought them both at the same time, so they should be very similar.

YES, if you click the little + & - buttons on the home screen, the thermostat will display the newly incremented number.

The HS3 home page will also update, and show the newly incremented number.

Also, if you push the button up & down on the thermostat, HS3 home page will also update accordingly.

I am having mixed results today. I set the thermostat to auto so I could see both set points. Then I triggered my TEMP-UP event, 4 times. the heat set point was correct, but the cool set point was two counts short.(missed 2)

I came back to the HS3 home page, and clicked the cool set point up 1 and down one. Then back on the thermostat, it was correct?

On another possible unrelated note, when I click on thermostat status, I get this error: One error for upstairs and one error for downstairs.

Error rendering thermostat for Upstairs - Argument 'Index' is not a valid value.

I will turn on "debug" in my setup.

[nfrobertson]

How fast are you pushing the buttons or triggering your events? There is a certain amount of time the Insteon network needs to transmit and acknowledge both the cool setpoint up and then separately the heat setpoint up. If you do it too fast then I've seen what you described as "missing" a value or two as the thermostat reports a value back to the plugin which can be in conflict, timing wise, with what you've attempted to set. What I can recommend is to be deliberate and not too fast with these. Turn on the debug setting in the config and look at the log to see if you can make better sense of what is happening.

It sounds like you've only connected one of your two VenstartT1800?

Does your VenstartT1800 have the external 2441V adapter under it? Or is this one of the discontinued Venstar with the internal Insteon support?

On the config page under the name of the thermostat, what is in the square brackets [xxxx,x,x] ?


The second part of your posting, I believe you are saying that you are getting an error when selecting the status webpage? Maybe you can upload your debug log? It's under your HS3\Logs directory? Do you have an HVAC unit created and associated with your thermostat?

[swanie2000]

How fast are you pushing the buttons or triggering your events? There is a certain amount of time the Insteon network needs to transmit and acknowledge both the cool setpoint up and then separately the heat setpoint up. If you do it too fast then I've seen what you described as "missing" a value or two as the thermostat reports a value back to the plugin which can be in conflict, timing wise, with what you've attempted to set. What I can recommend is to be deliberate and not too fast with these. Turn on the debug setting in the config and look at the log to see if you can make better sense of what is happening.

It sounds like you've only connected one of your two VenstartT1800?

Does your VenstartT1800 have the external 2441V adapter under it? Or is this one of the discontinued Venstar with the internal Insteon support?

On the config page under the name of the thermostat, what is in the square brackets [xxxx,x,x] ?


The second part of your posting, I believe you are saying that you are getting an error when selecting the status webpage? Maybe you can upload your debug log? It's under your HS3\Logs directory? Do you have an HVAC unit created and associated with your thermostat?

*************************************************
I push the button on the keypad, it lights up and sends the on signal to HS3.
HS3 then fires the event, and updates the set points, then after it has done all that, HS3 sends the off command to that buttons light.

SO I push the button, and wait until HS3 turns off the button again, before trying to push it again. If I push the button again too fast, while the button is still on, then I would be sending an off command, which will not do anything.

I understand HS3 is sending these commands back to back without much delay. I originally wanted to just send one command at a time, and have 4 separate events. But I couldn't figure out how to have HS3 test what mode the thermostat was in, or if I needed to know what mode the HVAC unit was in.

For example, I tried to have HS3 do something like this:
IF master bedroom controller button 8 temp up changes and becomes on
and IF upstairs thermostat is in cool mode
THEN increment the upstairs cool set point up one degree.

I could build 4 events like this,(plus another 4 events for the downstairs unit) but no matter how I configured it, I was not able to get HS3 to respect the second IF command? It is all a big learning experience, I am probably doing something wrong, but I couldn't get it to work so I settled on just doing both things at once.

I do have both thermostats installed, I am just messing with the upstairs unit because it is much closer to my computer room, and once I get the upstairs unit to work with my head board controller, it will be easy to duplicate it for the living room controller.

I have the discontinued units I guess. Didn't know it was discontinued until you mentioned it, but it figures. My Venstar T1800 units DO NOT have the piggy back unit under the thermostat. They have a small board built onto the back of the main board internally. I purposely bought the integrated units, as I think they look nicer, without some clunky adapter hanging on it.

Both of my thermostats have this code:
[050E,93,1]

See below pictures.... and I also included the log file at the bottom.
No hurry, it is late for me, I will get back to this tomorrow after work.
Thanks for taking the time to help sort this out.

Michael

[nfrobertson]

Looks like we have some more debugging to do. Thanks for the info you provided, every bit helps. Now that debug is turned on, please stop and restart HS3. Then exercise one instance of each issue (the up/down setpoints, the web status page, etc.) and then repost the debug log. There should be more information to see in there as those issues happen.

I have a VenstarT1800 but with the 2441V adapter underneath. I looked for the integrated units hoping to obtain one but found they were discontinued and apparently hard to come by. I do see the firmware is 93. The latest is 95. I have no idea how that will impact the thermostat behavior but I'd think it should be ok.

As for the IF conditions, I have only this week switched to HS3 as my "production" server. I'm finding that some of the event conditions may not work correctly. In my case it's the "time is nighttime" as a condition after a plugin trigger. Not sure if you might be running into the same type issue. I will need to do more testing here trying to replicate similar event structures to what you're attempting and see how HS3 behaves.

I have a family event tonight so I may or may not be able to get to this before Wednesday but will try.

[swanie2000]

OK, Here is the new debug file.
I restarted HS3, and then I pushed my master bedroom head board controller button 8(temp up) 5-6 times, waiting for the home screen to update the new setpoint before I pressed the button again.

Also, I have had trouble in the past with the "Night time" setting. Yo have to use "changes and becomes" before the test for night time. I don't know why, but this is what works for me. See picture.

[nfrobertson]

Ok, I've determined the problem with the status page not displaying is that I was incorrectly requiring the humidity device. Humidity and External Temp Sensor are optional devices. Since humidity wasn't present, an error was thrown. I've improved some key sections of code that go after values to better protect from these generic errors and to handle humidity as an optional device on the web status page.

Another *possible* issue is that your thermostat is reporting protocol 1. Looking at this link, it seems it maybe should be an i2cs device using protocol 2? I've added support on the config page to force it to use protocol 2 despite what the thermostat reports. I can't say if this will help or not but is worth a try to see if it can improve some of the Insteon communications. Worst case you just turn the force protocol 2 back off.

Look for release 3.0.0.3 via the updater_override.txt method. I did speak with HST today and they're working on my store/updater submission.

I just found a Venstar with integrated Insteon 2491T1E (new in box) for a good price on ebay so scooped that up. It'll take a week or two to get here and then I'll do my own testing with it. Hopefully it has firmware similar to yours.

[swanie2000]

I updated my Insteon Thermostat plug in to ver 3.0.0.5

I am still having the problem that I cannot adjust my thermostat set point +- 1 degree.

Below screen shots show the event I am using, then the next screen shot shows the log, where I pushed the button, triggering the event 3 times.

There is about 5 seconds between each time I triggered the event to step up 1 degree.

Last screen shot shows the main page, where the cool set point did update correctly, but when I go to look at the WDU, it has not updated at all.

I also included today's section of the thermostat debug log.

[nfrobertson]

I'm glad the update to 3.0.0.5 went smoothly - appreciate that feedback. It mirrors my own testing and upgrade on my production server here.

Thanks to ebay and a very fast shipping seller there, I was able to obtain a new-in-box Venstar 2491T1E at a great price. The base Venstar is a T1700 internally with that little Smartlabs board wired inside it instead of the adapter underneath. The little white sticker says Rev 2.30 then under that 3111. On my plugin config page it's showing [050E,93,1] so I believe I have a model basically identical to what you're running.

Before I read your post, I had set about running my regular set of tests to look for any issues. I've run it both in regular mode where it calls itself protocol=1. I've also run it in force protocol 2 mode. Both seem to behave well.

Here's my test event, again the trigger is manual but it's the action we care about. I call my Venstar 2491T1E a "T1700" below:




and here is a screen capture of the log as I ran the event many times only seconds apart:




The only thing you can't tell from the event and log above is whether my T1700 actually updated. I can confirm that it did. I ran this test in quick succession to try and stress the plugin or Insteon or HS3 etc.

From your logs I can see the events firing, I can see the plugin issuing the Insteon commands and you've confirmed the HS3 devices update. I think the main variable then is the Insteon network itself between your HS3 server and your thermostats? Thermostats are RF only devices. Do you have many (any?) dual-band devices or any of the older RF access points between your HS3 server and thermostats to help the Insteon network propagate the commands? Can I assume you're using a dual-band PLM instead of the older powerline only PLC to connect your HS3 server to the Insteon network? Can I am assume you have the latest Insteon plugin from Mark Sandler? Not sure why that would matter but good to check.

Maybe you can try some much slower tests. Run the event and nothing else then wait to see if the thermostat ever does update? Perhaps there are retries going on in the Insteon network that need to complete? If you can get it (slowly) stepping up and the WDU, then maybe increase your speed a little bit and see where the minimum wait time really is for your Insteon network?

If this was an IP network, now is when I'd want to get a protocol sniffer and see why things weren't working.

Sorry I don't have a clear cut solution for you - just many what-ifs or tests to run at this point.


Here's my tower of test thermostats, 2491T1E (aka T1700) at top, SH 2441TH middle and 2441ZTH bottom. I have a Venstar T1800 with 2441V upstairs actually running my furnace connected to my production HS3 with this plugin.

[swanie2000]

Thanks for all your help so far.

Yes, I have a dual band 2413s PLM.

Also, when I bought these thermostats, I made a special purchase of 2 each dual band switches. I installed the upstairs thermostat, and a dual band switch on the opposite side of the wall of it. It is literally about 4 feet from the thermostat, separated by drywall. The downstairs thermostat and downstairs dual band switch are about 7 feet apart, facing each other in a clear line of sight. So although I admit it is possible, I think it is unlikely the RF portion is the problem.

I had this simple thing(headboard temp adjustment) working, on HS2 with the other plugin. The thermostats and dual band switches have not changed a bit. However, back then, I used scripting commands to send the commands to the thermostat by way of a script.

Are there scripting commands I could try? If so, could you post one sample script, and I could run with that example?

I am running insteon plugin Ver 3.0.0.17. There is an update Ver 3.0.4.4 I will go ahead and update this just to be sure. I am pretty sure what I am missing is x10 support from the plugin, which I don't use in my home. Who knows, maybe there were some other improvements mark put in there?

Michael

[nfrobertson]

It's good you have the dual-band PLM as well as dual-band switches near your thermostats. Hopefully that does help to discount any general Insteon network concerns.

The scripting API is working in this plug-in. Look in your HS3 directory under scripts and you'll find this example: InsteonThermostat_script_api.vb I put this together to test the script API calls as well as to serve as a sort of self-documentation until I have better plug-in docs written. Note that this will behave similarly to the device control as underneath both use the same code - it's just a different entry point to it.
C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS3\scripts\InsteonThermostat_script_api.vb

Please do upgrade to Mark's latest plugin. I'm not sure there would be anything in there to help with this but it's generally a good idea to be on the latest.

It is interesting that you had this working under HS2 with Tom's Sage Thermostat plug-in and Mark's Insteon plug-in for HS2 but are having issues under HS3.

• What has changed is of course HS3 itself (vs HS2). However we do see the desired event being triggered and the actions fired. So, I assume this isn't somehow related to HS3. Not proof but I think a reasonable assumption.
• Mark's plugin is released separately for HS3 vs HS2 but I would assume he's using the same code base for core Insteon support. I'm using his latest for HS3 and it's working well for my production server (i.e. my house) and for my development server.
• Finally is my Insteon Thermostat plugin which is based heavily on Tom's Sage plugin for HS2. Tom and I did work out an arrangement and I can confirm that exactly the same Insteon commands that were being issued under HS2 are being issued under HS3. You can see evidence of that in the debug log you sent. In this case it is the [6C] command.

Could you try a simple manual event that only does the Set Cool + and run that from a machine where you can watch the WDU and repeatedly trigger the event? Adjust the timing like I suggested in the last post. Try 20-30 seconds between trigger to help make sure the Insteon network communicated the command to the thermostat? Maybe try this same thing with both your upstairs and downstairs thermostats and see if you get any different behavior between them?

One last thought. You say that everything in HS3 is updating ok but that the WDU doesn't update the cool setppoint. Have you confirmed that before you run your tests the WDU is actually in either Cool or Auto mode? It won't take Cool SetPoint changes in Off or Heat modes. I think you said previously that you had the self reporting Insteon links setup in the thermostat so it reports changes back to HS3. So I have to assume the mode etc. are all ok but it's worth triple checking.

[swanie2000]

I updated my insteon plugin to the latest version, and changed my event to be manually fired. Yes, to reduce the number of possibilities, I have now placed my thermostat WDU in COOL mode, and I am only trying to step up the cool set point.

Here is a quick shot of the debug log. In this time, I ran a manual event, that stepped up the cool set point 1 degree each time I clicked on the event.


3/30/2014 1:36:33 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 78
3/30/2014 1:36:33 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [9C] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [F8])))
3/30/2014 1:36:36 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 79
3/30/2014 1:36:36 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [9E] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [F6])))
3/30/2014 1:36:40 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 80
3/30/2014 1:36:40 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [A0] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [F4])))
3/30/2014 1:36:42 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 81
3/30/2014 1:36:42 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [A2] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [F2])))
3/30/2014 1:36:43 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 80
3/30/2014 1:36:45 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 81
3/30/2014 1:36:45 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [A2] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [F2])))
3/30/2014 1:36:47 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 82
3/30/2014 1:36:47 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [A4] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [F0])))
3/30/2014 1:36:50 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 83
3/30/2014 1:36:50 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [A6] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [EE])))
3/30/2014 1:36:53 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 84
3/30/2014 1:36:53 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [A8] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [EC])))
3/30/2014 1:36:55 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 85
3/30/2014 1:36:55 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [AA] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [EA])))
3/30/2014 1:36:58 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ INFO ~ SetCoolSetpoint: Upstairs Cool SetPoint = 86
3/30/2014 1:36:58 PM ~ Insteon Thermostat ~ DEBUG ~ TransmitInsteon: [Upstairs] [1F] [6C] [AC] ((([00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [00] [E8])))




Note that it goes 78,79,80,81,80,81,82,83,84,85,86
It should not have stepped backwards at all, and I think that is why it appears to be missing one out of 10?


Also, I can repeat this ten steps from the device screen, clicking on the "+" symbol 10 times, and get near similar results, where it will step down once, and then continue stepping up.

Also, from the manual event, as well as the device screen, the thermostat will step up about 90% of the time. Meaning, I set the thermostat to 77 degrees, and then step it 10 times, most of the time, I end up with 86, not 87. You can see that in the above debug log.

I will recreate my event to use the insteon trigger "up Button" I was using before, and give that a shot now that I have updated my insteon plugin.