Any way to issue RCS command to set Outdoor Temp?

[sponnath]

Is there any way via the plug-in to set the outdoor temp? There is a standard RCS serial command to do this but I don't see a way to send this command.



MESSAGE FORMAT
Command messages use the following format:
Address code, Originator code, Zone code (obsolete), Command, Command, Command,...CR (commas optional)

SEND OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE COMMAND. Format: OT=xxx, where “xxx” = temperature in degrees.
Sends the outside temperature data from the network to the control unit. Used when outside temperature
information is to be used and displayed on the WDU. Note that if the control unit has built-in outside sensor
capability and the sensor installed, this command will have no effect.
Range: -64 to 190 degrees

[drule]

You can set the outside temperature via a homeseer script. For example:

Public Sub Main(ByVal Params As Object)
    Dim RCS As Object = hs.Plugin("RCS Serial Thermostats")
    Dim otemp = 100
    RCS.cmdSetOutsideTemp(1, otemp)
End Sub

[Mark S.]

Let me know it setting outside temperature works. If so, I'll try it this January.

[pbibm]

I 'd like to be able to set my outside Temperature to 60 right about now

[sponnath]

[QUOTE

Public Sub Main(ByVal Params As Object)
    Dim RCS As Object = hs.Plugin("RCS Serial Thermostats")
    Dim otemp = 100
    RCS.cmdSetOutsideTemp(1, otemp)
End Sub

[/QUOTE]

Thanks. That's great. Didn't know that the plugin supported that.

I can take my 1-wire outdoor temp and put it back into the RCS.

[mhog]

when the RCS plug-in polls the TR Control unit, will the value be cleared if an outside temp does not exist? Basically if you set a value with a script will it get overwritten after a poll?

EDIT-
ANSWER- To answer my own question, when the plug-in does the poll it will not overwrite the value set by the script.. All looks good. I wish I knew this was an option about 1 or 2 years ago!

[sponnath]

EDIT-
ANSWER- To answer my own question, when the plug-in does the poll it will not overwrite the value set by the script.. All looks good. I wish I knew this was an option about 1 or 2 years ago!

I have been chasing this for that long. I have been trying to buy an outdoor temp sensor to attach to my TR40. I even found a statement in the TR40 manual that says it supports an outdoor sensor. It does not! I was told by RCS that there was an anomoly in the programming that allowed some TR40s to work that way.

[cadillackid]

the TR40 used to support on outside temp sensor.. mine surely did and my ZCV-4 surely Does.. my TR-16 supports it... which is no different than a TR-40 at the control end.. wierd.. i thought it was the old TR-36 that did not allow a temp sensor...

back in the days of the OLD RCS plugin, I added the ability to use your own sensor and send it to the thermostat, HST put it in the current one too.. the only time the thermostat will override the value you send is if you attach a physical outdoor temp sensor to the TR-40...
-Christopher

[mhog]

I plan on adding my own sensor to the TR40 WDU using a DS1721. I just got the parts ordered and will post the howto if I get it going. I saw this in another thread but can't seem to find it.

Anyone know how to set the address jumpers on the DS1721?

About the RCS plug-in vs HS Thermostat API, it seems like things are in limbo. The RCS one has bugs with dual setpoints and the HS Thermostat sure doesn't seem to handle all the features of the RCS one.

Does anyone have a current RCS api document? for example I don't see the cmdOutSideTemp documented anywhere.

[johnnyt]

API doc?

So is there an API doc for this plug-in?

Not sure if people can get the code given above to work but it wouldn't work for me. What worked for me is the syntax I used with the old plug-in, which is:

set RCS = hs.Plugin("RCS Serial Thermostats")
call RCS.cmdSetOutsideTemp(1, otemp)

Don't know what I'm doing differently but everything else would give me an error, like "end of statament expected" or "cannot use parentheses when calling a sub"