Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

I too am adding my question/issue to this list.

Have 6 thermostats in a house and most communications are working fine. Every once in a while a cool or heat set point will show up in indigo as 1 degree. Somewhat similar to the above posts. See screenshot. Also the actual temps displayed are not accurate. For example the temp on thermostat will be 67 and Indigo will display 70. Very strange. These are all 1 day programmable integrated thermos running FW 93.

Other then resetting them is there any thing else I can try. I have already reset them a couple of times but would gladly try again. I turned polling off per instructions on this forum as I was told the new thermos broadcast changes in temp as they happen.

Thanks in advance.

Update on thermostat issues. I have factory reset and relinked all 7 thermostats. I am continuing to see the thermostats not broadcast status to Indigo. Example: Temp on thermostat changes from 70 degrees to 71 degrees. Wait the 2+ minutes documented and no change appears in indigo. Still reads 70 degrees. Now the thermostat owners manual states:

NOTES: Thermostat will only report readings to the last device it was Linked to, using the instructions below. For example, to change the controller or interface to which you'd like readings to be reported, simply follow the 'enable' instructions, with the new controller or interface as the Responder. While Thermostat will report to any automation controller or interface you Link, check with the manufacturer’s documentation to confirm support of this feature.

Is there another linking procedure I have to perform in indigo besides the initial linking to make this work. Should I reinstate polling times? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Merry Christmas!

[matt (support)]

Regarding the thermostats that are not broadcasting out changes -- do they ever broadcast changes?

Indigo, when you do the Define and Sync procedure, automatically writes the appropriate links into the adapter to make them broadcast back to the PowerLinc. Try performing a factory reset with one that doesn't work, then do the Define and Sync procedure from the Device dialog in Indigo and copy/paste the contents of the Event Log so I can see what is written into the device.

Here is the log from when I factory reset "Lachlan" thermostat this morning and then relinked it.

Thanks again.

Merry Christmas!

[matt (support)]

That looks good.

Does it ever broadcast out changes ?

Not that I can see in the logs no. I have written a script to refresh status on all therms every 30 minutes between 5am and 12midnight. The values are now right but the cool and heat set points get reported incorrectly couple of times a day on any number of the therms. Thinking of contacting smart home (where I bought them) to see what they suggest or will replace with the older ones that are not integrated. From what I can tell others have had issues with the integrated ones as well. Have you guys heard of these issues? Thanks

And apologies for the delayed reply....holiday madness. Happy New Year!

I have 2 t1700's working and I am looking for a way to trigger them to go into program mode when a variable changes. I have setup an "Occupied" variable that i am manually switching now, that triggers an applescript to turn the thermostat to program mode. Is there a better way to do this? Actually i haven't found a way other that applescript to trigger program mode from Indigo.

[jay (support)]

Scripting is currently the only way - either Python or AppleScript.

That is what i figured. Thanks

[jay (support)]

Apparently my brain isn't really functioning today. You can do it in the Action UI: Type: Control Thermostat, Action: Set Mode, Mode: Run Auto/Heat Program.

A friend wanted to use his KPL to control the thermostat heat setpoint. He created a simple trigger to raise of lower the set point by 1 degree on each key press (One key was "up" another was "down"). This more-or-less worked unless someone pressed the buttons too quickly in succession, in which case the thermostat failed to make the change. I came up with the following scheme for him, and thought others might benefit from it. The basic idea is to wait until the user is done raising or lowering the set point (I.e. stops pressing a KPL button) and then set the set point.

A) Create 2 variables: theSetPoint and tempChangeLock. Set the value of theSetPoint to the current set point and set tempChangeLock to false

B) Create two triggers. One increments theSetPoint when the up key is pressed, the other decrements theSetPoint when the down key is pressed.

C) Create a third trigger. This trigger looks for any change in theSetPoint and has the condition that tempChangeLock must be false. The trigger action is an external script. This condition check is to keep from having multiple instances of the script running at the same time. The script also checks tempChangeLock just to be safe.

For Indigo 5 and later, here is the script in Python:

Code: Select all

delayTime = 15
tempOld = int(indigo.variables['theSetPoint'].value)

if indigo.variables['tempChangeLock'].value == 'false':
   indigo.variable.updateValue('tempChangeLock', "true")
   loopAgain = True
   
   while loopAgain:
      indigo.activePlugin.sleep(delayTime)
      tempNew = int(indigo.variables['theSetPoint'].value)
   
      if tempNew == tempOld:
         loopAgain = False
   
      tempOld = tempNew
      
   indigo.thermostat.setHeatSetpoint(123, value=tempNew)
   indigo.variable.updateValue('tempChangeLock', "false")   

This could probably be done a bit better, but I am still familiarizing myself with Python scripting for Indigo. In particular, It would be nice to read the Indigo variable as a boolean.

For Indigo 4.x and earlier, here is the same logic in an AppleScript:

Code: Select all

set the value of delayTime to 15

tell application "IndigoServer"
   set tempOld to the value of variable "theSetPoint" as number
   set tempChangeLock to the value of variable "tempChangeLock" as boolean
   
   if not tempChangeLock then
      set the value of variable "tempChangeLock" to true
      set loopAgain to true
      
      repeat while loopAgain
         delay delayTime
         set tempNew to the value of variable "theSetPoint" as number
         
         if tempNew is equal to tempOld then set loopAgain to false
         
         set tempOld to tempNew
         
      end repeat
      
   end if
   
   set heat setpoint of device "Thermostat" to tempNew
   set the value of variable "tempChangeLock" to false
   
end tell

Both scripts should probably have some logging, especially at the end.

Comments?

EDITED to fix variable name errors noted by Jay

[jay (support)]

Your Python script is kinda broken - wrong Indigo variable name (fooBar) and a python variable that never seems to get set (countOld) but I think I get what you're trying to do.

Some comments:

1. getting an Indigo variable can throw (if the name/id doesn't exist) so you should catch that
2. using a name as the index into indigo.variables is a Bad Idea™ - you should use the ID which can't be changed by the user
3. casting (using int(), etc.) can throw if the value can't be converted so you should catch that

Interesting that you should mention converting an Indigo variable to a boolean (and that your example converts to ints). For 5.0.3 we're tightening up how true and false are determined when it comes to Indigo variables. We've also decided that it would be really nice to ask the server to return a variable value in one of several Python native types (str (default), bool, int, etc.) - so the logic that the Indigo server uses to convert values to other types is available to scripters as well. So, we're going to add a method to variables that will allow you to specify the type you'd like the value returned as and a default value if the value can't be successfully converted.

Watch for the 5.0.3 release notes (when we ship it) for details.

...

1. getting an Indigo variable can throw (if the name/id doesn't exist) so you should catch that
2. using a name as the index into indigo.variables is a Bad Idea™ - you should use the ID which can't be changed by the user
3. casting (using int(), etc.) can throw if the value can't be converted so you should catch that

My error on the first item. After testing, I decided to change the variable names to make them more representative of their use. I didn't retest.

I had left out the error trapping to make the script easier to read, and in any case Pythom will throw the error into the Indigo log. But, I agree:
Script Error Change setpoint encountered an error reading the setpoint from the Indigo variable: theSetPoint
is a lot easier to understand than:
Script Error Error in plugin execution executeFile:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "plugin.py", line 175, in executeFile
File "plugin.py", line 143, in _compileExecuteSource
File "<string>", line 18, in _dynamicFunc
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/site.py", line 253, in __call__
<type 'exceptions.SystemExit'>: None

Finally, using names in place of ID numbers. I think the benefit of using names is that the example is a bit clearer and easier to implement for those users who find this kind of stuff confusing. But, it is subject to the problems noted. OTOH, we survived those problems for 4 versions of Indigo when using AppleScript. Also, if someone accidentally deletes a variable and then re-creates it with the old name, the ID reference will not work, but the name reference would.

In any case, here is the script updated (and tested ) to reflect Jay's comments in a way that should still leave this easy to understand:

Code: Select all

# Set theSetPoint to the Indigo variable number containing the current setpoint
theSetPoint = 123
# Set tempChangeLock to the Indigo variable number containing the change lock
tempChangeLock = 456
# Set thermostat to the Indigo device number of your Venstar thermostat
thermostat = 789
# set delayTime to the timeout for waiting for another keypress (input change)
delayTime = 15

errorMsg = "Change setpoint encountered an error reading the setpoint from the Indigo variable: " + indigo.variables[theSetPoint].name
try:
   tempOld = int(indigo.variables[theSetPoint].value)
except:
   indigo.server.log(errorMsg, isError=True)
   return(False)
   
if indigo.variables[tempChangeLock].value == 'false':
   indigo.variable.updateValue(tempChangeLock, "true")
   loopAgain = True
   
   while loopAgain:
      indigo.activePlugin.sleep(delayTime)
      
      try:
         tempNew = int(indigo.variables[theSetPoint].value)
      except:
         indigo.server.log(errorMsg, isError=True)
         return(False)
         
      if tempNew == tempOld:
         loopAgain = False
   
      tempOld = tempNew
      
   indigo.thermostat.setHeatSetpoint(thermostat, value=tempNew)
   indigo.variable.updateValue(tempChangeLock, "false")

[jay (support)]

Yep - that's a good way to make it easier to read for more complex examples - set the ID to a python variable then use the variable. Readable and safe.

One more little optimization: you use the name and value of the "theSetPoint" variable right off the bat - rather than call indigo.variables[theSetPoint] twice (two round-trips) you could just call it once and use the name and value:

Code: Select all

setPointVar = indigo.variables[theSetPoint]
setPointVar.name
setPointVar.value
setPointVar.refreshFromServer()

And, later when you need to get the latest value just call refreshFromServer() on the variable and it'll update whatever has changed in the interim. That would also alleviate the problem of using the ID - setPointVar would be used everywhere else rather than the more cumbersome indigo.variables[theSetPoint].

...One more little optimization: you use the name and value of the "theSetPoint" variable right off the bat...

Thanks for the pointer. Now, if I can also do:
theLockVar = indigo.devices[theChangeLock]
theLockVal = theLockVar.value

If I could only do...
theLockVar.update(False) instead of indigo.variable.updateValue(tempChangeLock, "false")

For those that are interested in this, here is the script with the latest changes suggested by Jay:

Code: Select all

# Set theSetPoint to the Indigo variable number containing the current setpoint
theSetPoint = 123
# Set tempChangeLock to the Indigo variable number containing the change lock
tempChangeLock = 456
# Set thermostat to the Indigo device number of your Venstar thermostat
thermostat = 789
# set delayTime to the timeout for waiting for another keypress (input change)
delayTime = 15

setPointVar = indigo.variables[theSetPoint]
setPointVarName = setPointVar.name

errorMsg = "Change setpoint encountered an error reading the setpoint from the Indigo variable: " + setPointVarName
try:
   tempOld = int(setPointVar.value)
except:
   indigo.server.log(errorMsg, isError=True)
   return(False)
   
if indigo.variables[tempChangeLock].value == 'false':
   indigo.variable.updateValue(tempChangeLock, "true")
   loopAgain = True
   
   while loopAgain:
      indigo.activePlugin.sleep(delayTime)
      setPointVar.refreshFromServer()
      try:
         tempNew = int(setPointVar.value)
      except:
         indigo.server.log(errorMsg, isError=True)
         return(False)
         
      if tempNew == tempOld:
         loopAgain = False
   
      tempOld = tempNew
      
   indigo.thermostat.setHeatSetpoint(thermostat, value=tempNew)
   indigo.variable.updateValue(tempChangeLock, "false")