Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

Posted on
Wed Oct 03, 2012 6:56 am
matt (support) offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

Is that a beta version of the 2441TH? Did you purchase it from Smarthome?

I'm not positive, but that firmware version (91) seems too low. And it is also reporting itself as i2 firmware, but I thought that all of those thermostats were using the new i2CS firmware. Note we encountered this same problem with early betas of the 2441TH, but the problem was fixed before it shipped.

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Posted on
Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:21 pm
duanel offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

Thanks Matt,

I was worried about getting an older device after reading some of the comments on the board. I did, indeed, order this from Smart Home. Is the recommended action to contact Smart Home and see if they will exchange it? How can I be sure to get a thermostat with a newer firmware? (I bought this one about 30 days ago...)

Here is a screenshot of the error from Indigo that includes confirmation of the firmware version... and it is using the i2CS engine:

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Posted on
Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:31 am
matt (support) offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

The one you have appears to have beta firmware on it. It looks like they forgot to reflash it at Smarthome or they reflashed it with the old firmware. We got our shipping versions of those thermostats quite a while back (more than 30 days ago) and they have newer firmware that fixes the problem you are seeing. If you bought it from Smarthome, then I'm sure they will exchange it.

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Posted on
Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:56 am
jthart offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

Since it has been a while, here is my original post for context:
berkinet wrote:
jthart wrote:
...This means that the only way for me to currently have heat when it is colder than the heat pump can handle is to use the original thermostat and manually move it to the aux heat setting. I do not see a way in Indigo to make this switch, though. Is there any kind of workaround that you guys are aware of, or am I stuck with the old thermostat until I pay $500 or so for the installation of that control board?

Basically, I can set a variable to pull the outside temperature, and if I can find a way to tell the thermostat to manually change to aux heat when that variable drops below a certain temperature I would be set, and I could forego having to add equipment. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You can probably do what you want, but, it will involve some additional hardware, As Jay has noted, the Venstar Thermostat cannot do what you want on it's own.

You might be able to use a relay to switch the input wires to the Venstar between your heat pump and the Fuel burner, or simply place a relay in an appropriate wire between your thermostats and their respectively controlled systems and turn off one or the other system as necessary.

In both cases the relay(s) would be controlled by Indigo based on the outside temperature. To control the relays you could use an I/O-Linc or EZIO* interface, or there are a number of boards that can control an output: EasyDAQ, Weeder and Phidgets all come to mind).

It's hard to be specific not knowing more about your system. But, with a little creativity, and some knowledge of how things are wired, you should be able to achieve your goals, and probably a lot less than $500.

After contacting Venstar I found out that there is actually a much simpler solution. Venstar makes a remote sensor that you wire into the T1900 and place outside, so that it knows what the temperature is and can control the changeover from using the heat pump to using whatever secondary heat source is set up on the thermostat (via jumpers, wiring, and programming).

The sensor can be found online for around $30, and in my case I just had to change a jumper on the thermostat to place it into a dual-fuel operating setup (then program the cutover temperature to be 45 degrees). It was relatively painless.

It would be nice if the remote sensor temperature could be pulled and displayed in Indigo, but it isn't a necessity. I realized I never updated the information here with the fix, though, and thought it might be beneficial for someone who encountered the same problem I had. The sensor in question is the Venstar Indoor/Outdoor Remote Temperature Sensor (ACC0400).

Posted on
Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:32 am
duanel offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

Sorry for my delayed follow up: Smarthome replaced my 2441TH under warranty and the replacement unit works perfectly. While speaking with their support team, I heard that an even newer firmware may soon be shipping. The major change is a slight adjustment to the setting "beep"...

Posted on
Fri Nov 09, 2012 1:09 pm
dtich offline
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ventstar T1900 no longer updating modes?

hi all, i've noticed in one of the latest indigo updates, not sure which, i'm on 5.1.6 currently, the thermostat modes have stopped updating..? i have variables triggered based on these commands (button 1, 2, 3 ON, etc, for heat, ac, fan) that no longer indicate the system status. it was working fine for a couple years it seems. at some point it has stopped. i see no errors in the log related to this, and i can't imagine that all of the sudden the ventstar decided to stop sending these commands, so, could an indigo update have changed the behavior of these button commands? any thoughts?


thx

Posted on
Fri Nov 09, 2012 2:55 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

Those broadcasts are a little special - and if you linked the adaptor to a different PowerLinc (perhaps a spare or something) then the broadcasts are going to go to it.

Try resyncing it and see if you start seeing the updates again.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Nov 09, 2012 3:18 pm
dtich offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

i thought i had done that, oops. yes, fixed. thanks jay.

Posted on
Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:44 am
dstrickler offline
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Venstar T1900 temperature reading is a little off

This is not so much of a "how do I fix this?" post, but more of a "huh, will ya look at that..." post.

Summary
In the winter, set the heat set point 2F higher what you want the minimum temperature to be. In the summer, set it 2F lower.

Details
I have confirmed that both Venstar T1900 thermostats in my house are off by about 2F from the wall behind it. I used what I believe to be a fairly accurate IR thermometer (but I don't own two, so I can't be sure), to measure the wall temperature all around the T1900, and then the T1900 itself.

I won't bore you with endless pictures, but the one I have enclosed says it all. The T1900 is 70F, and that's not right. I can even feel the difference with my hand. Measuring all around the T1900, the case temperature varies by about 1.5F, and I would expect that as it's a working circuit board, but I was surprised to see it reading so far off. Now 2F might not seem like a lot, but the difference between 68F and 70F in a room can be easily felt.

I bring this up as most thermostats are built with a wiggle room of 2F on calling for heat/cooling. This means that at one end of the spectrum, the T1900 could read 70F, it actually be 68F in the room, and if the heat set point is 70, that means the temperature in the room will drop to an actual 66F before the heat turns on. No wonder my wife always asks why it's so cold in the house!

If anyone knows anything about HVAC that I'm missing here, please chime in. I'm a software engineer, not a heating engineer, so I am only stating what I see from a layman's standpoint.
Attachments
T1900 reading.jpg
T1900 reading is about 2F from the wall behind it.
T1900 reading.jpg (220.31 KiB) Viewed 20372 times

Dave

Posted on
Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:34 am
matt (support) offline
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Re: Venstar T1900 temperature reading is a little off

Take a look at page 22.3 of the T1900 manual PDF. It shows how you can calibrate/adjust the sensor.

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Posted on
Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:38 am
Korey offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

I found the same thing with my Venstar 2491T7E (T1900). :roll:

Had to bring it down 2º like Matt said..

--
Korey

Posted on
Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:58 am
dstrickler offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

I'll say what Matt was too polite to: "RTFM, Dave" ;-)

Thanks Matt. I pitched the manual after it had been running for a few months. My lesson is to read the entire thing before pitching it!

Dave

Posted on
Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:40 pm
dstrickler offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

As a followup, I did the calibration, and both T1900s seem to be reporting the temperature well. I didn't calibrate the humidity as I don't have an accurate gauge for that, but it's not as important to me if it's off a few percent.

Thanks again for the tip,

Dave

Dave

Posted on
Sat Dec 29, 2012 1:01 am
scriptures4life offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

scriptures4life wrote:
Hi Jay & everyone,

At last the first SD card for the Venstar ColorTouch has been released.
Can you comment on whether this Skyport card will be supported by Indigo, or will you prefer to wait for a pure Insteon card?
I am wondering if this WiFi card will allow us o fire photos directly from our phone to the photo frame- that would be cool! However, the fact that this is yet another proprietary, "cost unknown" subscription service scares me. (Their iOS app lists as "Free+"...)

Let's see what everyone can discover about this new accessory.
If we can find a good solution, this will probably push me over the edge to buy Indigo (Pro) for the first time!

http://www.venstar.com/Thermostats/Colo ... ?t=skyport
https://venstar.skyportcloud.com/
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vensta ... 2012-05-16

Thanks
Danny


jay (support) wrote:
If there's a publicly available API then someone (not us) could build a plugin for it. There are a couple of WiFi thermostat plugins already that might be appropriate starting points.

We already have too much on our plates to commit to anything else really...



Here is the latest response from Venstar about Insteon support for the T5800 Colortouch Thermostat, and for API support for the Skyport WiFi Key.

26 Dec 2012
Hi,
I hope you're enjoying your T5800 thermostat. Here's an update on our engineering schedule:

1. We have (finally) begun work on the Insteon controller for the T5800, but I do not have a finish date at this time.
2. API is something we're planning on doing but I have no information on the project status or a possible completion date.
3. We have no plans to include HRV control into the thermostat.

You are correct, the Skyport Wi-Fi Key will definitely not integrate with your automation software. Sorry about that.

Best Regards,

John Peil
Venstar Inc.


So not much for now, but at least we can integrate with Indigo once the Insteon SD card is ready. I think this is better anyway as they will eventually be charging fees for the Skyport service.

Cheers!
Danny

All house lights and block heater are Insteon switches. Running Indigo Pro.

Posted on
Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:28 pm
pgershon offline
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Re: Official Insteon/Venstar Thermostat How To Thread

My 1.5 year old Venstar thermostat T1900 died and I just replaced with an Insteon thermostat 2441TH. I am having problems with the "energy setting". It seems to randomly pop on and off, which either adds or subtracts 4 degrees from my temperature setting. Not sure why. Very irritating because I set at 69 walk away, and an hour or two later, "energy" setting is on and thermostat set at 65. I see a log reading of Thermostat - Downstairs" heat setpoint changed to 65.0.

Does Indigo detect or can it send a signal to turn "energy" off or on, or change the setting so this mode changes set point by 0 degrees instead of 4 degrees. Per the manual for the 2441TH, there is a way with HouseLinc to change the "energy" button offset. Can Indigo do this?

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