EUROtronic Stella-Z

Indigo 6.0.5 is now available and includes better suppressing of those log messages.

I have installed 6.05 and my log is a lot less cluttered

Thanks for this update and also the API change for "Status column image is now selected based on the raw state value, not any passed in UI value." which I have now implemented in my Plugin

Right at the beginning of this thread, I asked:

... I would like to know when the command is actually sent and acknowledged). This is because I would like to activate my Secure SSR303 (Boiler relay) as soon as the Stella-z starts calling for heat but not before.

At the moment, if I alter the Stella-Z's Heat Setpoint, the trigger I have that checks for a change in the Stella-Z's Heat Setpoint gets fired straight away even though the Stella-Z may not receive and action it for a number of minutes (depending on wake-up time configured).

So I am revisiting this question (not answered AFAIK) as I would really like to pick up the message in my Plugin:

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Z-Wave                          sent "Radiator 01 Thermostat" increase heat setpoint to 22.0°

Is there a mechanism by which this can be done

I had thought about interrogating the log but it doesn't seem the best way to do it and I am not sure how well this would work. Having a method "fired" in my Plugin when the setpoint change is confirmed as sent to the Stella-z would seem the best way.

[matt (support)]

Unfortunately, there isn't currently a good solution for this. As you have noticed the Device State Changed triggers will fire when the setpoint change is queued, not when it is sent/ack'd. Indigo has to change the device state immediately or the increase/decrease setpoint actions (which are use, for example, by the Indigo Touch UI when you click the up/down arrows) will fail to function correctly. Fixing that is non-trivial, but I'll put this on my feature request list and see if I can come up with a reasonable solution. No ETA yet though.

Anyone having issues with the temperature reported by the Stella-Z ? The one in our master bedroom is reporting 28 degrees C, however the RFXCOM Sensor is reporting 18 C and Netatmo in same room is 18.9C . A 10 degree variation is quite substantial. Any others having these issues, have noticed similar with the sitting room one, about 5 degrees out.

Anyone having issues with the temperature reported by the Stella-Z ? The one in our master bedroom is reporting 28 degrees C, however the RFXCOM Sensor is reporting 18 C and Netatmo in same room is 18.9C . A 10 degree variation is quite substantial. Any others having these issues, have noticed similar with the sitting room one, about 5 degrees out.

Is this when it is off or on? I find mine are accurate (more or less) when the heating is off but that they give high readings once the radiator has heated up and output some heat. In my case I think the heat emitted from the pipe leading into the radiator is affecting the Stella-Zs temperature measurement (it could also be heat conduction from the radiator) - this explains why it is more accurate when the heating is off.

I am using remote thermostats (Secure SRT321) in some rooms where I don't want the heating to go off early because the Stella-Z is over-reading.

This is possibly a more general Z-Wave question but as it occurred with a Stella-Z, I thought I would post it in this sub-forum

I have my Stella-Zs to exclude 'thermostat mode' and 'setpoint' during poll and only request the 'temperature sensor' value.

This is a filtered log extract:

2013-12-09 21:45:25 Autolog Plugin 'Thermostat-07' PM [21:45-22:30] heating schedule now active
2013-12-09 21:45:25 Autolog Plugin 'Thermostat-10' PM [21:45-22:30] heating schedule now active
2013-12-09 21:45:25 Z-Wave queued "Stella-Z07" change heat setpoint to 21.0° for next awake notification
2013-12-09 21:45:25 Z-Wave queued "Remote-10" change heat setpoint to 19.0° for next awake notification
2013-12-09 21:45:33 Z-Wave Error send "Stella-Z10" change heat setpoint failed
2013-12-09 21:45:58 Z-Wave sent "Remote-10" change heat setpoint to 19.0°
2013-12-09 21:46:16 Autolog Plugin Error At least one wakeup now missed for 'Thermostat-10' [Stella-Z]. Wakeup interval is set to 5 minutes; last Z-Wave command processed 6 minutes ago.
2013-12-09 21:49:06 Z-Wave sent "Stella-Z07" change heat setpoint to 21.0°
2013-12-09 21:49:09 Z-Wave sent "Boiler_Actuator" mode change to heat
2013-12-09 21:49:52 Z-Wave received "Boiler_Actuator" mode is heat
2013-12-09 21:50:21 Autolog Plugin 'Thermostat-10' [Stella-Z] has woken up but at least one wakeup was missed.
2013-12-09 21:55:22 Autolog Plugin 'Thermostat-10' updated from Stella-Z [Stella-Z10] with changed temperature 17.5 (was 18.0)

The line in red identified a Z-Wave error where the setpoint wasn't set by Indigo. My Plugin picked up the fact that a Z-Wave event had been missed when the next Z-Wave temperature was read OK (green line).

I would have expected Indigo to resend the heat setpoint command as its last effort failed. It didn't and my Plugin continued to think that the heating was on for that radiator and it wasn't.

Is this something Indigo should do? I notice that the original setpoint request for 'Stella-Z10' apparently wasn't queued and I am wondering if there is some sort of timing issue in that the Stella-Z had woken up just as the setpoint request was issued?

[matt (support)]

The Z-Stick retries commands multiple times if they fail (using multiple routes most of the time). We might consider adding an addition Indigo level retry mechanism at some point, but in-general I prefer to let the Z-Wave stack layer handle retries. If the module really is unreachable / offline / broken, then adding an additional application level retry will slow down the entire network. At some point it is best, for the entire network's health, to assume a command failed.

I'm not sure why the original setpoint change wasn't queued. I think you are correct in that Indigo thought the module was awake at that time, but I'm not positive without having a debug log to examine.

The Z-Stick retries commands multiple times if they fail (using multiple routes most of the time). We might consider adding an addition Indigo level retry mechanism at some point, but in-general I prefer to let the Z-Wave stack layer handle retries. If the module really is unreachable / offline / broken, then adding an additional application level retry will slow down the entire network. At some point it is best, for the entire network's health, to assume a command failed.

I'm not sure why the original setpoint change wasn't queued. I think you are correct in that Indigo thought the module was awake at that time, but I'm not positive without having a debug log to examine.

I guess what I meant was for Indigo to retry the setpoint alteration when the device next woke-up which in this case would be 5 minutes later.

However, I think I have managed to work out a work-around for this situation. My plugin is aware when a Stella-Z is in a 'Heat Pending' state (i.e. it has issued a set heat setpoint request and is still waiting for a z-wave command to be received for the Stella-Z). When it detects that a z-wave command (wakeup) is overdue the plugin will check the heating state and if it is still 'Heat Pending' it will issue the set setpoint command again. I assume that if the plugin does this that Indigo will queue the command for the next wake-up.

This hasn't happened before (or I haven't noticed it), so it will be interesting to see if my revised plugin logic picks up more instances.

In the months you have been using the Stella-Zs how have you found battery usage with 5min wake ups ?
Also did you try rechargables ?

Thank you
Ian

In the months you have been using the Stella-Zs how have you found battery usage with 5min wake ups ? Also did you try rechargables ?

It is a bit too early to form a view on battery usage. I have had to replace one set of batteries on one of my Stella-Zs but that is on a 15 minute wake-up. At the moment I can't explain why the usage was higher on this one.

One of the issues I have with the Stella-Z is that the battery reading is a bit inconsistent. Putting in brand new batteries (reading 1.6 volts) typically only shows a percentage in the 70-80 range (not 100 which I would expect).

I haven't tried rechargeable batteries yet - I am not sure with their reduced voltage if they would work?

I'm seeing the following logged when trying to set a temperature via the up/down arrows in the device settings :-

Z-Wave sent "Office Radiator" mode change to heat
Z-Wave Error send "Office Radiator" increase cool setpoint failed -- unknown temperature units
Z-Wave Debug . . . . . . . : skipping battery check (next check in 357 mins)

What does the 'unknown temperature units' error indicate ?. I couldn't find anywhere in the Indigo app to select C/F, it's a UK unit so should be using C.

Also, I got two of the Stella-Z units to play with along with a Z-Stick2, one of the units was added to the network easily, the other refuses to add when I do the inclusion. The Z-Stick2 will flash a few times when I press the button on the Stella-Z but does not stay on for the 3 seconds. If I do exclusion it flashes and stays on for the 3 seconds ok. Is there any way to do a factory reset on the Stella-Z ?.

Thanks

I also have the "unknown temperature units", i've turned on the temperature polling for the next wakeup in the hope indigo might pickup the units.

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  Z-Wave                          device "010 - Master Bedroom" wake interval changed to 30 minutes
  Z-Wave                          sent "Master Bedroom" mode change to heat
  Z-Wave Error                    send "Master Bedroom" increase heat setpoint failed -- unknown temperature units
  Z-Wave                          received "010 - Master Bedroom" status update battery level 98%

I also have the "unknown temperature units", i've turned on the temperature polling for the next wakeup in the hope indigo might pickup the units.

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  Z-Wave                          device "010 - Master Bedroom" wake interval changed to 30 minutes
  Z-Wave                          sent "Master Bedroom" mode change to heat
  Z-Wave Error                    send "Master Bedroom" increase heat setpoint failed -- unknown temperature units
  Z-Wave                          received "010 - Master Bedroom" status update battery level 98%

If you do a quick press on the green button on the front of the Stella-Z it wakes it up immediately - so you wouldn't have to wait to get your answer

[matt (support)]

Yeah, Indigo doesn't know what units to use until it gets the first temperature broadcast. Once it does the setpoint change commands should start to work.

[jay (support)]

@TommyGonk - have you tried to manually wake up the Stella-Z as @autolog suggests? Maybe it'll push the temp and units to Indigo then. I don't know how to reset the Stella-Z - it doesn't mention it in the documentation that comes with it?

Note - the wake up interval for it can be set. I wonder if it's just set really high so it hasn't woken up to report yet.