Autolog Stella-Z Thermostat Controller Discussion

[autolog]

Please use this thread for any questions, feedback or suggestions on the Autolog 'Stella-Z Thermostat Controller' Plugin

[matt (support)]

Neat -- thanks for sharing this and putting together the detailed documentation and instructions!
(note I moved this to the discussion thread)

[durosity]

Great! Now all i need is 10 or so Stella-Zs. Anyone fancy donating a few?

[MacDefender]

Just for information: I have installed 10 StellaZ in my home and integration worked fine. Had the Danfoss for over a year installed with the Danfoss control unit. From those 10 thermostats just 1 was Z-Wave compatible so I played around with this thermostat too.

I decided to buy the StellaZ instead of 9 Danfoss as I was missing the temperature readout from the Danfoss thermostats. The design and hardware quality of the Danfoss was better but the StellaZ is working as expected. The manual for the StellaZ is really bad but once installed monitoring room temps and changing setpoints with Indigo 6 is perfect.

Any chance that Indigo will support the other modes in the StellaZ too? It's definitely not a priority but if I can help with a test/log dump... just let me know.

[matt (support)]

Any chance that Indigo will support the other modes in the StellaZ too? It's definitely not a priority but if I can help with a test/log dump... just let me know.

It is on our feature request list, although that might be something that gets added at a higher level once we have Z-Wave commands scriptable.

[sgbirch]

Any chance that Indigo will support the other modes in the StellaZ too? It's definitely not a priority but if I can help with a test/log dump... just let me know.

It is on our feature request list, although that might be something that gets added at a higher level once we have Z-Wave commands scriptable.

Any more news on adding all Stella functions?

I'd like to suggest that you always fully support each device, don't pick just the features you think we might use. You could always put the more obscure features in an "advanced" page.

[matt (support)]

No ETA at this point.

For Z-Wave parameters the plan is to offer a generic mechanism by which users can set any parameter they choose (presuming they know the details like parameter number and possible values), while the built-in UI will show the popular/useful options.

But in this case the Stella-Z supports additional thermostat modes, which is more complex than just adding a parameter. But I believe once we have a generic mechanism in place that allows scripts to send arbitrary Z-Wave commands it will be possible to support the modes, at least at some level.

Note the problem isn't just a matter of if we want to support a particular feature of hardware, the issue is Indigo supports hundreds of different hardware modules and it isn't possible that we add native support for every feature available in the near term. We have to implement the most requested modules and features first.

[wiery]

Autolog, loving the plugin, many thanks for that, just wondering if your working on any changes / enhancements....

[autolog]

Autolog, loving the plugin, many thanks for that, just wondering if your working on any changes / enhancements....

Glad you are making use of it

Yes, I have done quite a few changes and enhancements to it. I haven't published it yet as I haven't had time to enhance the documentation. I have changed a lot of internals in the plugin to make it more responsive and significantly altered the way the scheduling works. The current method is a bit cumbersome because the Indigo Object model doesn't yet allow the manipulation of schedules by a Plugin. I have now altered how this works and now define the schedules within the definition of each device.

Is there anything you were particularly looking for?

[wiery]

Well the one thing I'd love is better options for the remote temperature sensor. I have a few RFX Sensors and Netatmo modules that obviously give far better temperature readings than the Stella-Z's themselves. Enhancements to the scheduling will be great, but its really been a great extension to Indigo.

[autolog]

Well the one thing I'd love is better options for the remote temperature sensor. I have a few RFX Sensors and Netatmo modules that obviously give far better temperature readings than the Stella-Z's themselves. Enhancements to the scheduling will be great, but its really been a great extension to Indigo.

I have got Remote Temperature working with the revised plugin using a Secure SRT321. I also have a Netatmo and when I tried that out this morning the Plugin crashed - I know what the problem is and so when I have fixed it I will let you know. Presumably the RFX Sensors just read temperature i.e. you can't specify a setpoint on them?

[wiery]

Yeah that is correct, i have it defined to just report Temperature.

[wiery]

If you want me to do any testing etc , just let me know.

[autolog]

If you want me to do any testing etc , just let me know.

Thanks, I will

It will be another few days+ before I have something that is useable. I have a few other things on the go at the moment that are taking priority. I need to detach z-wave monitoring from the remote stat processing - works OK in my environment because my remote stats are z-wave. As I mentioned, I have a netatmo and so I can work on getting it work with that. I don't have a RFX Sensor and so I will be dependent on your feedback to iron out any bugs with that

[wiery]

Somewhat unrelated issue. I'm having an issue with the control page for showing the state of the TRV's. When I use the Device State as text , and select the plugin TRV rather than the actual TRV, and use Mode ( on or off ), it correctly displays as off when outside the schedule and not boost. However when i use an on/off icon, it constantly shows the +on icon indicating On. Under Devices, the state of the plugin TRV shows as Off so i would expect it to show the off icon.