Handling indigo.hvacMode

[Perry The Cynic]

When implementing "standard" thermostat devices, one state is the "mode" of the thermostat. The choices are off, heat, cool, heat/cool, program heat, program cool, and program heat/cool.

What exactly is the distinction between "X" and "program X"? The docs seem to say that "program heat" means the system is following some program. This suggests (to me at least) that the heat setpoint is set by some program (and can change as the program transitions to another period). So if Indigo commands a change in set points, should the mode change to "heat" (out of "program heat")? After all, we're not following the program anymore. (And if the override times out, as it tends to do on my device, do we implicitly switch back to "program heat" and set the heat setpoint back to the program setting?)

I'm basically unclear why the heat/cold balance, on/off mode, and program/override(?) settings all got bunched together into a single enumeration, and how it should behave when parts of that space change.

(And yes, then I've got the whole-system/per-zone distinction superimposed on that. Messy.)

Cheers
-- perry

[matt (support)]

The Venstar (which the native thermostat type was molded on since it was the first t'stat supported) supports running local setpoint schedule programs on the thermostat itself.

Indigo doesn't try to do anything special/smart about the modes -- it just shows the modes as reported by the thermostat. I don't suspect many users are using the 'program' mode on the Venstars since they Indigo and can use it as the scheduling engine. In fact, although we show the program modes as possible states and there are actions to set the thermostat to the program modes, the main window UI and Indigo Touch UI don't offer those options.

[Perry The Cynic]

Indigo doesn't try to do anything special/smart about the modes -- it just shows the modes as reported by the thermostat. I don't suspect many users are using the 'program' mode on the Venstars since they Indigo and can use it as the scheduling engine. In fact, although we show the program modes as possible states and there are actions to set the thermostat to the program modes, the main window UI and Indigo Touch UI don't offer those options.

Well, Infinity systems are the anti-Venstar, then. They're meant to run in program mode. You can change the set points for each zone, but those are temporary overrides that revert to program after a timeout. And (I think) those systems are more energy-efficient in program mode.

So I think what I actually want is a way to declare either the set point section and/or the mode section read-only, so that the up/down buttons and mode-changing buttons disappear.

Oh, and can we please have a way to display custom state values along with the standard state UI for things like thermostats, sensors, and relays? My devices tend to have lots of extra state that is effectively invisible for standard device types...

Cheers
-- perry