Since you work for Stelpro, I wanted to look something out with you.
I get a lot of notifications from the thermostat, like every minute! It switches from “Thermostat Operating State Is Idle” to “Thermostat Operating State Is Heating”. The setpoint is at 19.5C and the temperature it reads is 19.5C as well… I always have 1 bar on the thermostat. It’s like it trying to keep the temperature at the setpoint by starting and stoping the heating on and on. If I put the setpoint higher (like 20.5), I receive the “Operational state is Heating” and don’t receive any more notifications until it reaches the setpoint. It’s really annoying and it fulls the Activity Feed!
It’s a bit tricky, I had to try 2-3 times before:)
Go in Expert Mode.
After that, at “Select capability for test device”, choose Thermostat.
At “Select thermostat to test for commands”, select one of your Stelpro.
At the bottom, select "New custom command…"
At “Select custom command”, select “setThermostatMode”. For the parameters, select “String” and the value “eco”.
Repeat to add a 2nd custom command for the parameter “String” and value “comfort”.
Back at the previous page, at “Test saved command on Name of your thermostat”, select one of the new custom command you just created. As soon as you select the custom command, it should send it to the thermostat. Stay in front of it and try sending the “eco” command and “comfort” command.
Once you have the custom commands right, you can use them as an action for a rule.
I don’t think there is a feature to reveal the energy consumption. However, I am pleased with how these StelPro units work…I even modified my Alexa Helper app that I now can control the whole house with the command “Alexa, turn on heat”…Read more here: [RELEASE] Alexa Helper
Anybody else has issues with notifications from the Stelpro? I get like 10 messages every minutes, switching operating state heating to idle… My activity feed is full…
Yep…it appears to poll a lot. Not sure the reason for this, but there are multiple devices that do the same thing…specifically GE Zigbee light switches…those devices DO register power readings, which seems to happen every couple minutes. Nothing wrong with it polling so much, but I am curious on the reasoning behind it (I am almost sure there has to be a reason).
If I look at the thermostat, I’ve got 2 bars and I’m .5C below setpoint so it’s heating. But I receive continuously the “Thermostat Operating State is Idle” and “Thermostat Operating State is Heating”… It’s like it’s switching ON and OFF… but on the display, it always displays 2 bars and still heating.
I powered it OFF and ON 2-3 times and it always do the same… 10 messages every minute in the activity feed is killing me!
That may be its functionality…there appears to be an algorithm that slows the temperature increase so that it better controls the room. A normal baseboard heater is on or off, so while it is switching on and off it may be for the best to ensure you get a stable temperature in the room. I wouldn’t concentrate so much on the log entry but how the room feels…I have personally found the thermostat to be quite reliable and better than the on/off variety it replaced.
The entries you see in the activity feed is the true behavior of the thermostat.
This thermostat controls a baseboard heater with 15 seconds cycle to achieve better control and comfort.
So if the power bar is halfway, you could expect the baseboard to be On 7.5 seconds and Off 7.5 seconds.
So it’s not polling, but the thermostat reports its current heating state every time the load state changes.
The thermostat does not report the energy consumption as such, but the On/Off pattern could be extracted and analyzed to reach that goal.
I hope that answers your question.
@Luvien, the zipcode can be entered in the IDE or in the “Edit Device” menu from the device handler.
Thanks for the answer, that makes sense! Is there a way to disable those notifications or maybe an update of some sort you could consider? Imagine my house with 12 thermostat, it would generate a lot of traffic on the zwave network and within the Smartthings app…
Another question regarding switching from comfort to eco via zwave. In the manual, it says to use a basic command 0x00 and 0xFF… I can’t see how to do it with Rule Machine. If you look at a post I made earlier, I was able to do the switching between modes by sending the “setThermostatMode” command with a string value of “eco” or “comfort”. Is it the right way to do it?
Right now, there is no way to disable the notifications, but I will take a note of it.
I do have a question about the notifications issue you have.
I do have 12 thermostats myself and I do not see such notifications on my phone. I can see them in the activity feed, but I’m wondering what is annoying with this?
Do you have setup your SmartThings app to push notifications on your phone for every activity feed entry?
Regarding your other question, there is two ways to change between modes in the STZW402+ thermostat.
You may either use the Z-Wave Basic Set command or use the Z-Wave Thermostat Mode Set command.
By using the “SetThermostatMode” command from the device handler, it sends a Z-Wave Thermostat Mode Set command, so this is a legit way to do it.
I only see the notifications in the “Activity Feed” of the Smartthings app. It’s just that I’ve got other rules/devices putting notifications in the activity feed and I can’t see those because the thermostat is flooding the window!
As for the programmation of the rules to switch the thermostat mode, yes I’m able to select more than 1 thermostat in the rule…
So, if my home mode goes from “Home” to “Away”, it switches all thermostat to “eco”. When I comeback, it does the opposite.
As I said earlier, so far it’s a really nice product!
I made a change in the Device Handler that should be included in the next update (March 3rd if everything goes well).
This update would change two things:
Change in the labels: “Heat Setpoint” becomes “Setpoint” and “Apply” becomes “Go”.
This is a workaround for the ST font issue.
A new setting in the Preferences located in the “Edit Device” menu: Detailed Heating Notification.
If set to “No”, you won’t see the Heating/Idle pattern in the activity feed.
Excellent, that’s great news! It’s nice to see that your company is involve on the scene! It’s rare that we can talk to one of the developer who actually works on the product.
I am happy to announce that Sinopé is currently working on a driver to integrate their Web thermostats to SmartThings and it should be available soon. I will post another comment here as soon as it’s ready or you can consult our API page on our Website.
