Get ready to make the switch!

SOME Companies. DevOps/Agile means “perform great work in small portions on fully qualified, fleshed out features with detailed requirements and confirm your work with good automated testing” - “not run fast with scissors.” :stuck_out_tongue:

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Ah. I see you’ve been in a software development organization in a large company.

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I am trying to get my head around the thermostat options of the new app. I’ve used the generic-radiator-thermostat vid for my iTRV. I am able to control temperature, but I am unable to utilize the thermostat modes, off, auto and heat.
What are really these modes? What they supposed to do on a TRV or any thermostat. And mostly, how can I see that the thermostat is heating? I cannot see it neither on the tile of the device neither on the device’s page. Maybe that is the mode for but it is not really clear.
Can someone shed some light on this?

While I have UPS setup to keep my internal network up in the event of a power outage unfortunately it seems like my ISP (Spectrum) doesn’t actually stay up during power outages… which bothers me every time the power goes out.

Backup power for spectrum must be area specific. I haven’t noticed them down when we have had power outages.

Now they do like to do maintenance here around 12:30am - 1:00am which sucks when your getting to the end of a show your streaming before bed.

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That’s why I like the Smartthings buttons - as long as the ST hub is powered, the buttons work.
I put in a totally separate electric system with a power inlet for the generator, circuit breaker box, transfer switch for the furnace and three outlets that allow me plug in the refigerator, UPS, etc during a power outage. Spectrum usually stays up but I don’t have cable TV - have a nice antenna and amplifier with RG6 outlets in several rooms.

These modes are typical of thermosts Made for the US market. Whether those thermostats or smart or dumb. They have one mode for “heat” which controls a furnace, one mode for “cool” which typically controls air conditioning, and then they may have a mode for “off” which means the thermostat will not activate any of the other devices.

Some smart thermostats, like ecobee, also have an “auto“ mode which means the thermostat will figure out for itself whether it’s supposed to be turning on the furnace or the air conditioner based on the ambient heat. This allows you to have two setpoints on the device, one for the furnace and one for the air conditioner.

https://support.ecobee.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000279168-How-do-I-enable-Auto-Heat-Cool-on-my-ecobee-thermostat-

And some thermostats add an additional mode called “eco“ or “green“ or “power saver” which is supposed to be power saving. Nest has this.

These modes are meaningless for a TRV thermostat which only heats. It looks like whoever designed that DTH didn’t understand how TRVs work and just copied the modes from a standard thermostat.

I agree. I have run sw development at Apple, BMC, Dell etc… There is no excuse for delivering such buggy apps to the user base.
They are under investing in the Dev and QA.

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Plenty of opportunities for you all to help fix this

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Wow they have a lot of openings, but what I’d like to see is for ST to open up their beta program to us. I haven’t seen a mobile app beta in a very long time, and while working for them would be an interesting and busy job, bringing in more beta testers from areas like this community can provide a diversity of environments, devices, and platforms they can’t replicate elsewhere.

If I were a beta tester (kind of already feel that way), I knew what I’d be getting into vs. dealing with it in a production release. Feedback would be direct, prioritized, and potentially major issues could be avoided when discovered early with a broader base to test with.

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I’d like to see them work with the National Federation of the Blind on mobile app accessibility like pretty much every other major company does. Just sayin’… :wink:

https://www.nfb.org/programs-services/center-excellence-nonvisual-access

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Does anyone know if this got into the “Feature” fix list?

Thanks @JDRoberts. What I really couldn’t understand is the heat vs auto. If we would talk about a TRV operating state, then it is ok, but the vid adds a selectable option for operating mode of heat, off and auto.

When I mean state, the device can declare what it does, ie. off - valve closed, no heating anymore, heat - valve fully or almost fully open (call for heat), and heating is actively on, auto - valve is only partially open and tries to keep current temperature with this opening.

But what are those operating modes, off is clear - the valve is closed and will stay closed with any temperature setpoint and temperature. But what is heat and auto stands for? Heat will open the valve and keep it open disregarding any setpoint and temperature? And Auto is the normal operation where the relation of setpoint and temperature is adhered? What behaviour is expected from a TRV with those modes? (And why no emergency heat mode?)

I need to dig a bit more to the stock DHs. Maybe I will find the clue there.

It is far more easier with a HVAC thermostat and heat, cool, auto and off modes. No complaints there. :laughing:

As far as I can tell, the use of “mode“ for a TRV has not been standardized in the industry. Different manufacturers use them very differently.

TADO does not appear to use mode at all with regard to their radiator controls.

NETATMO has a bunch of different modes which all have to do with how and if you can override the setpoint that you already created. So they have an “eco“ Mode which enforces whatever you set in the app as your max set point vs a “comfort” mode which let you set a schedule which can go higher.

https://helpcenter.netatmo.com/en-us/smart-radiator-valve/heating-regulation/the-radiators-in-one-of-my-rooms-are-not-giving-off-enough-heat-even-though-the-room-is-not-at-the-desired-temperature-what-should-i-do

Aeotec has 3 modes. “Off” which means changing the Smart valve thermostat will not change the TRV itself. “Heating” is pretty much the opposite of “off” and just lets the add-on control the TRV again. And “boost” which is like the netatmo “comfort” in that it lets you set the heat higher than the setpoint which is predetermined in the app.

Danfoss has a vacation mode and a sleep mode.

Hive doesn’t call theirs “modes” but they do have a “heat on demand“ which is like the boost/comfort in that it lets you turn the heat up higher than it is scheduled for.

It looks to me like most of the manufacturers are assuming that their customers will set a regular schedule based on time of day. But then some of them offer various options to let you override that schedule, and those are sometimes, but not always, called modes.

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I have been getting “ready to make the switch” for months now. What gives? Still waiting for the elusive banner in Classic. I was hanging on Classic because I had custom app for Intermatic CA3750 to use multi-channel but I replaced that with 4 individual switches. I would be ready to just go new but do I have to wait now? Is there a way to just migrate pro-actively?

If you don’t need help from them migrating over, I don’t see why you couldn’t go over yourself. I’m not sure what they’ve got planned for people with complicated routines and stuff, but personally I only use the newApp. I created all my automations over there, put in all my devices, shut down the classicApp home monitor, set up the newApp home monitor, deleted classicApp, and never looked back. YMMV of course - my set ups were fairly simple.

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As @dare2smile Said, you can just start using the new V3 app if you want, but you will have to re-create all of your routines as new automations yourself. They aren’t making the migration tool available for self operation.

Did you mean routines, @JDRoberts

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Samsung S9, Android 10 (all updates current).

Its not a thermostat I was editing as I dont have any. I was doing “if temp is X” on a Smarthings motion/temp sensor to test the keyboard entry.

Smartthings V1.7.44-21

Thanks! The original discussion was about thermostats and being able to set .5 as setpoint.