My new Ecobee Device (disconnection issues are resolved)

thanks, @yvesracine. 40 min later - I have not gotten your e-mail yet. Checked the Spam folder - not there. Will be watching for it. Appreciate your work very much. It was a total game changer for me. With 3 Ecobees in the house, I could not use the ST at all before migrating to your code. I had to reinstall everything about two weeks ago as I started getting errors, but for the past week or so everything seems to be working fine. Still, would love to take advantage of the upgrade to the handler.

Hi @vitaly, youā€™re not a recent contributor (in December) but of course, youā€™ll receive the new code as well like any other contributors.

Regards.

@yvesracine I havenā€™t received your email from yesterday either. The last email I have from you was on Dec 15 when I contributed. Your work on this is much appreciated.

Does the $15 cover the smartapps such as ecobeeChangeMode? I see that they are still available in public domain on github

Hi @sn0wL, those smartapps are still ā€œpublicā€ at my github.

Regards,

@shackrock I spent a few days this week trying to do just what you are thinking; using Ecobee 3 temp and occupancy sensors for control over smart vents.
My conclusion, due to the 15-30 minute lag time in (unreliable) communications between the E3 and ST, is that this is unfortunately impractical. At best, you would be using old information and would see temperature swings as a result. I did find one use case where the E3 sensor was adequate for the job - a storage room where I donā€™t much care about the actual temp, as long as the smart vent caps the temp at 50F. In another room, Iā€™m using an ST motion/temp sensor.
At this time Iā€™d suggest that most smart vent uses should be driven directly by ST apps and devices, based on time or from temperature from devices supported directly by ST.
Keen plans to ā€œsupportā€ the E3, although itā€™s not clear how, since one is Zigbee and the other Z-Wave, and itā€™s cloud-to-cloud communication. Personally, Iā€™ll wait to see if the Keen Smart Vent Android app offers any advantage, but for now, I see little point in Ecobee integration with ST, as the E3 itself is a very powerful home HVAC device, and connects only very slowly to ST.

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Honestly, the only thing I truly need ST integration for is comfort profile changes. You canā€™t change the profile and hold indefinitely with IFTTT. You can only hold for a certain amount of hours or until the next transition. This means that if Iā€™m away when my sleep schedule comes along, itā€™s going to switch from away to sleep and then to home in the morning. Ideally, Iā€™d like to be able to control each of these by my smartthings mode. Itā€™s so ridiculous that neither ecobee, ifttt, or smartthings has this worked out.

You can set an infinite hold with a specified temperature. Then you could have it set to resume when you return using IFTTT. As for the trigger, that is a bit trickier. I use mobile presence to change a virtual switch. Then I use the switch to trigger either away or home.

Yea I specifically want to do this with comfort profiles because they handle my sensors differently.

Canā€™t you set the profile to the maximum number of hours allowed? Then use triggers for each of the profiles like mobile presence (Home), mobile absence (Away), mobile presence and time of day (Sleep). Itā€™s convoluted, but it should work. My schedule has only profiles (home and sleep). When we are away, it changes a virtual switch that I use IFTTT to trigger the Away profile until the next transition. When we are home the switch changes and triggers resume. Since I am home nearly every night, it works well for me.

I thought there was an app built by @yvesracine that changed modes based on ST mode (home, away). Based on that, shouldnt that change the mode of the E3 when you leave the house, to away, and when you return home (as ST sees it), E3 will switch back to its normally scheduled program?

Thats one thing I dont like about the E3. it takes 2 hours to kick to ā€œawayā€. It should be a programmable feature. From what I understand, even if you create a comfort setting and have that enabled, the E3 WONT kick into away mode. I may have been reading an old thread on the E3 forums though.

You have the option to set it to ā€œuntil I change itā€. Wouldnt that suffice?

Thatā€™s not a permanent solution. When Iā€™m away I donā€™t want it switching back to home or sleep after any amount of time. This is why I either need SmartThings integration or a new ifttt action which ecobee seems reluctant to do.

Yea thatā€™s why I said I need ST integration.

You canā€™t automate that. I would have to physically go to the thermostat or the thermostat app and set that every time.

I have not tried, but can you set if for something like 1000 hours?

Unfortunately every and each smartapp made by yvesracine Iā€™ve tried so far havenā€™t worked for me. Even those which initially had (My ecobee Init), have ceased working eventually. I have Keen smart vents and they never worked for me as Iā€™d have expected using either solution Yves offered. I will never pay a penny either for a buggy application or for its support before Iā€™m confident the product is fully operational and provides what itā€™s supposed to. Paying for troubleshooting consultation on top of the fee is ridiculous and I have never heard of such a business model - If you paid for the product that doesnā€™t operate properly you should get solutions free of charge or your money back. I appreciate the efforts Yves has made to contribute to the community but what he is offering so far is far from being completed and fully operating product and I frankly canā€™t understand why someone would pay for this.

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Honestly, if it works, $15 will be well worth it to me. If not, Iā€™ll request a refund and I have every expectation that Iā€™ll get one. If I donā€™t, myself and others will make it known and he wonā€™t get another dime from anyone else in this community. Iā€™m pretty confident it wonā€™t come to that though.

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While I agree to all thats posted above, im eager to see the model he devises over the holidays.

The product should be operational from cradle to grave.

Iā€™d suggest using Rule Machine to drive the Keen Vents. If you use an ST sensor for the temperature, it works OK.

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