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If you could do it again what would you do different?

October 5, 2014, 10:28 am
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Hi Guys Im moving house to do a refurb complete rewire replumb moving walls and reinstalling my home cinema kit

I want to completely automate the house so far I've only meddled with Tv and Audio I want to do lights, central heating, alarm system, door locks, and Tv in every room with PS4 and Apple TV feeds also in every room the Cinema will be reinstated and run and xbox, PS4,ATV, Sky TV and so forth

Now heres the question!!!

If you had a chance to re-do everything you have done to date what would you change would you go from X10 to Lutron for example, Whats the latest and easiest installs whats going to be a must have and what should i avoid I'm up for any advice outside TV audio and i know i can only learn from you guys Thanks for the replies in advance

Craig
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Honeywell Total Comfort Connect

October 7, 2014, 4:32 am
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Evohome was installed about 4 months ago. Apart from a brief comms fault during a thunderstorm, the hot water side of things has been working well. I am currently running the latest IOS8-compatible app, and I have noticed that 2 of the zones on the app are showing temperatures which are about 7C higher than the temps shown on the Evohome controller. The controller readings are correct as all the temps are in the range 15 to 16C with CH off. I have deleted the app and re-installed it but the difference remains. Any thoughts?
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remote control of heating

October 7, 2014, 5:00 am
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I only have one zone on a combo boiler and want heating control on a iOS device. Would like the option of adding remote TVR's for zoning at a later stage.
Would also like to see a graph of heating over a period of time.

The heat Genius looks ok, just not happy with the design of the thermostat for the wall. Any other ideas?
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Honeywell Evohome Controller Reset Itself

October 7, 2014, 2:47 pm
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I had the Evohome system fitted in August and have only just switched the heating on and started using it properly.

Today when I was trying to teach hubby how to use the controls, when I tried to put the controller back into its stand, the controller reset itself. When it came back on, all the rooms showed that they were 'syncing'. They stayed like this for ages so, like you do, I started panicking and fiddling with the controls. I got into the installers menu and tried a RF test which failed (I did turn the radiator controller to test.) I then re binded the boiler transmitter just in case.

Anyway, two of the rooms (not the one I was playing with) reshowed on the controller and eventually after about an hour they all appeared. The schedules were unaffected. Also, although I am not totally 100% sure, the menus look different but I am not sure what is missing apart from the fault log. (Edit. Have just got 2 comm faults and now the fault log is showing on the menu)

My question is: is there a quick way to get them all synced quickly?
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EvoTouch Antenna Upgrade

October 9, 2014, 1:52 am
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Hello all,

I have one HR80UK on my system which loses connection to my evotouch (monochrome) quiet a bit, it appears to have a weak signal due to internal block walls. it is setting itself to 20C regularly, i am going to move it to a closer rad to see if the same issue stays occurring.

I am also in the process of finding a new home for the controller to try and ensure good signal to all HR80's and BDR91's however I was wondering if anyone had ever opened an evotouch and is it possible a 4 or 7db gain antenna could be retrofitted to the system to give a signal boost?

Any thoughts?
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H264 IP Cameras?

October 9, 2014, 1:50 pm
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Hello Folks

Seems like ages since my last post (it was!)

Just wondering if Cortex will ever be capable of accepting H264 streams - it seems MJPEG is becoming less common now and it might make sense to move to the newer standard.

I did a quick search but it seems no-one has yet posed the question.

John
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Upgrading from Honeywell HCM 200D to Honeywell evohome

October 11, 2014, 3:32 am
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I have a Honeywell Hometronic system installed in my house with a Hometronic Manager HCM 200D controlling everything, 16 rooms with 23 Honeywell HR80s on the radiators (some rooms have 2 radiators), linked back to the boiler with a HS 30 switch for the hot-water (manual operation from the HS30 and timed operation from HCM 200D where I have a device set up as 'hot water') and a HC60NG controller for the central heating (manual control on HC60NG, boiler feedback from operation of the HR80s and automated control from the HCM 200D).

I am looking to upgrade now and wondering if it is simply a matter of replacing the HCM 200D with the Honeywell evohome?
Are there limitations on the evohome controlling 16 rooms and 23 radiators?
Will all of my hardware above work with the evohome or do I need to replace the HS30 (for hot water), HC60NG (for heating) or HR80s (for radiator control)?
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Honeywell HS30 switch not always activated by HCM 200D controller

October 11, 2014, 3:48 am
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I have a Honeywell Hometronic system installed in my house with a Hometronic Manager HCM 200D controlling everything, 16 rooms with 23 Honeywell HR80s on the radiators (some rooms have 2 radiators), linked back to the boiler with a HS 30 switch for the hot-water (manual operation from the HS30 and timed operation from HCM 200D where I have a device set up as 'hot water') and a HC60NG controller for the central heating (manual control on HC60NG, boiler feedback from operation of the HR80s and automated control from the HCM 200D).

We have set up a device as 'hotwater' on the HCM 200D and then have bind the HS 30 to the HCM 200D / device / hotwater

We have bind the HC60NG to the HCM 200D to Boiler demand / boiler relay

We had our boiler replaced with a larger boiler, and I although I have run some tests to make sure that the HS 30 switches the hot water on and off when activated from the HCM 200D, I am now finding that the HS 30 is not consistently coming on when set for the morning or the afternoon. On the HCM 200D the programme is clearly set as 'on' for hot water as per the program.

1) Just wanted to confirm that I don't also have to bind the HS 30 to Boiler demand / switching module, and

2) Could it be that the signal is being blocked by the larger boiler

3) Any other tips as to how to get this working again?
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API v2

October 11, 2014, 8:54 am
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Hi,

In the API it is possible to list an object such as:

Code:
<CortexObject>
    <ControlObjectType>AnalogueDimmer</ControlObjectType>
    <FriendlyName>Living Room Lights Front</FriendlyName>
    <IDNumber>95</IDNumber>
    <RefImage>91</RefImage>
    <Parent>Living Room</Parent>
    <IconOffset>0</IconOffset>
    <FeatureAvailable>-1</FeatureAvailable>
  </CortexObject>
In the objects properties, it lists the Parent as being "Living Room" is it possible to get details of ITS parent, for example in my layout "Ground Floor" is the parent of "Living Room" and "My House" is the parent of "Ground Floor" so essentially in a hierarchy it looks like

- House
-- Ground Floor
--- Living Room
---- Living Room Lights Front

I want to get info on what the parents are of Living Room via the V2 API. Is this possible ? Thanks.
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Using xAP Flash on Joggler with LightwaveRF

October 13, 2014, 11:26 am
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Hello,

I've just come to the world of xAP Flash, and I'm keen to use it on a Joggler to control LightwaveRF devices.

I think I understand that these are not BSC devices? - as they (the ones I use: switches, dimmers) are one-way only, i.e. you can't query them. I want to use xAP Flash to send the raw UDP data for a LightwaveRF command to the LightwaveRF wifi link
- for example, to turn on device 1 in room 4, the LightwaveRF command is 001,!R4D1F1 (where 001 is an incrementing sequence number), and the corresponding hex data is 30 30 31 2c 21 52 34 44 31 46 31 0d.

I've read the livebox:xapflash documentation at dbzoo.com, in particular the section describing the <on> / <off> tags (quoted below), and I assume that I create my target as <vendor>.<device>.<instance>, and include the above hex (with spaces removed) after 'data='. However, I don't know what 'class' to use - I assume not the one shown, as this is for RF commands?

Code:
<on>
xap-header
{
v=12
hop=1
class=rf.xmit
target=dbzoo.livebox.Controller
source=
uid=
}
rf
{
data=010201130A7300130113011304C9011300000A0127100A259A71
}
                                </on>
Any help or pointers would be gratefully received!

Thanks,

Mike
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IFTTT Launch New Channel for Honeywell evohome

October 14, 2014, 12:50 am
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Help with zoning my heating system

October 15, 2014, 1:56 pm
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Hi Folks,

I live in an old house with very thick walls and a very old boiler. I'm getting a new boiler in a few weeks (Greenstar FS30CDI) and I'd like to look at improving my control of the heating system. The current piping is S-plan single zone heating and I'm not going to be doing any re-piping to provide for different zones (too difficult here). I need to zone it using smart TRVs.

I'd like to have TRVs that demand heat as/when the room is below set temperature which may be different at different times of day. I understand that heat sensing at the TRV head can be unreliable due to the proximity of the radiator itself so I am concerned that the TRV may not be the best place for the heat sensor - are there systems with wall stats that control a wireless actuator in place of the TRV?

Given the age of my house, it is unlikely that a central programmer receiver situated at the new boiler will be unable to communicate with all the zones (wall stats and/or TRVs) , so I either need range extenders/repeaters or something that I can plug into my existing ethernet RJ45 network wired throughout the house.

In an ideal world, the wall stats would be RJ45 (perhaps PoE) to which I can assign a static IP and use a separate programmer (like the evohome controller) also connected to the same LAN to control/program the wall stats on the existing network. I don't see the point in introducing yet another wireless system when I have spent sometime installing a wifi LAN throughout the house.

I've looked hard, but nothing seems to quite fit the bill so wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions.

I like the evohome, but concerned about the lack of range extender given my old rambling house.
I don't want to create yet another wireless network just for the heating control.
I have no need to access the system remotely.

Thoughts welcome!
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HomeEasy & Homewizard

October 15, 2014, 5:33 pm
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Hello

Over the last 6-7 years I have fitted quite a few HomeEasy sockets, switches, magnetic contacts etc in our home. A few months ago I heard about Homewizard which is a hub that connects to your home network and controls your Home Easy kit, garage doors and a lot of other brands.

Has anyone had any experience of Homewizard. It states in the manual on their website that it may interfere with other 433Mhz items. A bit concerning as I have a Friedland Wireless House Alarm using 433Mhz. I was hoping for something cheaper but if I suppose 'you get what you pay for' may come into it

I have looked at Indigo but I am not really sure especially when you also have to buy a RFXCOM RFXtrx433 and I'm not too sure if that works with a Mac, unless it is a plug'n'play. Also I seem to remember, you have to have something running the software 24hours like a mac mini??

I am just after any ideas that will help me to 'run' the HomeEasy stuff via my iPhone, iPad and/or iMac

Many thanks for your time

Goody
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Displaying a Msg on your TV

October 16, 2014, 6:10 am
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Was wondering if there are any dedicated (non-PC) based bits of kit that sit in-line with the HDMI feed and be able to display a message on your TV sent to it over, say WiFi??

As the TV is on alot in my house, it would be useful to integrate it into my automation system (Indigo). I have various Smart and Non-Smart TVs hence going down the 'Overlay' route as opposed to PiP.

Vangelis
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Which heating system?

October 19, 2014, 4:55 am
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I'd be grateful if anyone could offer advice on the simplest/cheapest way to achieve what I need out of my heating system.

I've recently moved into a larger house that has an 80's boiler, a two period 24 hour dial programmer and an attractive ancient brown and cream Honeywell thermostat, no TRVs.

Initially I decided to trial Tado but quickly realised it wasn't going to be the most beneficial system for us.

I like the geolocation and it's a feature I want to keep but it's not going to save us a fortune because my Mrs is home most of the day and the control of hot water wasn't really necessary as it is only for two 15 minute periods a day and setting it to holiday mode occassionally isn't a massive hassle.

We have four bedrooms that are currently being pointlessly heated throughout the day, so programmable TRV's are a must. Initially I thought of using FS20 with a boiler relay but I can only really think of one situation where demand for heating needs to be based on anything other than the temperature of the lounge so I'm thinking that would be overkill.

I have a Synology server and have installed fhem just to have a look at it, but have to admit I'm still unsure of exactly what capabilities it has as most of the documentation is in German.

I keep deciding to go with a system but end up changing my mind, so thought I'd ask users of their experiences.

Must haves:

- Geolocation, probably through sending a http request through an android app like Tasker, so whatever heating controller/thermostat would need an open/hacked api and internet comms
- Control based on a Google calendar event, I have found the Inspire thermostat offers this but it's ugly so I'm hoping fhem can achieve this?
- Remotely monitored by mobile
- Reliable
- Wife friendly once installed
- Ability to set a max thermostat temperature would be nice

I have looked at Max! and FS20/FHV (what's the difference? Compatible?) but think it would be more suitable to have a single thermostat controlling the heating based on temp of lounge (largest room) with the programmable TRVs doing their thing but also easily altered for changes of schedule rather than the TRVs actually controlling the boiler. Any product recommendations would be appreciated, specifically for any thermostats that have the above functionaily or can talk to fhem. Perhaps a simple relay can be attached to the thermostat?

Also, can fhem natively take input from one group of devices and output commands to another?

Thanks,

Dan
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Bypass with Alpha Pump

October 19, 2014, 9:01 am
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I have a sealed CH system with an Grunfos Alpha2L pump. There are TRV's on all radiators but no bypass fitted. I'm wanting to fit a Honeywell Evohome system and am realising that I probably should have had a bypass fitted on my system when I converted to TRV's on all the radiators.
However I'm also reading that the Alpha smart pump either doesn't need a bypass fitting or won't work with an automatic bypass.
My boiler is an elderly (10 - 15 years old) Worcester Danesmoor.

So, three choices seem to be available:

Don't fit a bypass
Fit an auto bypass but run the pump at a fixed output
Fit a fixed bypass.

Any thoughts?

Presumably the bypass is really necessary when using a non smart system when all the TRV's could be shut down but the boiler and pump still on and working although the boiler thermostat would surely shut it down? But as I understand it, the Evohome system would work out that the boiler isn't needed and shut it down?

I'm sure I'm missing something here!
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Best fhem/Openhab compatible switch

October 19, 2014, 2:01 pm
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I'm looking for a switch to place in series with my thermostat to cut off the heating.

I've not used fhem or Openhab yet but it seems for a lot of the equipment you need the manufacturers LAN gateway to interface with fhem/Openhab and control the accessories.

Does anyone know of any bidirectional 868mhz switch actuators that can be directly controlled by fhem/Openhab as well as the status of their being on/off without the need for a proprietary gateway?

Thanks,

Dan
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HA Controller Comparison

October 19, 2014, 4:39 pm
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Hello all.

I’m looking for advice about choosing a home automation controller.

A bit of background: I’ve had Rako lighting for a few years and this year I want to install heating control (most likely Evohome or Heat Genius). I also want to control some electric towel rails, probably using z-wave or similar, so I’ve been looking at the options for a home automation controller to tie everything together.

I think it's an understatement to say there’s a bewildering array of options out there so I’d appreciate any advice about which solutions best fit my requirements, which I can summarise as follows:

  • An event engine that allows configuration of triggers, rules, scenes, etc. for the control of home automation devices.
  • Activity logging, notifications, and charting of historical stats would also be nice to have.
  • UI: Good-looking polished native iPhone/iPad apps and a web interface to enable control, and ideally also configuration.
  • An 'open' solution that allows users to update their configuration (as opposed to 'closed' locked-out solutions like Control4, Crestron etc).
  • Support for a broad range of the most common retro-fittable DIY technologies in the UK (e.g. Z-wave, LightwaveRF etc.).
  • Allows users to develop their own system interfaces. I expect I’d need to do this for both Rako and Evohome as they don’t have openly supported APIs. (I'm no stranger to programming and scripting using the likes of C#.Net, VB.Net, VBscript, Javascript, Powershell, Perl etc.).
  • Ideally, no ongoing subscription costs, although I don't mind about upfront purchase costs.
  • Good support forum and active user community.
  • I don't particularly mind if the system runs on proprietary hardware or requires a Windows or Linux server.


I've done a bit of research over the last week and so far OpenHAB and Home Genie look like possible candidates. What else would people recommend I take a closer look at?

Thanks,

Z.
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Gravity or "pumped" tank

October 20, 2014, 12:22 am
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Just a quick question. How can I tell whether a hot water tank is designed for use in a gravity or fully pumped system?
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Honeywell HR80UK and 20C Setting - Losing my mind

October 20, 2014, 2:53 am
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Hoping someone may be able to help me out here as i am getting close to the end of my tether.

I have 8 HR80UK's on 6 zones, a BDR91 for hot-water tank controlled by a EvoTouch Monochrome, initially i had one valve in an upstairs bedroom that was constantly setting itself to 20C when losing connection to the Evotouch. I swapped its location to between another bedroom and it cured the problem despite it have a signal strength of 5 before the move. So problem solved for no apparent reason, both valves still have a signal strength of 5. (Just it is facing east instead of west now......)

Now I have two valves in one zone (sitting room) that are acting up, sometimes one valve set to 20C other times both valves. The controller is only about 10-12 feet away and signal strength is 5 again. I have tried rebinding these, deleting the zone, reconfiguring, pulling batteries, resetting the HR80's and still 20C set-point after about 12 hours or so, normally in the middle of the bloody night it happens.

Here is the funny thing, if i pull the batteries from both of these troublesome HR80's one will act up in the kitchen and set to 20C.

Is this an Evotouch issue or a HR80 issue? To me it looks more like a Evotouch issue and i am thinking of a factory reset on it and start from scratch again which is going to be very annoying as I have things set-up really well other than that and i am very happy with the system.

Valve firmware is 2.04.

I hope someone can help me as I am very fed up at the moment. I have read some other posts on the same issue here but i don't think i have faulty HR80's as the problem appears to move zone to zone.
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