Help Debugging Program

[tpolito]

I have the Nest plug-in installed and mostly working, but I am having a repeatable problem with a program.  I have two thermostats, and when I leave my home, I press a Keypad Button by my door and want the thermostats to adjust based on that keypad press to both have setpoints of 64° for the Heat setting and 78° for the cool setting.

When I observe my nest app, what is actually happening when i press the button is that all four setting will reflect the change, but then one of them (I haven't figured out a pattern yet) will then revert back to it's previous setting.  For example, when I just ran it, both thermostats changed to reflect the desired setpoint, but then my Master Bedroom Thermostat cool setpoint changed back from 78 to 75.  Here is my program.  Seemed pretty simple.  And I added the "waits" in between based on reading that it may take time to process each command.  But it is odd to me that it is reflecting the desired change and then changing back.

Away - [ID 001B][Parent 0019]

If
        'Entry Hall Keypad - Garage Li / Entry Hall Keypad - Goodbye' is switched Off
 
Then
        Set 'Tom’s House / Back Hallway' Mode Auto
        Wait  2 seconds
        Set 'Tom’s House / Back Hallway' Cool Setpoint 78°F
        Wait  2 seconds
        Set 'Tom’s House / Back Hallway' Heat Setpoint 64°F
        Wait  2 seconds
        Set 'Tom’s House / Master Bedroom Thermostat' Mode Auto
        Wait  2 seconds
        Set 'Tom’s House / Master Bedroom Thermostat' Cool Setpoint 78°F
        Wait  2 seconds
        Set 'Tom’s House / Master Bedroom Thermostat' Heat Setpoint 64°F
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

[hart2hart]

Thermostats usually have a dead band between heat and cool set points. Don’t have nest but I’m guessing they have to them. If so…

Your current heat cool on thermostat at button press are conflicting with the program set points. In essence the thermostat is ignoring the conflicting points. You can test it by setting thermostat to values that will not cause a conflict. As I recall, usually caused when switching Modes from heat/cool and auto.

I wrote programs to deal with the issue on Venstar Colortouch if you’re interested after confirming it’s the issue.

[tpolito]

If i understand your response, correctly, I don't think this would be the issue.  My thermostats have a deadband of 3° between the heat and cool setpoints.  So if the heat setpoint is set for 70, and I try to change the cool setpoint to 72, it will lower the heat setpoint to 69.

For this program, the desired setpoint range is 14° apart.  This works fine when setting manually at the thermostat or through the Nest app.

[larryllix]

35 minutes ago, tpolito said:

If i understand your response, correctly, I don't think this would be the issue.  My thermostats have a deadband of 3° between the heat and cool setpoints.  So if the heat setpoint is set for 70, and I try to change the cool setpoint to 72, it will lower the heat setpoint to 69.

For this program, the desired setpoint range is 14° apart.  This works fine when setting manually at the thermostat or through the Nest app.

Possible coincidence with your schedules correcting it just after you press the button?

[tpolito]

No I don't think that is it.  I've tested it outside of any timeframe that any schedules are set for.  And it doesn't revert to any scheduled setpoint.

[hart2hart]

If i understand your response, correctly, I don't think this would be the issue.  My thermostats have a deadband of 3° between the heat and cool setpoints.  So if the heat setpoint is set for 70, and I try to change the cool setpoint to 72, it will lower the heat setpoint to 69.
For this program, the desired setpoint range is 14° apart.  This works fine when setting manually at the thermostat or through the Nest app.

Gotcha and you are likely right. If you want to test….

Put thermostat in Auto mode. Set a cool and heat setpoint 3 degrees apart. Set thermostat to Cool mode. Move the cool set point 1 degree from the last heat point while stat was in auto mode. Now set stat in auto mode from AC and see what you get. I believe on my Venstar colortouch it originally would not make the switch to Auto mode and in a later version of its firmware started showing what you described or could have been the opposite.

[Goose66]

Sounds like could be a bug in the plug-in. To debug, please:

1. Change the logging level for the plugin  to “Debug” in the PG3x Dashboard 

2. verify temps in Admin Console match temps on tstat (or use Google Home app)

3. Push keypad button

4. After a minute, check whether temps on tstat (or in Google Home app) match new temps in Admin Console.

5. If not matching, please DM me the log package.

[tpolito]

Sent.  Thanks

[Goose66]

Two problems:

1. It appears you are not getting event notifications from the Google Nest service. The only update of status values for your thermostats are coming from status queries performed every 60 seconds (shortpoll interval). This creates problem # 2:

2. The Google/Nest SDM API for changing temperature  requires both the heat and cool setpoints to be specified if the mode is  "Auto." When a "Set Heat Setpoint" or "Set Cool Setpoint" command is received from IoX, the plugin uses whichever setpoint (heat or cool) is provided in the command along with the last known value of its counterpart to call the API. Because you are not getting event notifications from the service, the last API call has effectively changed the specified setpoint, but the current status is not updated. So when the subsequent command comes it, the counterpart setpoint it uses is not reflective of the change just made.

As to #2, this is not so much a bug as it is a design flaw. Had you not been putting in the two seconds between steps in your program, there is no way the current code would've worked correctly even if you were receiving status updates. The approach here has to change - look for a new version soon.

As to #1, you need to make sure "PG3 Remote Connection" is configured and active for your eISY/Polisy. To configure this, login to https://my.isy.io, and from the "Select tool..." dropdown next to your eISY or Polisy, select "PG3 > Remote Connection." Make sure "Remote connection configured" and "Remote connection active" are both "Yes". 

If these are active and you are still not getting event messages, we can continue debugging. I will also be sure that this is put into the Installation Instructions, if it's not already in there.

Edited September 9 by Goose66

[tpolito]

Thanks! With some limited testing that seems to have solved the problem.  

[tpolito]

Really appreciate the help!

Have any desire to build a Govee module, lol?