[DEPRECATED] Enhanced GoControl GC-TBZ48 Z-Wave Thermostat Driver

🚧 Developers
1

Enhanced GoControl GC-TBZ48 Thermostat Driver
Hubitat driver for GoControl GC-TBZ48 Z-Wave Plus Thermostat.

Features:

  • All standard thermostat functions
  • Exposes all configurable settings for this thermostat as a preference (except auto reporting config - param 23)
  • Exposed the sensor calibration as a command, so the built in temperature sensor can be biased programatically (i.e. you could use an external sensor as the control point for the thermostat by writing an app to adjust the bias every X minutes).
  • Supports Hubitat Google Home integration

To-Do:

  • Currently only supports Fahrenheit. Maybe add Celsius support someday.
  • Needs a little code cleanup. There are some leftover functions in there that can be removed.

Installation:

  1. Install Driver code in Hubitat
  2. Apply to a GoControl GC-TBZ48 device. Click save.
  3. Edit preferences, save preferences.
  4. Click Configure command button
  5. ** NOTE ** - There are a 38 preference parameters on this thermostat, after saving preferences, PLEASE WAIT A MINUTE before doing anything else on the thermostat (or if you have debug on, watch the log until finished!!). I mean it - wait a MINUTE. :smile:

Driver can be found on my GitHub

V1.0 - 02/24/2019 - Initial Version
V1.1 - 02/27/2019 - Removed unused code leftover from other drivers. Added param 23 to Config command to ensure reporting from thermostat works correctly.
V1.2 - 04/03/2019 - Added thermostatSetpoint, lastRunningMode, allowing for Hubitat Google Home integration support. Renamed to "Enhanced" GoControl GC-TBZ48 driver to prevent confusion / distinguish between the upcoming in-box GoControl GC-TBZ48 driver.

2 Likes
2

Jason, have you been able to do a code cleanup and/or add/change anything to this driver? Just checking to see if I should give it a try yet.

3

it should be good to use. Even when I do the code clean up it is just removing unused code, so wouldn't impact how it works.

I've been using it as-posted since Monday, and it has been working great for me.

If you try it out, definitely report back if you have any issues.

I have three more of these thermostats arriving today, so I will have more data points tonight or tomorrow.

4

Holy cow there are a lot of child devices. I had no idea that thermostat had that many choices. I noticed that the current states remained the same, which I would think is normal. This driver is OK to use with the Thermostat App? I will let you know if I find anything.

5

It should be fine to use with the thermostat app.

For the normal thermostat parameters I used all of the standard names, and the standard functionality.

I think it's low probability that it would break something that works with the generic thermostat driver.

Of course if it does, switch back to the generic and hit configure.

6

Ok, will do. I will let you know. Thanks

7

Eh, I would hold off installing the driver as I need to publish an update.

Nothing major wrong so if you already installed - no worries, keep using it. I'm just trying to get the fan state to work better.

EDIT: Lol... I figured it out. Code is fine, the problem is GoControl used the incorrect value in parameter 23 for which reports to send automatically... Most devices just send all reports, but GoControl made it configurable. And got their default value off by 1. (@mike.maxwell I feel your pain, I only have to do this for a couple devices. Must make you crazy.)

I'll get that added in Configure, and get a new version up.

8

OK, v1.1 posted. Should be last version for a while, unless a bug is found.

9

Have it loaded. I will let you know if I find anything. thanks

10

No problem. I have 4 of them installed now. So far so good.

The change made in reporting on the 1.1 version helped a lot.

11

Jason, any chance you would come up with a json link to this driver so I can add it to the App Watchdog?

12

I'm not really interested in making JSON files for integration with App Watchdog at this time. Too much to do, and I don't use App Watchdog.

Sorry.

13

No problem. Worth a shot.

14

Updated to v1.2 adding compatibility with Hubitat's Google Home integration.

15

@JasonJoelOld Does this driver help with massive battery drain? When I was on ST, I would have to change batteries every other month. Now with HE, I have to change batteries every week. Costing a lot of money.

16

I honestly don't know... All of mine are wired/powered.

Try it and see. You have nothing to lose but time.

Side note, there is an official driver for this thermostat coming from the HE team, so you will have another option there if you only want the minimum features that it will provide.

1 Like
17

I was thinking on this some more... The reporting frequencies are pretty configurable on this device. It is possible that somehow it is setup to report back to the hub more often than you need - increasing battery usage.

I exposed those parameters in my driver - they are the ones near the bottom regarding "Autosending Data to Hub" settings. Could be worth a try?

Maybe set temp delta to a bigger number, make sure time delta is zero. Or just try the defaults of 1 and 0, and see if that clears it up all by itself.

26%20PM
26%20PM1168×318 9.9 KB

18

Thanks for checking in on this. Here's what is set now.
10%20PM

19

Is that what it was before when battery drain was bad?

Or was it on the generic zwave driver that the battery drain was bad?

20

I haven't touched it at all. Really didn't know what these setting did so I left default.

I downloaded the driver as soon as I got the HUB. Don't know how it would act without the driver.