Drivers by bcopeland Bio

No.. Not currently.. I have in the past

I posted this in the previous thread, but it seems like the conversation has moved to this one, so I'll copy/paste it here as well.

My thermostat is a Trane XL850. I'm pretty much locked into it because it's proprietary. I would love to switch to Ecobee, but I digress. I am new to the Zwave world (only have 5 devices so far) so I don't know much about it, but apparently the thermostat has a built-in Nexia Hub.

I actually have the thermostat added to HE, but it just shows as a device and doesn't seem to do much or respond to anything. I tried the Generic Z-Wave Thermostat driver with no success. This is what shows in the data field for the device in case that's helpful.

  • deviceType: 21560
  • inClusters: 0x86,0x98,0x21,0x72
  • deviceId: 13616
  • manufacturer: 139

fingerprint mfr:"008B", prod:"5438", deviceId:"3530", inClusters:"0x86,0x98,0x21,0x72"

I assume (maybe wrongly) that even if the device is non-functional for me, that by including it in HE it will at least act as a repeater.

@waterboysh

I realize your system is currently configured to use ComfortLink, but does it have to be? Do you have a variable speed furnace, a variable speed outdoor compressor, or both?

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Both. It's a Trane communicating system. It technically doesn't have to be, but then it'll function as just a standard 2 stage system.

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Interesting.. it's wifi and z-wave.. :thinking:

Yeah, I have it connected to my wifi currently and I can use the Nexia app to control it. I can create automations in the Nexia app and use IFTTT to trigger them. So I can control it through HE if I wanted (have not currently set it up to do so though), but it would be nice to have the communication be local and not have to rely on 2 separate cloud servers.

We've had issues with the thermostat ever since we got it, and if you look around on the Internet, there's lot of people with the same problem. If I had known getting a variable speed system would lock me into a certain thermostat, I would have looked around for the most efficient 2-stage system instead and used something like an Ecobee.

The issue is that it consistently shows the indoor temp as warmer than it actually is, so the AC doesn't shut off until it gets well below what the temperature is set to. There's several threads about it on forums if you google something like "trane xl 850 runs hot". One prevailing theory is that the wifi chip generates enough heat that it messes with the thermostat. Some people have said that when they disable wifi, it works correctly. But that defeats one of the purposes of having a smart thermostat.

I plan on building up my zwave network with some devices that can also report temperature, and then I can just use those to trigger turning the AC on or off.

EDIT: The automations I can currently create are a little limited. For example, I can't create one to "lower the temp by 2 degrees" and trigger it when the oven turns on. I have to create a "profile" and give it a set temperature value and then I can trigger that profile to run. So if the temp is currently 74 and the automation is set to 74, nothing changes. Even if I set it up in HE using IFTTT, that won't change. This is the main reason I'd like zwave control. I think it would be possible to have more control.

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Thanks for pointing me to that! There is a long Sengled Dimmer thread on here somewhere (not the one you linked to) where it appeared there was no hope. Loaded up the driver you linked to and bam, a useful device!

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Added to my coming soon list:

Homeseer: HSM200

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You might check out Ecobee's website - they can tell if their thermostat is compatible with your system. I believe they can handle some variable speed systems.

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I do have a request @bcopeland.

Would love to see a single-device driver (no child devices) the Zen31 RBG controller, that supports all the normal features of dimmers. I know the device can do everything, but the functionality if split among child/parent devices.

If you did want to try this, I would be happy to send you a couple of them.

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checking into it..

Only self-modulating variable speed furnaces. Not variable speed compressors ....

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Is there a tutorial/language-spec somewhere on making groovy drivers for Hubitat? I'm sure I can actually code it but the times I've looked at existing drivers, it was not obvious to me whats going on with them. (and then finding time to really pick it apart on my own is hard)

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The best starting point is the old smartthings docs.. https://docs.smartthings.com

then after you have the fundamentals move on to
https://docs.hubitat.com

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Thanks!
...one night when the wife goes to bed early.....

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Better plan on more than one night... There is a LOT of information out there.

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I see the Zooz Zen21 in the coming soon section. I have a couple of these. I'm curious what your driver will do that the default one in HE will not...

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From what I understand there are new features in the newer firmware versions that are not in the built-in drivers.. And if it uses directAssociations then it will support that as well

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Ok.. I have one of these on the way

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Neat.. I found a way to get my github contributions graph to show in a post..

I added it to the first post..

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