Ecobee thermostat, offline again

Using Ecobee integration and device, the thermostat went offline (again) this morning, making the device uncontrollable from the dashboard. Usually this means a fresh login is needed. However this time using 1 Factor Authorization, the password was refused perhaps 3 or 4 times, although I was able to log into Ecobee.com with identical credentials. Finally accepted the login and reauthorized the device.

This occurs perhaps every 3 or 4 months. Kindly look into this.

@bravenel @bobbyD

Thank you for your feedback. This sounds like an issue with Ecobee, but we will look on our side to make sure we are not causing this.

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Appreciate the quick response and code review.

Seems like I was not the only one with [Ecobee issues this morning](Search results for 'ecobee' - Hubitat order%3Alatest)

Sorry the link is failing to work, try a copy and paste
https://community.hubitat.com/search?q=ecobee order%3Alatest

They use two different auth flows. The direct login goes through

https://auth.ecobee.com/u/login

And the 3rd parties go through:

https://www.ecobee.com/home/oauth/

It is likely that one can be down while the other is not :frowning:

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That indeed seems to currently be the case :frowning:
I've sent another plea to ecobee to release an api.

John

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I assume you are asking for a Local API?

That would be really nice. HomeKit has local connectivity to the Ecobee thermostats...so it is possible.

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Hopefully, otherwise they will just say "we already HAVE an api" - which they do.

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Yes ..... and many times before. The reply has been something like..... the development team is responsible for API but currently one is not on the ...schedule, todo list etc.

I think my actual text was "....API for Hubitat.."

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This is outside of my area of expertise (by a lot) but in theory couldn't one monitor the WiFi transmission and deduce the commands the ecobee uses?

I would assume (and hope) it is all encrypted.

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Looks like Home Assistant can act as a HomeKit Controller, which might be a possible route to local control of an Ecobee Thermostat...

HomeKit Controller - Home Assistant.

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I've thought about that recently as I re-installed my ecobee thermostats the other week.

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Can you keep me posted if you work out a way to control ecobee t'stats via HASS-HomeKit Controller?

I suppose the simplest way would be to pull it into NR via the HomeAssistant nodes.

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That was my thought. But I haven't dug into it yet.

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Consider storing the Ecobee Userid and Password (could be encrypted) in the ecobee app, then attempt to log in when the app requests a new login.

That would help bypass this issue until someone figures out how to get it local.

@aaiyar Was bored tonight so I stood up a new home assistant container and brought 2 of my 4 ecobee in via local control (not the default cloud based homekit connection).

Haven't messed with it too much yet, but the couple of things I did seemed to work. That said, it doesn't look like EVERYTHING is accessible - one example is that I didn't see any way for hold/no hold(resume) to be set.

Anything in particular you were wanting to know / test?

Steps:

  • Install home assistant (docker, local, other)
    • On install DO NOT add any of the detected homekit ecobee devices
  • Add HomeKit Controller integration
    • Add ecobee thermostat. When asked for the pairing key, it should automtically show up on the ecobee screen. Type it in and submit.

Example of one of the thermostats. There is also a motion/occupancy entity too. This is the thermostat one:

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Thank you! That's pretty much it - looks like you can set hvac_mode and temperature locally, which is all I need.

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I definitely tried those 2 things from HA, and it worked.

I am having mixed results doing it from node-red, but I'm sure it is just something I am doing wrong. Been a long time since I've had node-red and HA integrated. I'll poke around on it this weekend.

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Side note on this... The HA ecobee homekit integration doesn't show setpoint correctly if the thermostat is in auto / heat+cool mode. I haven't googled to see if there is a workaround for that.

Here's all the state attributes in HA:
image

Thermostat is in auto with
Heat SP: 70
Cool SP: 75

Neither setpoint are set to 72 as shown...

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Thanks for the heads up - luckily, Iā€™m never in auto mode.

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