[RELEASE] Advanced vThermostat - Virtual Thermostat HVAC control

This is not a feature I would add to this for the only reason that this app/device is meant to imitate a regular connected thermostat.

I do believe this could be a very nice app to complement this and any other connected thermostat just like Thermostat Scheduler and/or Thermostat Controller do to make them more "intelligent". Just not something I would implement here since this thermostat is actually just used to control a dumb space heater more than anything. It is only as precise as the temp sensors you use and how fast they report temp changes unlike a regular thermostat that has instant access to the actual temp all the time.

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Yes, very strange, as it has worked really well up until now. As you mention, there have been no changes from your side and I haven't updated your app since installing so that must mean there is something on the Google Home side or due to updating hubitat (which i just did, from 2.2.4 to 2.2.6 ?

I also have some Google Mini's and the same situation there, I can ask for the change to temp, but it will not execute. However, making the change on Hubitat will almost immediately show the change in Google. So it seems to be from Google to Hubitat.

I will do some tests and report back.

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That makes sense. Thanks so much for getting back to me!

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@nclark Thank you for sharing. Exactly what I'm looking for controlling panel heater with temperature sensors and smart switch / power outlet.
Suggestion: Ability to disable "fan" in the preference as there is no fan in many heating appliances.
Thanks again.

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Just found this driver for a special control system i am building. It also does not respond/work for me with Alexa. The Alexa app shows "there was a problem", and doesn't present a control dialog for the device in the alexa android app.

Sonoff S31 lite Zigbee can be added, the relay they use is actually rated for 16A 240V so a meer 1800W is no big deal for it.

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So I got my Sonoff switches in and made my advanced vthermostats. They work great, thanks for the code @nclark !

Unfortunately that was only from the dashboard. From Google Home using either the app or the assistant the heat setpoints would not change. I'm using the official integration and it works fine for my physical zwave thermostat.

So I created a virtual thermostat using the built-in virtual device type and that can also be controlled fine from Google Home. Any idea why the vThermostat devices can't be controlled this way?

For now I have a rule that makes both Vthermostats track the virtual device setpoint but it's starting to feel a bit inception like with all these layers of obfuscation going on.

I have been using this app now for a long time and it was possible to change the setpoints in Google, but then it wasn't. I did update to firmware 2.2.6 from 2.2.4, but I am not sure if that has anything to do with it.

The problem is both that the thermostat cannot be changed on the Google dashboard, but also that it cannot be changed via voice.

I've been trying to figure this one out also, some people also report problems with Echo devices yet I don't have a problem, my daughter also can control via google Home but her hub is on old firmware, now that it's summer time and thermostats aren't working anymore, I'll update her hub and see if that effects anything on her side?

The code has still not had an update since it's release so if it worked before and not anymore, it must have something to do with firmware updates, I remember seing something about thermostats (capabilities) in the updates but did not think it would change anything, so I'll have to skim them and see if something has changed that would effect my code.

Well I just went through the last 5 hub updates just in case and did not see anything with capabilities, so that's not it. I will try a few things here and go get a used google home for testing :face_vomiting:.

Just had an idea about this, could you guys with this problem see if both your voice assistant and hubitat hub are using the same units (Celsius or Fahrenheit). This could be a problem that would not allow setpoints to change because you would be out of range? Just an idea!

I checked, although not too sure about where, to check, but in both my HE and Google Home I have the same scale, so therefore centigrade in both.

Since you mention this, could it be that this is only affecting Celsius users ? If so, then perhaps it is related to the change in version 0.6 ?

I was checking the App code and I cannot find the version number in there, so I just updated both the Parent and Child to, I assume version 0.7.

No change, still not able to set temperature via Google.

Nope, both of mine are definitely in Fahrenheit. I'm willing to re-add my Vthermostats to Google and send over any debug logging that would be useful, but not sure they'll be of any help as I didn't see anything in them even with everything turn up all the way.

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ok that was worth a shot, I'll keep investigating and yes, please do send any logging (google and vThermostat) that could help if there is some info especially on the google side.

I have had some time to do some testing. Essentially when I try to change the temp from Google, nothing is sent back to HE. Making the change from Sharptools, I see the incoming change in the log.

For further testing, I removed one of my thermostats from Google Home sync and re-added it, nothing changed, still not able to change temps.

I then tried to create a new thermostat and then I get the following errors. I can sync it to google, but nothing comes back, and trying to change the temp directly under devices will also not change the temp.

Any thoughts on this error @nclark ?

I then created a second Thermostat and did not get this error, but still unable to change temps via Google.

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Those errors are that it's either receiving a null character for some weird reason and/or the type is not what is expected, I'll take a look this weekend and add some tracing logs to see what is being received and try to figure out what type it's sending over, that might be the core problem here?

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ok, I was looking to figure out these errors and can't seem to find what would be the problem. But since seems to be an error that resolved itself after a new install, I won't go further with this. I'll concentrate on the problems we have with voice assistants.

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For what it's worth, I have trouble controlling my vThermostats through Google home as well. What I have found is that Google is unable to control if the vThermostat is set to heating, but if I set the thermostat to auto mode, then Google is able to control the heating and cooling temperatures independently. I just have to ask Google to set the heating temperature every time I want it to make a change.

Despite this rather small shortcoming, this app is tremendously useful. Thank you very much for developing.

You are right ! :slight_smile: I set mine to Auto and then it works via Google home. This is indeed strange as it used to work well before on Heat. Therefore it looks like something has changed somewhere. But I am sure this information is helpful to further troubleshoot.

@nclark Is there a way to change the device name displaying as tile title on the dashboard? It seems to be not using the usual "title" class.