Honeywell Evohome Controller Reset Itself

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  • Mavis
    Automated Home Ninja
    • Oct 2014
    • 322

    Honeywell Evohome Controller Reset Itself

    I had the Evohome system fitted in August and have only just switched the heating on and started using it properly.

    Today when I was trying to teach hubby how to use the controls, when I tried to put the controller back into its stand, the controller reset itself. When it came back on, all the rooms showed that they were 'syncing'. They stayed like this for ages so, like you do, I started panicking and fiddling with the controls. I got into the installers menu and tried a RF test which failed (I did turn the radiator controller to test.) I then re binded the boiler transmitter just in case.

    Anyway, two of the rooms (not the one I was playing with) reshowed on the controller and eventually after about an hour they all appeared. The schedules were unaffected. Also, although I am not totally 100% sure, the menus look different but I am not sure what is missing apart from the fault log. (Edit. Have just got 2 comm faults and now the fault log is showing on the menu)

    My question is: is there a quick way to get them all synced quickly?
    Last edited by Mavis; 7 October 2014, 10:55 PM. Reason: Fault log now showing
  • Dizzy_g
    • Oct 2014
    • 5

    #2
    Having had an evotouch freeze on me i discovered that a reboot can be done by removing the controller from the cradle. If you have a desktop unit just unplug the power cable and move around, reapplying power will not cause a reboot and all the syncing. If you have a wall mount i think it will reboot each time it is removed and replaced on the cradle.

    From what I understand the resync just takes a bit of time and is not something that can be sped up, could be corrected on this.

    If you are new to the system another thing i have recently discovered if a HR80 loses connection just pull out a battery and replace and it will force a re-sync, i had been re-binding each time which is very time consuming.
    Hope this helps, i am an evohome newb as well but i'm sure others may have more advice.

    Comment

    • Mavis
      Automated Home Ninja
      • Oct 2014
      • 322

      #3
      Thanks for this. Good to know that all I have to do is wait. Yes, it is the desktop unit I have and I had just been unplugging it as it was easier. This time I had taken it from it's cradle and when I had gone to put it back on, I think that what I had done was just touch the contacts together briefly which caused it to reboot. (I was able to replicate it).

      Yes, I am a complete newb to Evohome and to home automation although I am getting sucked in (today there is an electrician as I type installing LightwaveRF switches at home). At a user level I like to think of myself as a bit of a techie but what is frustrating is that there is not much around to read up on, such as FAQs, troubleshooting, how people have got round various issues.

      I have the newer HR92s and I think that they just reconnect themselves after a comms fault (what causes these?) but again, good to know that taking a battery out could make it sync.

      When I first looked into the Evohome I thought that the rad valves were removable so that they could pick up the temp in a different part of the room but they are obviously not.

      Also something else that would have been good would be a wireless window sensor as someone always leaves our kitchen door open in our house - if there was a way of incorporating the window sensor that Lightwaverf does into the Evohome......

      Comment

      • HenGus
        Automated Home Legend
        • May 2014
        • 1001

        #4
        I am not sure that I see the value of having a standalone controller on a cradle when the Evohome system can be controlled via a smartphone. My installer used the the wires to the hall thermostat to power the wall mount kit, and I think that the controller looks nice mounted on the wall.

        Comment

        • Vangelis
          Automated Home Guru
          • Sep 2009
          • 131

          #5
          HR92's will detect a sudden temperature drop in the room (as in a door or window open) and shuts off the local radiator (unsure if the delta is configurable)

          Vangelis

          Comment

          • Mavis
            Automated Home Ninja
            • Oct 2014
            • 322

            #6
            Originally posted by Vangelis View Post
            HR92's will detect a sudden temperature drop in the room (as in a door or window open) and shuts off the local radiator (unsure if the delta is configurable)

            Vangelis
            Thank you. That is excellent news.

            Comment

            • SensibleHeatUK
              Moderator
              • Feb 2009
              • 228

              #7
              If you need to measure the temperature in a different part of the room you would need to add one of the wireless room sensors in that zone - there are several units that are compatible, including units with LCD display that also allow setpoint adjustment.
              Sensible Heat
              SensibleHeat.co.uk

              Comment

              • Mavis
                Automated Home Ninja
                • Oct 2014
                • 322

                #8
                Although the thought of more gadgets excites me, I guess I really must get to grips with what I have already.
                A good start would probably be a straightforward thermometer first and see what the temps are in different parts of the room.
                Another thing perhaps I shouldn't get hung up about is the numbers themselves and instead go by whether it feels warm or cold.

                Comment

                • HenGus
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • May 2014
                  • 1001

                  #9
                  One of the factors for our purchase of Evohome was the effect of a wood-burning stove that we purchased 5 years ago. The stove has un-balanced (if that is a word) our heating system. Having put the stove on for the last couple of chilly nights, it is interesting to see where the heat generated actually goes via the HR92 temperature read outs on my phone. The heat is getting to parts of the house that I wouldn't have thought possible. We live in a 5 bedroomed property.

                  Comment

                  • weejimmy
                    Automated Home Jr Member
                    • Oct 2014
                    • 10

                    #10
                    Mine has done this several times on the desktop stand, but only when it is not powered! If the power is on it is fine. It has happened to me when moving the desktop stand around the house and putting the controller back on it before switching on the power. I have a wall mount kit too and that has never caused a reset.

                    One thing I found helped with the re-synching was to go around to each TRV and push the button in it to wake it up. That seemed to cause an immediate (ish) resynch.

                    Comment

                    • G4RHL
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Jan 2015
                      • 1580

                      #11
                      Resetting etc.

                      Originally posted by Mavis View Post
                      Thanks for this. Good to know that all I have to do is wait. Yes, it is the desktop unit I have and I had just been unplugging it as it was easier. This time I had taken it from it's cradle and when I had gone to put it back on, I think that what I had done was just touch the contacts together briefly which caused it to reboot. (I was able to replicate it).

                      Yes, I am a complete newb to Evohome and to home automation although I am getting sucked in (today there is an electrician as I type installing LightwaveRF switches at home). At a user level I like to think of myself as a bit of a techie but what is frustrating is that there is not much around to read up on, such as FAQs, troubleshooting, how people have got round various issues.

                      I have the newer HR92s and I think that they just reconnect themselves after a comms fault (what causes these?) but again, good to know that taking a battery out could make it sync.

                      When I first looked into the Evohome I thought that the rad valves were removable so that they could pick up the temp in a different part of the room but they are obviously not.

                      Also something else that would have been good would be a wireless window sensor as someone always leaves our kitchen door open in our house - if there was a way of incorporating the window sensor that Lightwaverf does into the Evohome......
                      You will find LightwaveRF gear very useful. I started to go that route 2 years ago and also change light bulbs to LED ones. All lights, including garage and outside ones are controlled using LightwaveRF and I have installed some sockets as well. I have used a number of plug ins as opposed to installing sockets simply because it is easy. It does give good control from wherever you - Australia for me a couple of months ago.

                      For heating though I went the Evohome route. Costs me more but the quality is excellent. There is though often a delay in things happening, when resetting etc. Once you know it happens then the concern goes! Possibly it is due to the inbuilt delay with the TRVs communicating back and forth as they do so at about 4 minute intervals I believe.

                      I set the optimisation parameters recently and to my surprise the system seems to learn and adjust. At first heating came on about an hour ahead to warm a room to its set temperature as set by the timer but I noticed after a few days this began to change, it is not always an hour and often less and seems to be dependent on the actual temperature of the room at the time it calculating the time it may take to get up to temperature so that how soon it switches on depends on the actual room temperature at the time. Also, and am not sure if I am right on this, but it also seems to learn how long it takes to warm a room up as well. It could be just me but it seems that way.

                      The system works well. Am running with 11 zones (every room is set as a zone) and 12 radiators with the TRVs. There is a 13th radiator without one to provide a relief go the pump if all others close down and the pump is on an overrun. This one is the downstairs loo. Its lovely and warm in there!! I have noticed since installing it all though that the boiler/pump rarely goes into overrun when the heating goes off. It always used to happen before. Not now it seems.

                      Comment

                      • SensibleHeatUK
                        Moderator
                        • Feb 2009
                        • 228

                        #12
                        Regarding optimisation (you can set Optimum Start and Optimum Off if preferred) then yes, the units do learn the characteristics of the room and adjust this automatically depending on the room temperature and setpoint target. The units also measure the accurracy of room temperature control and automatcially adjust their valve modulation to improve control accurracy. These features have been in the previous generation of the control for many years and come from strategies used in commercial buildings with full scale BMS systems. In fact the modules here do a far better job than most BMS systems as the programs have been developed and tested over many years and a lot of effort has gone into the fuzzy logic self-learning/tuning algorithms to ensure they are effective. Many BMS systems are still programmed during commissioning using code written by the commissioning engineer, and very often use generic PID control loops that are never properly tested/tuned/adjusted leading to poor levels of control that are never improved. Honeywell's approach guarantees that the majority of installations are optimised without user intervention and deliver the best performance possible within the boundries of the user settings and the limitations of the mechanical systems they control.
                        Sensible Heat
                        SensibleHeat.co.uk

                        Comment

                        • G4RHL
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Jan 2015
                          • 1580

                          #13
                          Thanks for confirming my suppositions! It certainly has seemed to gradually adjust in the optimisation setting. A definite learning process. Such that I have now moved my start times for some zones forward by an hour letting the optimisation do its thing.

                          Initially I also spent some days monitoring the temperature in rooms at say waist height using two thermometers for reference purposes. This showed the reading in the TRVs in some cases was lower than actual room temperature, in one case it was higher. Possibly the lower temperature may be due to drafts at ground floor level plus the fact that hot air rises so it will be warmer higher up. I adjusted the relevant TRVs to compensate but still ended up with different readings. Assuming that possibly there is no real need to make these adjustments I have reverted back to a zero compensation setting and accept the room temperature will be higher. Indeed at night with curtains closed in my lounge the TRVs are set to 21C but the room temperature at waist height is often 23 or 23.5C. Perhaps I ought to try adjusting again?!

                          For those also installing hot water with Evohome what is not clear in the manual and took some solving was the need to pair the sensor on the tank to its receiver first, then pair to the hot water relay, then pair to the heating relay and in that order.

                          It would be more useful if the custom menu/override could be more editable and also if there was the facility to add additional custom menus or perhaps make all the others customisable which probably could be simply done with a software upgrade. For example the preset menu that reduces all to 15C if one is away is fine but it is all, I have a radiator in my conservatory which if set to 15 will come on. It would be nice if I could edit that menu so that the conservatory is isolated to come on if say the temperature dropped to 3C - indeed not 5C! With the minimum set at 5c I hear the heating operating during the night but it would not at 3C as the temperature rarely if ever drops that low. I have used the custom menu to get around this but it still leaves the conservatory set to a minimum of 5C and that I think is too high.

                          A great system though. I have ended up with a much more balanced heat throughout the house.

                          Comment

                          • SensibleHeatUK
                            Moderator
                            • Feb 2009
                            • 228

                            #14
                            When you bare in mind that water can start to freeze at temperatures just above freezing (upto 4 degrees in certain circumstances) I would guess that the 5 degree minimum was chosen deliberately for this reason. Evo is sold all over Europe, with external temperatures that will be far colder than that in the UK, so I expect it will be a safe temperature for those areas too. I've certainly had customers who have suffered frozen/burst pipes and now have a requirement by their insurance company to maintain 7 degrees as the minimum internal temperature otherwise they will not be covered against future frozen pipe claims.

                            Due to the way the HR92s operate they may start to open the valve/run the heating before the minimum temperature is reached, so even at 3 degrees you may not stop the heating from firing up in the Conservatory when it gets very cold. It does this so as to make sure the room temperature does not fall below the minimum setting while it waits for the circuit to warm up and start heating the room.

                            I actually prefer the simplicity of the quick action/custom menus now that you can also override any zone directly too - the older Hometronic system had 16 customisable overrides (although none had any time program control) which were either rarely used, or became very complicated to manage as only one override could be active at a time.
                            Sensible Heat
                            SensibleHeat.co.uk

                            Comment

                            • G4RHL
                              Automated Home Legend
                              • Jan 2015
                              • 1580

                              #15
                              Yes, a good point worth making - freezing can start at higher temperatures than you may think. Too many customisable menus would certainly create chaos but a little more flexibility with what we have would be helpful. Possibly there is also an IFTT patch that someone has written that does this. But then you can so easily make things over complicated.

                              Have had mixed messages from insurers when leaving my property unoccupied. From the minimum setting to be 5C, 7C, or 10C, having to do a complete drain down and the one that I think gets first prize is to drain the system but you do not need to drain the radiators! When I pointed out the stupidity of this to the insurers they came back to me and amended the condition to keeping the heating on set to no less than 10C.

                              One thought, it would be a nice touch to have a device that guests can have to turn up the radiator in their room without showing them how to take the end cap off and adjust it with the little wheel nor by letting them have the app on their phone. Or would the free standing thermostat do that if left in a guests room to use? I presume it will.

                              Comment

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