Evohome self install

[orange]

just thought I'd post the results of a long call with honeywell and their take on self installation of the honeywell product...

There upshot was that if you were not part of the accredited installer network then you would only get 'limited' hardware support from honeywell.

There was a little bit of backtracking on this statement but it was explicitly mentioned that things such as 'binding' of sensors etc would not be supported. In addition problems that could have possibly been instigated by the install would not necessarily be supported either........

In my case my online account and schedule have become corrupted. The insinuation was that it's possible (how !!??) that this could have happened because of something in the install process (despite working fine for months) and therefore might not be fully supported. It seems to me that in essence any issue you have with evohome could have been because of a faulty install and so might not be supported.

I'm going to try and get clarification regarding this but ultimately if it goes wrong you might be on your own.

[The EVOHOME Shop]

just thought I'd post the results of a long call with honeywell and their take on self installation of the honeywell product...

There upshot was that if you were not part of the accredited installer network then you would only get 'limited' hardware support from honeywell.

There was a little bit of backtracking on this statement but it was explicitly mentioned that things such as 'binding' of sensors etc would not be supported. In addition problems that could have possibly been instigated by the install would not necessarily be supported either........

In my case my online account and schedule have become corrupted. The insinuation was that it's possible (how !!??) that this could have happened because of something in the install process (despite working fine for months) and therefore might not be fully supported. It seems to me that in essence any issue you have with evohome could have been because of a faulty install and so might not be supported.

I'm going to try and get clarification regarding this but ultimately if it goes wrong you might be on your own.

I am not entirely sure what has happened here or what Honeywell have said. You were certainly not on your own when it came to your issues and I have even offered my own unpaid support. You have chosen to use Honeywell to support the issues you have had and after speaking to a contact I have there, they have worked extremely hard to support your issues and even offered to send you replacement items.

The evohome system is not flawless, hence I go out of my way in our office and on here to aid installation. Honeywell I imagine spend thousands of pounds on supporting issues with self installations and I imagine in many instances for very basic situations where the self installer does not have the knowledge to apply the system to their own homes.

I am afraid there is a cut-off point where it is not viable to keep supporting a problem, especially when all the knowns have been taken care of.

If there is anything I can do, please let me know as last thing I want is for you to be unhappy with a really great product.

Thanks,

Richard.

[orange]

Hi Richard - your support is much appreciated but my problem was with my online account becoming corrupted and a corrupted evohome systems (I suspect this came from using the IOS app).

they did indeed offer to send replacement items - and did in fact send me a replacement gateway...and were just about to send yet another replacement gateway. It's taken 2 weeks to get to this stage and the final outcome is "wipe your entire install and start again" - with no guarantees that this will actually resolve the situation.

I also agree that there is a cut-off point where it is not viable to keep supporting a problem - but I wouldn't dream of asking them to support or fix anything I personally had done incorrectly - but if the problem is because of faulty honeywell code or honeywell hardware then I feel they SHOULD be supporting it.......if you have self installed the truth is they might not.

In this instance the fault is 100 percent honeywell's and here I am 2 weeks later with the same problem and honeywell are pulling the "you should have used an authorised installer" card.

I'd encourage Honeywell to come on here or to post on their website exactly what they will support if you self install and for how long that is valid for. Bear in mind that you are essentially at their mercy as regards having to use their servers to operate evohome remotely and if this goes wrong it is at their discretion as to whether or not you will get assistance.

As you say, the product is 99% great but Honeywell's support of it is sadly lacking - especially in this instance.

[G4RHL]

Orange, do I take it that you have now gone down the route, deleted the account, set one up afresh, registered the gateway and done a fresh complete install/binding of everything and you still have the same issue?

[orange]

Orange, do I take it that you have now gone down the route, deleted the account, set one up afresh, registered the gateway and done a fresh complete install/binding of everything and you still have the same issue?

Yes - and that's an hour of my life I'll never get back - and despite promises, yes the problem remains.

[G4RHL]

Sorry to hear that. It worked for me eventually. I also originally have a system that worked 100%, then a few weeks ago I lost two way communciation with the app. Many attempts to reregister failed and ultimately a new account set up for me, a deletion of previous registered data (which despite trying I could not seem to delete my end), to play safe a complete new install my end and it all works again. As your gateway has been replaced and as so many others have fully working systems it does seem to point to something else that you have. In my case I continue to suspect my router was part of the problem as after this issue started my iMac could no longer access the Internet if hard wired to the router. I have now put in a replacement router until I can find out what the problem is re computer access not working.

Worth carefully checking all that is connected to your router/modem. I suspect you have done a factory reset of that already. What you describe somehow just does not sound like a continuing Honeywell issue yet, as in my case, seemed to start when using the app. I did establish that some maintenance was being carried out to the server at the time my problem started. But it may be too simple to say that is the cause, it could be a router/Internet connection problem. If able to try using a different router.

My remaining issue was not being able to access my account when roaming. That seems to have been cured with a complete restore of my iPhone but it is not a quick connection. That may be due to the amount of data being downloaded.

[Wally©]

Yes - and that's an hour of my life I'll never get back - and despite promises, yes the problem remains.

What I would do to make sure that the problem is not on your side of things...

1. Take your gateway + evohome controller to another place with wifi access...

The controller and gateway remain bonded...

The gateway only uses its hardware characteristics to authenticate with the Honeywell servers...

2. Do your thing at that location...See what gives...

[orange]

Good advice but been there, done that - using next door's Internet.

There is certainly an issue with schedule data that is on their server being corrupt (which they accept) and this has been been throwing errors in the app. The question remains where the corruption of the data has come from (I'm personally convinced it's the IOS app) and why is it so persistent ?

Also bear in mind that nothing has changed (added/removed) since it was installed. It worked fine for months. It's only recently that problems have occurred and the only interaction I have had is via the app to change schedules and temporary overides.

There is/was a tacit (actually it was explicit!) implication that because I installed it myself something I had done (changed the schedules?!) had broken it.

So basically Honeywell have confirmed there is an issue - they have replicated it - but don't know the exact nature of it or how to fix it.

[G4RHL]

So surely if it is in the server then a completely new account will be clean and should work? If it does not, as I assume is the case for you, it is not the server but your end; it could be the app. But then nobody else has the problem, or at least it seems that way. If it was a server issue would not these pages be crammed with unhappy customers rather than the opposite? Have you tried it using your phone away from home in roaming mode and perhaps get somebody else to download the app on to their phone and try theirs to ensure the problem is not your phone.

One other query. When did the problem start? Mine was around the 28th January. Does that tie in with yours?

[Wally©]

Since we're on a wild goose chase here...

Let's do some more hunting...

1. Log-off from the app on your iPhone...
2. Delete the app (press and hold the icon till it wiggles and press the 'x'...then confirm deletion..)
3. Power down and reboot your iPhone
4. Hard reset your iPhone (press and hold home- and power button untill the Apple logo appears...then release both)
5. Reinstall the app (appstore-->updates-->purchases-->Not on this iPhone (it should be on the list)
6. Log in with your credentials and hope for the best...

[orange]

hi all

just had a call from honeywell - and fair play to them they have found the issue.

it's basically a bug/feature regarding set points. You are not totally free to have your setpoints quite as randomly as you might think. They said they'd post up here later with more details. There's no hardware problem and it's not specific to my setup.

Since we're on a wild goose chase here...

Let's do some more hunting...

1. Log-off from the app on your iPhone...
2. Delete the app (press and hold the icon till it wiggles and press the 'x'...then confirm deletion..)
3. Power down and reboot your iPhone
4. Hard reset your iPhone (press and hold home- and power button untill the Apple logo appears...then release both)
5. Reinstall the app (appstore-->updates-->purchases-->Not on this iPhone (it should be on the list)
6. Log in with your credentials and hope for the best...

[Wally©]

Good for you...

A part from doing a rain dance...There was nothing else you could do on your side...

But I'm wondering...

If this is a bug...Where is it..? Is it specifically app-related or controller related...

The app can easily be remedied...

The controller however..?!

Please keep up posted...and thx for the feedback...

[orange]

nothing I could have done my end. I don't want to post incorrect information and hopefully Honeywell will come on and correct me if I do...but:

there's something 'special' about the time from midnight to 3am (notice how the app treats this differently to the controller - something I reported to Honeywell months ago and was it was acknowledged as a bug - which they said they were going to correct).

Basically the app sees this differently from the controller - so if you have events scheduled in at this time (and no other events?) then the server can't cope with syncing them....so it barfs.

solution seems to be to make sure you add extra events (even if you don't need them) between 3am and midnight. Haven't tested it yet though. This is considered more of a feature than a bug (?) and there is apparently something about it in the installer notes that consumers don't get to see - although I suspect installers don't know either (Richard ?)

Reading between the lines the controller/gateway/TCC doesn't work in quite the way you might imagine and there seem to be multiple limitations in it - as the clear implication was this 'couldn't/wouldn't' be fixed in the controller. You have to bear in mind that Honeywell are a hardware manufacturer and almost certainly (?!) approach the software control side in a totally different manner than a normal software manufacturer would if starting from scratch. Some of the limitations are hardware based.

Despite wasting hours on this and swapping stuff and basically starting from scratch, which was irritating and unnecessary, I'm still impressed that they tracked down the issue as I'd basically given up. So Kudos to them for that.

It does lead me to wonder what other 'features' are hard coded into the system ?

(ps this applies to IOS dunno about windows/android but I suspect it's the same as it's the controller firmware that is screwy)

apologies for any misinformation - I'm just relaying it as I understand it.

[Wally©]

So there's no real fix...yet...

Just a workaround...

And with all due respect...This expensive piece of hardware NEEDS the proper software to run on...

The rest...in my humble opinion is plain B.S...

[orange]

So there's no real fix...yet...

Just a workaround...

And with all due respect...This expensive piece of hardware NEEDS the proper software to run on...

The rest...in my humble opinion is plain B.S...

I can see your point but we have to accept all software driven devices will have bugs - it's a fact of life. Realistically the question is how big are the bugs and are they show stoppers.


My gripe is that this stuff should be documented and distributed to end-users (and their own support staff)
In this instance they eventually did the right thing. They investigated and found the issue and came up with a workaround.


- quick update is that putting extra switch points in does seem to resolve the issue and now it works as expected.