Evohome Controller Multiple Comms faults

[robsonalan]

Hi All,
I wonder if anyone can advise me at all.
I have had an Evohome system installed for around 2/3 years now, its with the Wifi enabled controller, driving 9 radiator/zones all with HR92's I have a standard boiler with tank so also have the controllers for Hot Water, a tank thermostat and Central Heating Controller.

All has been perfectly fine for the last 3 years or so, I have come home from work today and I have 4 zones that are all reporting that they have comms faults either with the sensor or the actuator.
Also the stored hot water sensor is showing a fault, as is the actuator for the Central Heating and the Hot Water.

Both of the devices that control the Hot Water and Central Heating 3 way valve are also showing a RED led.

Some of the zones are showing temps on the controller others aren't, even one of the zones with a coms fault it actually still showing a HR92 temp which is weird. On the HR92's some are showing the message comms, others No Sync. I have tried do a comms check (not sure exactly how to do it apart from selecting comms check in the menu). When I do it for any device it says not received for everything.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be.

I have ensured I have change the batteries in the HR92 devices when any alerts have been seen on the HR92 Radiator controllers, I have never seen any messages about changing the batteries on the 3 way valve controllers or the Hot Water thermostat.

If feels a bit like something has caused this, possibly a firmware update or something.

I didn't install the system, I had someone install this for me a while ago, but they don't seem to be able to advise or help in this instance.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

[DBMandrake]

I would try rebooting the controller first. Just pop the battery out for a few seconds while it's off the charging stand.

It will take a while for the other devices to sync with it (more than 30 minutes) so be patient after it reboots.

Loss of comms to a large number of devices at once (especially the red LED's on the relays which mean loss of comms for over an hour) suggests either the controller has developed a fault, the controller has suffered a software glitch that a reboot will probably fix, or that there is a lot of wireless interference on 868Mhz, but it would have to be pretty bad to cause such a long outage to the boiler relays on a system that was previously working well.

[robsonalan]

Thanks DBMandrake,
I don't mean to question you, but I was advised years ago when this was installed that if the controller ever lost power either from mains or battery backup that all its settings would go and it would all need reconfiguring, is that not the case then and that its settings would be retained. Just checking before I remove from the charge stand and then remove batteries as suggested.

But I think you may be right, either software glitch or hardware fault.

[DBMandrake]

No settings will be lost by rebooting the controller. It will take a while before all zones are showing temperature readings however - typically around 30 minutes. The red warning LED's on the boiler relays should go out fairly soon after rebooting though, assuming a reboot fixes the problem.

[robsonalan]

Cheers, I will give it a go.

[robsonalan]

Well its been about an hour and a few of the zones are reporting back, but others still haven't reported back. Stored water temp is still not showing and the 2 relays are still red.

Does this sound like a unit fault. Or could there be something else causing a problem. Do the relays and hot water thermostat report when their batteries are low as these haven't been replaced since installation. Could one of the devices either the relays, thermostat or HR92 be causing a problem blocking the signal somehow?

[G4RHL]

Well its been about an hour and a few of the zones are reporting back, but others still haven't reported back. Stored water temp is still not showing and the 2 relays are still red.

Does this sound like a unit fault. Or could there be something else causing a problem. Do the relays and hot water thermostat report when their batteries are low as these haven't been replaced since installation. Could one of the devices either the relays, thermostat or HR92 be causing a problem blocking the signal somehow?

Patience with this one. I have known it take more than an hour when I have done a complete restore like this.

[paulockenden]

It probably isn't this, but just for the purposes of elimination have you installed anything like wireless speakers, headphones, camera, or a baby monitor recently? Something that streams audio or video.

Some of these use 868MHz, and can drown out devices like Evohome.

P.

[robsonalan]

Morning all. Ok so I left the system last night with the controller in its usual location wall mounted in the downstairs hall. Woke up this morning and checked and none of the comms faults have cleared. HR92's locate on the ground floor are all showing their temps, but looking at the HR92's the are either saying COMMS or NO SYNC. I don't have any HR92's or relays from upstairs showing at all with temps.

I have a docking station charger for the controller, I am going to move the controller upstairs near to the 2 relays to see if this helps them sync.

I did put in a new Wireless speaker the other week, but didn't have any problems after it was installed. Its only an Echo from Amazon which we have a few in the house already so would be surprised if this is causing a problem, but will disconnect it anyway.

Its as if something is interfering, or one of the heating devices are constantly broadcasting blocking the signals (or the controller is messed up).

Can I ask when running a zone check do I need to do anything on the HR92, as even the zones which are not reporting faults on the controller fail the zone check when run from the controller?

Also for the relays and tank thermostat, I am thinking of removing the batteries from these for a short while so see if either of them are causing the problem, would this be ok to do, would/should they self configure when new batteries are installed.

Cheers!

[paulockenden]

Amazon Echo won’t be the problem - it doesn’t stream on 868MHz.