New evohome FW - update WiFi 02.00.17.00 and Application 02.00.17.03

[HenGus]

@robj20 This has always been my big concern about push updates; smart heating controls; Winter, and being away from home.

[MrBoy]

My system went seriously wonky during the update too - half the rooms stopped reporting temperatures. I thought it was bust but by the time I'd finished writing a post here about it, I checked and it was working again!

It is worrying that you seemingly have NO control over updates (barring pulling internet connection). Being able to schedule an update in some fashion would be a good addition in deep settings.

[robj20]

Glad it wasn't just mine. They should at least limit updates for summer, and download but not install. It can ask and then do a restart, such simple ways to do it properly.

[DBMandrake]

My system went seriously wonky during the update too - half the rooms stopped reporting temperatures. I thought it was bust but by the time I'd finished writing a post here about it, I checked and it was working again!

Your system did not go "seriously wonky".

Temperature sensors only transmit periodically, so when the controller is rebooted it doesn't know what the temperature is in a zone until next time the zone temperature sensor reports in. In the meantime it shows an hour glass to indicate it doesn't know what the zone temperature is yet. After a period of time (which can vary from a few minutes to about 30 minutes typically) a sensor will report in and the zone temperature will appear.

All perfectly normal and expected behaviour after a reboot. Try rebooting your controller again without a firmware update and it will behave exactly the same... and for zones that use HR92's as sensors you can just press the button on each HR92 to force an immediate temperature update to hurry it along.

[DBMandrake]

Woke up this morning to find the house freezing couldnt figure out why, boiler showed no demand, yet the valves and evohome showed the correct target temps. Just as if evohome hadnt sent the demand to the boiler.

When you got up, how long past the time that zones were scheduled to come on was it ?

Anyway noticed the outside temp at the top so thought it must have updated which it has i now have the demand in % shown in deep settings.
Took the batteries out and back in and the heating fired up.

Is this normal that a firmware update can mess things up until you restart the device?

Not normal no - can't say I've seen anyone else report this.

It's possible that the update just occurred at an inopportune time in relation to your schedule, and it's very likely that if you had just left it alone it would have sorted itself out at the next set point change, or within about 20 minutes, depending on what the exact cause was as the set points, measured temperatures and heat demands are all re-sent periodically.

[Ian_W]

My system went seriously wonky during the update too - half the rooms stopped reporting temperatures. I thought it was bust but by the time I'd finished writing a post here about it, I checked and it was working again!

As noted elsewhere, you can speed up the "discovery" process by briefly pressing the button on any slow-to-call-in HR92s.

[G4RHL]

Your system did not go "seriously wonky".

Temperature sensors only transmit periodically, so when the controller is rebooted it doesn't know what the temperature is in a zone until next time the zone temperature sensor reports in. In the meantime it shows an hour glass to indicate it doesn't know what the zone temperature is yet. After a period of time (which can vary from a few minutes to about 30 minutes typically) a sensor will report in and the zone temperature will appear.

All perfectly normal and expected behaviour after a reboot. Try rebooting your controller again without a firmware update and it will behave exactly the same...

Some of us long time users know this. Nice though if users could be told when it is to happen. There are many no doubt who may panic. Plus perhaps do the update at 01:00 in the morning.

[robj20]

When you got up, how long past the time that zones were scheduled to come on was it ?

Not normal no - can't say I've seen anyone else report this.

It's possible that the update just occurred at an inopportune time in relation to your schedule, and it's very likely that if you had just left it alone it would have sorted itself out at the next set point change, or within about 20 minutes, depending on what the exact cause was as the set points, measured temperatures and heat demands are all re-sent periodically.

It was scheduled to come in at 4:50 and at 5:10 it was all cold with no signs on the boiler. Each zone had the right target temp just no boiler firing.

[MrBoy]

Your system did not go "seriously wonky".

Temperature sensors only transmit periodically, so when the controller is rebooted it doesn't know what the temperature is in a zone until next time the zone temperature sensor reports in. In the meantime it shows an hour glass to indicate it doesn't know what the zone temperature is yet. After a period of time (which can vary from a few minutes to about 30 minutes typically) a sensor will report in and the zone temperature will appear.

All perfectly normal and expected behaviour after a reboot. Try rebooting your controller again without a firmware update and it will behave exactly the same... and for zones that use HR92's as sensors you can just press the button on each HR92 to force an immediate temperature update to hurry it along.

Sure it might be normal but if as a typical user I wake up and half my zones are reporting "--" and the others look fine, and the controller doesn't TELL me an update is in progress or something, then it IS wonky. It's just bad software UX practice not to let a user know that something is happening which could make them think it's having issues.

[dty]

When I got the beta software, it renamed all my zones! There was something else odd too, but I can't remember the details.

Like others, I agree that you should have to physically accept a firmware update on the controller. Honeywell could email you telling you that it's available, etc. But you should have to go to the controller and accept it.

I'm genuinely worried that it will update when we're on holiday during the winter and leave the house unheated.

[MrBoy]

The counter-argument would be non-savvy users wouldn't know what to do, though I'm not sure how many such people would install such a complex system?

You could just put a big popup on the controller "UPDATE READY FOR INSTALL".

Honeywell presumably want everyone to update as fast as possible so they can kill off support for the old version - for them forcing everyone to update makes life a lot easier than supporting a whole range of versions when people don't want to update.

[dty]

You could just put a big popup on the controller "UPDATE READY FOR INSTALL".

That's precisely what I'd envisaged. And if it had gone unanswered for a week, Honeywell could email you to tell you that it's there (because not everyone has their controller somewhere they'd see it).

[robj20]

At the very least the update should automatically do a restart at the end.

[DBMandrake]

At the very least the update should automatically do a restart at the end.

The update does restart the controller. (Twice actually, once after the wifi update and a second time after the application update)

That's why the hour glasses appear saying that it doesn't know what the zone temperatures are for a while. What leads you to suspect that your controller didn't reboot after updating ?

[rotor]

The counter-argument would be non-savvy users wouldn't know what to do, though I'm not sure how many such people would install such a complex system?

You could just put a big popup on the controller "UPDATE READY FOR INSTALL".

Honeywell presumably want everyone to update as fast as possible so they can kill off support for the old version - for them forcing everyone to update makes life a lot easier than supporting a whole range of versions when people don't want to update.

Honeywell's version of "as fast as possible" is pretty weird. It's now Feb and I still haven't got the update. I have the v2 wifi firmware, but the application firmware is still 1.00.07.01 -- I check every single morning to see if I got the update.