Evohome sync issues

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  • ThePants999
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Jan 2018
    • 13

    #16
    Thought I'd provide an update. Factory reset didn't change anything. Installer asked that I engage Honeywell support before getting a warranty replacement, though. Wish I hadn't! I've spent the last 9 days going back and forth with them:
    - they tried updating my firmware, unsurprisingly no effect (it's not like this was a widely-known issue on any previous firmware version)
    - they told me they'd been having server problems, and I should wait and see if the problem went away after they fixed them - obviously it didn't, because their servers have naff-all to do with changes I make on the controller being sent to the TRVs
    - they asked for photos of the TRV displays, presumably doubting my claim that I hadn't overridden the temp at the TRV
    - now they think that all my overrides (because obviously I spend all day just setting and cancelling overrides) are causing "RF clutter" and they've asked me to see if a few days without any overrides magically fixes things :-/

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    • paulockenden
      Automated Home Legend
      • Apr 2015
      • 1719

      #17
      An experience to match your username!

      Comment

      • DBMandrake
        Automated Home Legend
        • Sep 2014
        • 2361

        #18
        Oh dear. If I were you I'd give up with jumping through hoops (very silly ones at that) and demand they proceed with the warranty replacement.

        Comment

        • ThePants999
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Jan 2018
          • 13

          #19
          Can I just check to make sure I'm not expecting too much of the system. Other Evohome users: if you engage Economy mode, or Heating Off mode, does that quickly (<10mins) update all your TRVs?

          Comment

          • G4RHL
            Automated Home Legend
            • Jan 2015
            • 1580

            #20
            Originally posted by ThePants999 View Post
            Can I just check to make sure I'm not expecting too much of the system. Other Evohome users: if you engage Economy mode, or Heating Off mode, does that quickly (<10mins) update all your TRVs?
            Always less than 10 minutes in my case.

            Comment

            • DBMandrake
              Automated Home Legend
              • Sep 2014
              • 2361

              #21
              Originally posted by ThePants999 View Post
              Can I just check to make sure I'm not expecting too much of the system. Other Evohome users: if you engage Economy mode, or Heating Off mode, does that quickly (<10mins) update all your TRVs?
              Under 4 minutes is normal behaviour.

              Comment

              • G4RHL
                Automated Home Legend
                • Jan 2015
                • 1580

                #22
                Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
                Under 4 minutes is normal behaviour.
                Indeed, I have just done changes and it was less than that for the system to react. My quicken is to over ride the hot water setting. That always goes into action much quicker than an HR92 change.

                Comment

                • paulockenden
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Apr 2015
                  • 1719

                  #23
                  Usually less than five minutes before the HR92 orchestra starts playing its tune.

                  Comment

                  • ThePants999
                    Automated Home Jr Member
                    • Jan 2018
                    • 13

                    #24
                    Thanks all.

                    Comment

                    • Dan_Robinson
                      Automated Home Ninja
                      • Jun 2012
                      • 347

                      #25
                      These two actions are the slowest to respond in my experience. However that experience is influenced by Hcc80 units that can be even slower than pure hr9x systems.
                      Kind Regards - Dan Robinson (Jennings Heating Ltd)

                      Comment

                      • DBMandrake
                        Automated Home Legend
                        • Sep 2014
                        • 2361

                        #26
                        Originally posted by G4RHL View Post
                        Indeed, I have just done changes and it was less than that for the system to react. My quicken is to over ride the hot water setting. That always goes into action much quicker than an HR92 change.
                        Hot water overrides apply immediately without any delay.

                        Although if the hot water is between the upper and lower limit (54 and 49 for me) and is currently reheating, if you disable it it will stop immediately but won't start again when you re-enable it because it is already above the lower limit. But if it is below the lower limit you can enable and disable it freely and the relays will respond immediately.

                        Comment

                        • ThePants999
                          Automated Home Jr Member
                          • Jan 2018
                          • 13

                          #27
                          Well, this is still ongoing, a month later. The TRVs are now usually picking up changes appropriately quickly, so that's good - frustratingly it didn't seem to be anything but the passage of time that fixed that, so no satisfying explanation But my problem where the TRVs override the controller, instead of vice versa, still exists, and it's seriously annoying to walk into a freezing cold dining room in the morning because the overnight scheduled temperature has appeared as an override in the morning. Honeywell have finally acknowledged the problem's on their side - "We have seen this happening on a couple of sites and believe it is a set temperature message being wrong interpreted as an override." - but have no timeframe yet for a fix. Wish I could get a refund on this whole system

                          For now I've written a script to look for overrides every 5 minutes and cancel them, so many thanks to Andrew Stock for the client library!

                          Comment

                          • DBMandrake
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Sep 2014
                            • 2361

                            #28
                            How many zones are overriding back to previous set points ?

                            I'm surprised they didn't tell you the current workaround that they have told other people - simply remove and refit the batteries in all the HR92's in the affected zone, putting the batteries back in at a "random" time of the hour that does not coincide with any scheduled set point changes. The periodic set point broadcast from an HR92 is hourly, from boot time of the device.

                            The window of opportunity for this problem is very small - about 3 minutes. For the problem to occur that hourly set point broadcast must fall within the narrow window between when a scheduled setpoint change occurs, and the set point update is actually sent to the HR92, which can be up to about 3 minutes 40 seconds later.

                            For example if you have set point changes only on the hour on a given zone, then there is a period from on the how until 3 minutes 40 seconds after the hour where if the hourly scheduled transmission falls in this gap the set point change will be reverted as an override.

                            So reboot the HR92 at some other point in the hour. Preferably at a point that doesn't coincide with any 10 minute interval. I have had to reboot an HR92 a couple of times to work around this issue over the last 2-3 years I've had the system, so it's not a major problem. For me it happens more often when I do a manual operator initiated override from my phone or control panel - this is because random chance says that you might do this override near the time that the hourly broadcast is due.

                            On thinking over your other symptoms of set point changes not reliably getting sent from controller to HR92's or after a long time delay it occurs to me that this would also greatly exacerbate the phantom manual override issue, as it opens up a much larger time window for the issue to occur, making it much, much more likely to occur.

                            For example say a set point change is scheduled on the hour and the controller sends that change at 3 minutes past, but due to poor comms the HR92 does not receive it. The controller may retry sending it at 23 minutes past the hour (hence the delays you see) however if in the meantime the HR92's hourly update has been sent any time between the hour and 23 minutes past you will get the phantom override issue. And that is a much, much larger time window for the problem to exhibit.

                            Fix the issue with the controller having trouble sending to the HR92's and I think your phantom override reverts will also go away to the point where you almost never see it. (I won't say never because there is always a very small chance of it happening with the current system design)

                            Looking back through the thread we all came to the conclusion the controller was faulty, but I don't see any post from you saying that the controller has been replaced yet ? If it hasn't been swapped under warranty yet if I were you I would be pushing hard for the controller to be swapped under warranty. Any reputable seller or installer would have done this by now if you have had over a month of the system malfunctioning and Honeywell support can't fix the issue.

                            In your shoes I would not accept anything else. It's up to Honeywell to study the returned unit to find out what is wrong with it, not to use you as a guinea pig. If I had to guess I would say the 868Mhz RF transmitter in the controller is faulty (low power output or intermittently garbled) but the receiver is working OK, hence comms issues in one direction. If your seller/installer is uncooperative I would ask Honeywell to intervene.

                            The experience you've had is unfortunate but also very unusual - the system is not without its flaws but it is far, far, more reliable that you are experiencing and is of perfectly usable quality. I have never seen the issue where set points sent from controller to HR92 don't go through for a long period of time, and haven't seen anyone else report it. The problem with the phantom override where the HR92 causes the set point to be reverted to the previous one I have seen, but it is exceptionally rare. I might see it once a month if I'm lucky.
                            Last edited by DBMandrake; 1 March 2018, 08:26 AM.

                            Comment

                            • morpheus
                              Automated Home Sr Member
                              • Apr 2016
                              • 68

                              #29
                              +1 ... I was one of the first reporting this problem to Honeywell more than 2 years ago I think.
                              I gave access to my Evotouch to their developper's team and this is how they found the issue and provided the workaround.

                              I even received an HR92 as "thank you" from Honeywell ;-)

                              But after a so long time there is still according me any software update solving this issue ...

                              Comment

                              • ThePants999
                                Automated Home Jr Member
                                • Jan 2018
                                • 13

                                #30
                                Ah, that makes so much sense - thanks very much for the clear explanation! They have actually been asking me to do that workaround, but despite me asking, they didn't explain why I was doing it or what it was supposed to achieve. Their instructions were also much worse, IMO:

                                Remove the batteries from the HR92 and replace them between 4 minutes past the hour/quarter/half hour and 4 minutes to the hour/half/quarter hour.

                                Example:

                                Look at your watch and then look at the next timed scheduled for that zone.

                                Let's say it is set to 10:30 and the time is 10:32, wait until it passes 4 minutes - arrive to 10:36 or more but not past 60 minutes - and remove and add the batteries in the HR92.
                                And that hasn't helped much, either - my script has already fixed 5 phantom overrides this morning alone in zones where I've already performed this reset procedure. So you must be right - the controller's difficulty in pushing new set points to HR92s is extending this window to the point I'm hitting it more. That fits the data perfectly - following the instructions Honeywell gave me, I reset the HR92s at between X:06 and X:08 where they had setpoint changes at X:00, and this morning, my script detected no phantom overrides in those zones at X:05 but did find them at X:10. So presumably the scheduled change still hadn't taken effect on the TRV by the hourly broadcast, and then the broadcast was misinterpreted by the controller as an override.

                                I had so much hope when they said this was a known issue, but if they still haven't fixed it after two years then that's gone - plus it's now clear that I have another issue beyond that one. I shall indeed return to pushing for a replacement!

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