Haunted EvoHome

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  • Freeco
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Jan 2018
    • 11

    Haunted EvoHome

    From time to time our EvoHome system seems haunted. I mean, at times it's not following its program. Not often, but it's annoying.
    2 simple examples:
    1. Last autumn or so all of a sudden our bathroom zone (2 HR92's) jumped to the max temp (which I had luckily reduced from the max 35°C(?) to 26°C) for no reason. I think this happened twice.
    Last year I called a Honeywell representative about this, and he said to do a full reset of the HR92s. He explained an undocumented trick: go to the bind menu of the HR92, and keep pressing the button for 5-10sec until it actually unbinds. Then add it to the zone again. He claimed this gets rid of any remnants from a previous zone config. I was doubtful but gave it a try, and this issue hasn't come up anymore since.
    2. Today both our living room zone (4 HR92's) & bathroom zone were set to 16°C. While they should have been 20.5 and 19° respectively since 16:30. My wife noticed the zones were still green when she came home from work, while they should have been orange. She took a picture of the console to prove it to me.
    IMG-20190516-WA0000.jpg

    We don't have kids or pets that potentially mess about with the HR92's. This just happens on its own.

    Anyone else having this?
    Is there a way to get logs from the console, so I can have a bit more insight on what's actually happening? (I'm an IT guy, so I love logs )
    Any other tricks to undocumented tricks prevent this?
  • paulockenden
    Automated Home Legend
    • Apr 2015
    • 1719

    #2
    Looking at the image you posted, a) it appears to be an over-ride, and b) looking at the schedule timeline it appears to have only just happened before the photo was taken.

    Did your missus also take a photo of the main screen? That might give a clue as to whether the override was initiated locally or remotely.

    Comment

    • Freeco
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Jan 2018
      • 11

      #3
      no, only this picture.
      How would you be able to tell the difference between a local and remote override?

      Comment

      • paulockenden
        Automated Home Legend
        • Apr 2015
        • 1719

        #4
        Originally posted by Freeco View Post
        no, only this picture.
        How would you be able to tell the difference between a local and remote override?
        The override icon is different.

        P.

        Comment

        • Freeco
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Jan 2018
          • 11

          #5
          ah, I see. An override from the app is shown with a smartphone icon, right?
          Well, we don't use the app too often. Definitely not that day.
          And my account has a long and complex passw. So unlikely someone is having fun with my account.

          Comment

          • paulockenden
            Automated Home Legend
            • Apr 2015
            • 1719

            #6
            App or any other non-local override (e.g. using the API from other software) shows the phone icon.

            Comment

            • Freeco
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Jan 2018
              • 11

              #7
              so... any idea why my EvoHome has a mind of its own?
              Or more importantly, now to prevent it?

              Comment

              • paulockenden
                Automated Home Legend
                • Apr 2015
                • 1719

                #8
                As I said above, the timeline shows the override happening just before the photo was taken (I think).

                Are you 100% certain it isn’t operator error?

                Comment

                • Freeco
                  Automated Home Jr Member
                  • Jan 2018
                  • 11

                  #9
                  my wife sticks to her story: she came home, saw on the display that these 2 zones were still in green (while they should have been orange), ticked the display to check and saw they were set to 16°C somehow. Then took the picture and called me.

                  Comment

                  • DBMandrake
                    Automated Home Legend
                    • Sep 2014
                    • 2361

                    #10
                    Is 16C the previous set point for the zones in the schedule ?

                    Comment

                    • Freeco
                      Automated Home Jr Member
                      • Jan 2018
                      • 11

                      #11
                      correct, during the night and when we're off to work the temperature is reduced to 16°C (as shown on the picture, actually )

                      Comment

                      • DBMandrake
                        Automated Home Legend
                        • Sep 2014
                        • 2361

                        #12
                        Then what you are experiencing is the infamous "Phantom override", where the set point can get reverted to the previous one in the schedule a few minutes after a set point change.

                        Search the forum for threads pertaining to Phantom override...
                        Last edited by DBMandrake; 19 May 2019, 06:01 PM.

                        Comment

                        • Jemster
                          Automated Home Guru
                          • Dec 2018
                          • 123

                          #13
                          There’s a lot of it about....

                          I hope they can do something in a firmware update to help with this problem. Doesn’t seem to be a rare occurrence and if it happens in the other direction (I.e. going from on to off and phantom turning on again for several zones) it racks up a fair cost pretty quickly in wasted fuel.

                          I’m surprised such a ‘mature’ product can have such an invasive bug.

                          Comment

                          • Freeco
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Jan 2018
                            • 11

                            #14
                            tnx DBMandrake, I indeed found quite a few quite similar complaints by searching for 'phantom override'.
                            So if I understand well, I should just disconnect the batteries of all HR92's in a zone, and reseat them at random?
                            I suppose that'll only be a temporary fix though, so I do hope Rameses can take this up with a dev at Honeywell

                            Btw, my living room zone has 4 HR92's and the bathroom zone has 2. The other 2 zones have only 1 HR92 + 1 Round Wireless. Maybe that's why these 2 were unaffected...

                            Comment

                            • DBMandrake
                              Automated Home Legend
                              • Sep 2014
                              • 2361

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Freeco View Post
                              Btw, my living room zone has 4 HR92's and the bathroom zone has 2. The other 2 zones have only 1 HR92 + 1 Round Wireless. Maybe that's why these 2 were unaffected...
                              Since the hourly check-in time goes from when the batteries were inserted in the HR92, and any HR92 in the zone could trigger a phantom override and the controller then propagates it to the others, it stands to reason that the more HR92's you have in a single zone, the more likely you are to run into this problem, statistically speaking. (Although I only have a single HR92 per zone and I have had it happen in at least two of my zones)

                              Removing and reinserting the batteries in all the HR92's in the affected zone at a "random" time of the hour that doesn't coincide with regular set points seems to work fairly well.

                              For example if your set points generally occur on the hour or on the half hour, avoid inserting the batteries within a few minutes of on the hour and on the half hour.

                              I wish they would fix the problem too, but due to the legacy design of the comms protocol there isn't a straightforward fix. Any "fix" is going to be a clever workaround at best, because the controller can't truly tell the difference between the HR92's hourly set point "check in" and a user initiated set point override made at the HR92 - the same message is sent over the air so the controller would have to try to deduce which changes were and weren't human initiated.

                              Comment

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