Evohome Controller Multiple Comms faults

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  • robsonalan
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Jul 2017
    • 13

    Evohome Controller Multiple Comms faults

    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
    Automated Home Legend
    • Sep 2014
    • 2361

    #2
    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.
    Last edited by DBMandrake; 12 June 2019, 08:26 PM.

    Comment

    • robsonalan
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Jul 2017
      • 13

      #3
      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.
      Last edited by robsonalan; 12 June 2019, 08:36 PM.

      Comment

      • DBMandrake
        Automated Home Legend
        • Sep 2014
        • 2361

        #4
        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.

        Comment

        • robsonalan
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Jul 2017
          • 13

          #5
          Cheers, I will give it a go.

          Comment

          • robsonalan
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Jul 2017
            • 13

            #6
            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?

            Comment

            • G4RHL
              Automated Home Legend
              • Jan 2015
              • 1580

              #7
              Originally posted by robsonalan View Post
              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.

              Comment

              • paulockenden
                Automated Home Legend
                • Apr 2015
                • 1719

                #8
                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.

                Comment

                • robsonalan
                  Automated Home Jr Member
                  • Jul 2017
                  • 13

                  #9
                  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!

                  Comment

                  • paulockenden
                    Automated Home Legend
                    • Apr 2015
                    • 1719

                    #10
                    Amazon Echo won’t be the problem - it doesn’t stream on 868MHz.

                    Comment

                    • robsonalan
                      Automated Home Jr Member
                      • Jul 2017
                      • 13

                      #11
                      Ok so this is odd, since moving the controller upstairs closer to the relays and landing HR92, the controller has now lost comms and temps from all of the HR92's that are on the ground floor, but hasn't picked up any sync or temps from the relays or HR92's upstairs. I am confused, it does still seem like somethings blocking the comms.

                      Can a fault evohome device be causing the issue and affecting all comms?

                      Comment

                      • robsonalan
                        Automated Home Jr Member
                        • Jul 2017
                        • 13

                        #12
                        Well would you believe it, it looked on the logs on the controller and the first device that had a comms failure yesterday was the hot water thermostat, so I took the batteries on in the Hot water tank thermostat and put in new ones, and it looks like things are coming back. Within a minute the two relays which were sold red started to flash red, and then shortly after the red LED's went off. HR92's are now coming back in and seem to be controllable.

                        I have a few HR92's still not quite playing ball in terms of taking updates from the controller, but I am going to leave things an hour or so to settle down, but it looks like somehow the Hot water tank thermostat was causing some system wide problem, of which I have no idea how or why.
                        Last edited by robsonalan; 13 June 2019, 10:39 AM.

                        Comment

                        • peterf
                          Automated Home Guru
                          • Jan 2015
                          • 116

                          #13
                          Well, that's a coincidence. I've just experienced something similar.
                          I've also had the Evohome installed for several years - in my case the old non-wifi model - and I've also changed batteries in the HR92s at the first warning that they're getting low.
                          I came in last evening and the app was showing no temperature in 5 zones. Looking at the controller, it was giving a low battery warning on one zone, which I duly popped new batteries in to, and I was then presented with a low battery warning on two other zones.
                          Checking the log, the first comm failure occurred at 6:58pm, which was followed by comms warnings for 10 zones, the first battery low warning at 7:59pm in the zone with the initial comms failure, and 2 further by 8:43pm.
                          When everything had come back to normal, which it did fairly quickly once new batteries were installed, it was apparent that one zone had the radiator on full blast while in a confused state. This surprised me as I thought they'd revert to the minimum setting in the event of signal failure, but I suppose an intermittent failure may produce different behaviour. Bit worrying if one was away however and returned to an empty oil tank.
                          The second thing that surprised me was the seeming contagious effect of the initial comms failure. I can only assume that it caused continual and unusual activity for the other HR92s in the system thereby depleting the batteries, but perhaps someone else can come up with a better explanation.
                          As a result of this, I've made a mental note to go around the various units and check the battery level before I go away. Perhaps others may find it useful to do likewise.

                          Comment

                          • G4RHL
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Jan 2015
                            • 1580

                            #14
                            I have only had a failure similar what has been described nearly 5 years ago when I installed the system and it was my fault for not ensuring I closely followed the sequence for installation which does mean setting up the hot water part first. Yes the manual has that but it is not obvious. A Honeywell approved installer was foxed by it and relied on me to rectify, but it was my fault initially. They say “rtfb”. I had done, but missed it. That year the Evohome Shop posted great guidance on installing set out in a much clearer way than the manual does. Over the years one learns to first question oneself as to whether things have been done right before blaming the seller etc.

                            As for batteries I have a diary note to change them every year and that seems to cover the concern. One HR92 needs its batteries changing every three months. That is a fault in the HR92 which I live with.

                            Comment

                            • peterf
                              Automated Home Guru
                              • Jan 2015
                              • 116

                              #15
                              Just for clarity's sake, I should point out that I don't use the hot water function, but there did seem to be some similarity with robsonalan's situation.

                              Comment

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