Do you think there'll be a new Evo panel coming?

[mtmcgavock]

So as other manufactures are catching up with Smart TRV heads and other things, Honeywell seem to be stuck at the moment with their current offerings on the 'Smart' side of things. There's just been the new T3 & T4 stats out and a new budget programmable stat out, however EvoHome seems to have gone without an update for some time... The lacking of a few features that would be nice on a system that was ahead of its time, I certainly wouldn't mine spending £200 on a new updated panel.

So do you think we'll be due a new panel out soon with some new features...i'd like to hope so

[G4RHL]

So as other manufactures are catching up with Smart TRV heads and other things, Honeywell seem to be stuck at the moment with their current offerings on the 'Smart' side of things. There's just been the new T3 & T4 stats out and a new budget programmable stat out, however EvoHome seems to have gone without an update for some time... The lacking of a few features that would be nice on a system that was ahead of its time, I certainly wouldn't mine spending £200 on a new updated panel.

So do you think we'll be due a new panel out soon with some new features...i'd like to hope so

Yes it would be nice and so much nicer to have a screen that is more responsive to touch and does not fee, clunky. It should also be easier to find everything and make changes. However, I have my doubts we will see something soon. Honeywell have produced a great product in that it works very well but some of the design in the app and with the Panel has never improved. It is not really customer focussed. I am sure it does not see us end users as it’s customers.

On the contrary Philips have been pushing their Hue range of lights and devices and yes, they are focussing on their end user, but they listen to their customers, they make changes, they continually improve the product and their apps.

[DBMandrake]

Maybe it's time for a few of us to band together and come up with our own controller based on a Raspberry Pi with touch panel and CC101 wireless module ?

We have almost enough information on how to do it... ironically the biggest unknown is we don't know how to talk to the Honeywell servers AS the controller, which means no remote control via the official Honeywell app, so some alternative arrangement would be necessary there.

[gordonb3]

ironically the biggest unknown is we don't know how to talk to the Honeywell servers AS the controller, which means no remote control via the official Honeywell app, so some alternative arrangement would be necessary there.

There's a separate module for that: the RFG100

[DBMandrake]

There's a separate module for that: the RFG100

Ah of course.

But how much longer will the RFG100 be available, and does it have any functionality limitations (now or potential ones in the future) vs the WiFi controller connecting directly to the Honeywell servers ?

And do we know enough about the protocols to implement all Web API based features by talking to an RFG100 ?

[paulockenden]

That's what wireshark is for!

The bigger problem will be certificates. Assuming this stuff is properly secure. Which might not be a good assumption!

[gordonb3]

Ah of course.

But how much longer will the RFG100 be available, and does it have any functionality limitations (now or potential ones in the future) vs the WiFi controller connecting directly to the Honeywell servers ?

And do we know enough about the protocols to implement all Web API based features by talking to an RFG100 ?

The way I'm starting to understand the system is that every element is more or less autonomous. My guess would be that this also applies to the RFG100. Could be interesting to see if it is possible to send a zone override through the web API when the controller is powered down.

[DanD]

My preference would be to retain the Honeywell controller which would still handle system set-up and the background system control, and add a device with neater interface for monitoring and control. The device would communicate with the controller over the 868Mhz wireless to give reliable local control rather than using the web API. Unfortunately, I don't think the current home automation solutions like Domoticz provide a simple neat interface. There has been some work to develop such a neat controller scheduling interface in Domoticz, but it recently stalled due to a pending change in the programming language to Angular for the front end .

If someone is interested in building a standalone controller, I have sketched out a very basic controller framework in Python which can replace an existing controller. It could then continue to communicate with the Honeywell servers via an RFG100. I've played around with this set-up and confirmed that it works OK.

The way I'm starting to understand the system is that every element is more or less autonomous. My guess would be that this also applies to the RFG100. Could be interesting to see if it is possible to send a zone override through the web API when the controller is powered down

I think the RFG100 can only communicate with 1 local controller; either the Evohome controller or a single zone 'Smart' thermostat like the Y87RF, but not both. I don't think the RFG100 communicates with any other devices and just provides this link between Honeywell servers and the local controller. Any schedule changes via App etc with the controller powered down would just sit on the server until the link between RFG100 and the local controller is restored.

[StuartP]

My preference would be to retain the Honeywell controller which would still handle system set-up and the background system control, and add a device with neater interface for monitoring and control. The device would communicate with the controller over the 868Mhz wireless to give reliable local control rather than using the web API. Unfortunately, I don't think the current home automation solutions like Domoticz provide a simple neat interface. There has been some work to develop such a neat controller scheduling interface in Domoticz, but it recently stalled due to a pending change in the programming language to Angular for the front end .

If someone is interested in building a standalone controller, I have sketched out a very basic controller framework in Python which can replace an existing controller. It could then continue to communicate with the Honeywell servers via an RFG100. I've played around with this set-up and confirmed that it works OK.



I think the RFG100 can only communicate with 1 local controller; either the Evohome controller or a single zone 'Smart' thermostat like the Y87RF, but not both. I don't think the RFG100 communicates with any other devices and just provides this link between Honeywell servers and the local controller. Any schedule changes via App etc with the controller powered down would just sit on the server until the link between RFG100 and the local controller is restored.

Certainly interested in going down the python route with an HGI, I'm following this closely

https://community.home-assistant.io/...431?u=gadgetuk

Perhaps some collaboration could yield something good.

[DanD]

Certainly interested in going down the python route with an HGI, I'm following this closely

https://community.home-assistant.io/...431?u=gadgetuk

Perhaps some collaboration could yield something good.

Thanks for highlighting this work in Home Assistant. It's been a while since I looked at it and it's great to see that there are plans to add HGI80 support. I'm going to reach out to the developer to see if there's any useful information I can share. I've finally decided to attempt to produce some documentation on what we've learnt of the message and command structures when communicating via the HGI80 so hopefully this will be of some use.