Introduction

The ​Radio Thermostat Wi-Fi plug-in integrates Radio Thermostat products using the USNAP Wi-Fi module with Vera. (i.e. the ​Filtrete 3M-50 available at ​Home Depot) The plugin is designed to co-exist with existing thermostat controls, including Radio Thermostat's cloud, and manual control from the physical thermostat interface.

Requirements

• A Vera device with UI5
• A compatible Radio Thermostat Wi-Fi thermostat. This plug-in was developed and tested with the ​3M-50, but should work with other Radio Thermostat thermostats with the Wi-Fi USNAP module.
• Your thermostat must already be provisioned and connected to your LAN. (I suggest going through the normal provisioning process to connect your thermostat to the Radio Thermostat cloud - this will also make sure you have the latest firmware)
• You need to know the IP address of your thermostat. I suggest either assigning a static IP to the thermostat, or creating a static / permanent DHCP allocation for the thermostat in your router.
• The thermostat firmware must be version 1.04.64 or newer. Note: to be able to use the full feature set of the plugin, firmware version 1.04.82 or newer is required. To check your current thermostat version, browse to ​http://IPAddressOfYourThermostat/ and look for "Firmware Version" at the bottom of the page.

Installation

This is (currently) a UI5 only plugin, so the easiest way to install the plug-in is via the ​Vera Web Portal:

1. In your Vera Web Portal, navigate to "Apps" -> "Install Apps", and then search for "Thermostat" to find the "Radio Thermostat Wifi plugin"

2. Click on "Install" to install the plugin.

3. Vera will display the message "Please wait while the plugin is downloaded".

4. Once the plugin has been downloaded and installed, Vera will show the device configuration dialog

5. Click on the "Advanced" tab of the device configuration dialog, enter the IP Address of your thermostat in the "ip" field.

6. Close the configuration dialog, and click "Save" to save your configuration.

7. In a minute or two, your thermostat device will appear in your device list.

Operation

Thermostat control changes (mode, temp settings, etc.) made in the Vera UI are applied immediately to the thermostat. By default, the plugin also polls the thermostat every 60 seconds and will update any temperature, operating mode, set points, and fan state changes made from other places (Radio thermostat cloud, manual changes on the stat, smart phone apps, etc.)

Vera does not attempt to take exclusive control of the thermostat. Unless the thermostat is placed in "Hold" or "Simple Screen" mode, the schedule programmed into the thermostat will still be in effect. If you're feeling adventurous and want to completely control the thermostat from Vera, I would suggest placing the thermostat in Simple Screen mode. (this is effectively hold mode, but without displaying "Hold" on the thermostat display) See the "How to change from standard screen to simple screen" link on ​this page for information on how to change to simple screen mode.

Advanced Configuration

The following settings on the "Advanced" tab of the device configuration dialog can be used to alter the default behavior of the thermostat plug-in.

InitialPollDelay

Default Value: 3

Description: The time period (in seconds) to wait between the device being initialized by Vera (i.e. at Vera startup) and the first poll of the thermostat device. If you have multiple thermostats, this setting can be used to "stagger" polling so that not all thermostats are polled at the same time.

PollInterval

Default Value: 60

Description: The time period (in seconds) to wait between each poll of the thermostat.

LogLevel

Default Value: 20

Description: Set the logging level / verbosity. Three levels are supported:

• 10 - Error (least verbose)
• 20 - Info (medium verbosity)
• 30 - Debug (most verbose)

ForceHold

Default Value: 0

Description: When this variable is set to "1", the thermostat plugin will set the thermostat into "hold" mode anytime it discovers that the thermostat is not in "hold" mode. If you are using Vera to control your thermostat schedule, this setting is useful to prevent the thermostat being accidentally removed from hold mode.

Known Issues / Limitations

• Changing the temperature set point for heating will place the thermostat in heating mode, regardless of it's current mode. (i.e. the thermostat will switch from cooling to heating mode). The reverse is also true: setting the cooling set point will place the thermostat in cooling mode.

Planned Enhancements

These are the features that are planned for the next release:

• "Thermostat LED Control" (i.e. turn on/off colored LED's on thermostat from Vera).
• "Program Based Hold" - If this optional feature is activated, the plugin reprograms (i.e. overwrites) the thermostat's built-in schedule with a schedule to maintains the current set point indefinitely. Every time the current setpoint is changed either from Vera or the thermostat, the plugin will reprogram a "hold schedule" into the thermostat to hold that temperature. The idea behind this it to prevent the "battle of the schedules" that occurs if Vera is controlling the schedule of the thermostat, but the thermostat is accidentally removed from "hold mode" (which normally disables the built in schedule).
• "Clock Sync" - Synchronizes your thermostat clock with Vera

Enhancements "Ideas"

This is a list of things that may be possible to implement in the future. If you're interested in any of these (or others), let me know:

• "Enhanced Status Display" - display current status information (fan running, actively cooling, etc.), not just settings, in the Vera UI. Also, poll thermostat relay states for more detailed status information for multi-stage systems. For example, instead of just "heating", provide a status that differentiates between which stage is active (heat-pump vs aux/electric). This would be useful for detailed energy tracking.
• "Schedule Control" - View and set thermostat's internal schedule from Vera UI
• "Firmware update notification" - Provide notification when a new firmware update is available
• "Apply firmware update" - Trigger thermostat firmware update from within Vera

Version History

0.7

• Added adjustable polling interval
• Added Celsius support
• Re-based UI on current UI5 Z-Wave thermostat UI
• Added support for maintaining hold setting across mode changes
• Added support for "Force Hold" to always keep thermostat in hold mode
• Reworked logging code to support run-time adjustable log levels

0.4

• Improved reliability of communications, minor bug fixes

0.1

• Initial release