Introduction

The ​Radio Thermostats via Wi-Fi plug-in enables integration of Radio Thermostat products controlled by the USNAP Wi-Fi module with Vera. 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 Wifi thermostat. This plug-in was developed and tested with the ​3M-50, but should work with other Radio Thermostat Wi-Fi thermostats.
• 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. To check, browse to ​http://IPAddressOfYourThermostat/ and look for "Firmware Version" at the bottom of the page. (the newest is 1.04.73)
• An SSH client to connect to your Vera (to workaround a bug in UI5). If you don't know how to SSH to your Vera, I would suggest stopping here as this is an Alpha release.

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".

Note: the following two steps are a workaround for a bug in UI5:

4. Wait for the message "Radio Thermostat Wifi Thermostat: Lua Engine Failed to start" in the portal status display (at the top of the page).

5. You must now SSH into your Vera and execute the following command:

pluto-lzo d /etc/cmh-ludl/L_RTCOA_Wifi_dkjson.lua.lzo /etc/cmh-ludl/L_RTCOA_Wifi_dkjson.lua

6. Click "close" on the "Please wait..." dialog in the Vera portal.

7. On the Advanced Tab of the device configuration dialog, enter the IP Address of your thermostat in the "IP" field.

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

9. 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.

Known Issues / Limitations

• Vera only has access to the current heating and/or cooling setpoint values when the thermostat is actually set in that mode. That is, if you startup the plugin with the thermostat in heating mode, the cooling setpoint will not be updated. (and vise-verse)
• Changing the setpoint for heating will place the thermostat in heating mode, regardless of it's current mode. (i.e. it would switch from cooling to heating). The reverse is also true: setting the cooling setpoint will place the thermostat in cooling mode.

Future Enhancements

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

• Display current status information (fan running, actively cooling, etc.), not just settings, in the Vera UI
• View and set thermostat's built-in schedule from Vera UI
• Provide 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.