2Gig vs Trane vs CA8900 questions

I’ve got a large warehouse and am looking at using a Vera to run my thermostats. And, I need a bunch of them. So, while price is a consideration, so is thermostat security. Security meaning that employees cannot change the temps or settings at will.

I have the Trane’s at home currently, and really like them. I understand that there is really no way to secure them. There is a key press that “hides” the access, but if you know how, it’s easy to reverse. I could run a scene to reset the temps every 1/2 hour or so if I have to to use the Trane.

A post in a different thread made mention of the fact that on the 2Gig, once it’s paired with Z-wave the local command is disabled. Can someone confirm this? If so, it seems like this would solve my security issue.

I know nothing about the CA8900, other than it’s less expensive than the other units mentioned above. Any thoughts about this unit being used in my scenario?

Thanks.

Perhaps the Thermostat Min Max plugin from the MiOS Marketplace can be of help to limit the set point range.

Thanks, but I’d like to limit all interaction with the device. If I go the way of the Trane’s, I will just set up a scene to run every15 min or half hour, setting the temp to whatever it’s supposed to be. So, if someone figures out how to access the unit, at least I will have a short period of time until the system resets itself.

What I don’t know- can Zwave be turned off from the tstat’s touchpad?

Technically, the touchpad is used to enroll & un-enroll the Thermostat from the menus. So if an employee was being clever, they could remove the device from the z wave network and then manually set it to whatever they wanted. I also beleive though, that you could set up a notification through Vera to alert you that someone is accessing.

If you don’t want people touching them (pure remote control) couldn’t you put them into a locked [plastic] enclosure on the shop floor?

They’ll still be able to measure temp, and the plastic housing will let the ZWave signal through (with some degradation) but you will have secured them better against prying fingers…

On the Trane, there is a display lock you can turn on so the unit will only respond to Z-Wave commands. That lock can be turned on/off on the unit itself or via Z-Wave.

Thanks. Will the 2Gig lock out the panel also?

I had thought about that. And I would go there if I couldn’t secure it the other way. Just wanted to know what my options were.

[quote=“guessed, post:5, topic:169149”]If you don’t want people touching them (pure remote control) couldn’t you put them into a locked [plastic] enclosure on the shop floor?

They’ll still be able to measure temp, and the plastic housing will let the ZWave signal through (with some degradation) but you will have secured them better against prying fingers…[/quote]

Unsure, I will have to look into it to see if it has a lock feature.

Thank you.

Unsure, I will have to look into it to see if it has a lock feature.[/quote]

Technically, the touchpad is used to enroll & un-enroll the Thermostat from the menus. So if an employee was being clever, they could remove the device from the z wave network and then manually set it to whatever they wanted.[/quote]
Provided they also brought a Z-Wave controller to initiate the exclusion.

Thanks, but I'd like to limit all interaction with the device.
Understood. The plug-in would obviously only help with the unauthorized set point changes. In it's simplest form you could set both the min. and max. to your target temperature and you wouldn't be able to change away from that. Including when you had a scheduled/authorized set point change (presumably through Z-Wave), which is probably not what you want. So you'd have to schedule the set point changes with Luup and first change the min./max. to your new set point, then the actual set point.

Anyway, the min./max. plug-in reminded me to check if the display lock triggers a report from the thermostat. It appears it does. But is currently not supported. If it were, I think you could have a plug-in / some code that would watch for an unlock and immediate relock, basically permanently locking the thermostat. It’s come up several times. I submitted a feature request, bug# 1813.