Argh - CT30 Frequently Stops Responding to Z-Wave

Argh! I am a dope, I posted this question question earlier, saying it was a CT100, but it is actually a CT30, so I am reposting the question! Sorry. Argh.

My CT30 frequently disconnects from my Veralite (UI7) and stops responding or sending status. It used to do this when I used it with Homeseer, so it is likely the CT100, and NOT Vera that is the problem. Has anyone had this problem / found a solution? Thanks!

I was just about to post about my ct30 being totally unreliable.

I recently moved into a house that had a vivint alarm system (rebranded 2gig) along with a couple of ct30 thermostats. I went ahead and added about 6 light switches (all GE), a lamp module, a flood sensor and the harmony plugin to control the media center. I’m using a veralite to control it all and everything works flawlessly except for the ct30s

They never worked right from the start. Auto polling was set to 60 seconds just like everything else. They would poll for a few hours and then stop. I would reboot the vera to get them to work again. Then one time they locked up the whole zwave network. Nothing worked until I reset one of the ct30s. Apparently it’s a problem with the firmware.

I followed the instructions to include it without the c wire attached and then attach it afterwards. Now I get no more lock ups, but polling is still stopping after a few hours.

I also tried setting polling time to zero and rely on a lua script to poll both devices every 3 minutes. That’s no good either. Half the time it gives a “command not sent to node” error. And it takes about 20 seconds to pool each thermostat and during this time, other commands get delayed. For instance if I try to turn the lights on through my tablet and it is polling the thermostat, it might take half a minute before the lights turn on. And the weird thing is, while the lua polling commands are giving errors, if I send a different command like change the set temperature, that actually goes through. But I can’t effectively change the set temperature on my phone if I don’t know what it was set to in the first place.

I’m so sick of these things that I wanna rip them out of the wall and throw them out.

In the meantime, all other devices get polled regularly, quickly and reliably. I watch the log and see each device get polled once a minute and it takes a split second.

I do have a spare remotec thermostat that came with the veralite (tigerdirect bundle). I was gonna sell it because it is brand new in the box, but I guess I’ll replace one of the ct30s with that and see how that works out.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap reliable zwave thermostat? I only need a basic one that shows me the temperature and let’s me change it as needed

Thanks

Well at least I am not alone. I ordered a Trane thermostat from amazon. Hopefully that works better. The one I ordered goes for around $104. On my phone right now, don’t have a link.

The v7.4 firmware in the USNAP Z-wave module installed in the CT30 is incredibly buggy. If you like the features of the thermostat otherwise, you could considering upgrading to a v9.0 USNAP Z-wave module ($29.99 on Amazon). This version does seem to fix the problem, just don’t try to use two USNAP modules at the same time.

Great tip! I had no idea I could upgrade the module. Ordered. Thanks!

Please let us know how it works out for you. Anxiously waiting :slight_smile:

So I received the new v9.0 USNAP Z-wave module from amazon. I installed it yesterday, and so far, so good. As expected I had to remove the thermostat and re-add it with the new module installed. Luckily all of my climate scenes are LUUP based so all I had to do was update the scripts with the new ID.

I will post back in a couple weeks with a status as to whether it is stable.

Great. I hope it works out and I’ll switch out my usnap modules as well

Well, no go on the CT30 with the new USnap module. It seems to stay connected now, which is good, but I am not able to poll the CT30 from Veralite. I can CONTROL it from Veralite, but can’t poll it, so any changes made at the thermostat do not get reflected in Veralite. I have excluded and re-added multiple times, rebooted veralite and reset the thermostat, created a scene for polling, made sure the CT30 was in “Remote Control” mode, etc, but no matter what I try (hours of trying, mind you) the darn thing will not poll.

I had purchased a Trane thermostat that I was going to try before I heard about the uSnap module. I was about to return the Trane, but decided to give it a try, and everything works perfectly.

Bye Bye CT30. More money wasted, but now I appear to finally have stable HVAC control.

That’s too bad. I’m gonna trash mine too. Without the polling they are useless.

If I feel cold and want to turn the a/c down a bit remotely, I can’t possibly do that if I don’t know what it is set to or what it is reading at the moment. Ridiculous.

Yeah, disappointing. This may just be my experience though, it may work right for others?

I replaced one of my CT30’s with a Remotec ZTS-110 and could not be happier.

First of all, it supports “Auto Report”, which is similar to instant status. Every time the setpoints are adjusted on the device, it contacts vera and updates. Every time the mode (cool, heat, auto) is changed on the device, it contacts vera and updates. By default, every time the room temperature reading changes by 4 degrees F, it contacts Vera and updates. It even has a bunch of configuration parameters that can be modified by Vera. For instance, you can change the room temperature auto report threshold to 1 degree Fahrenheit, so it connects to Vera and updates every time the room temperature changes by 1 degree.

You technically don’t even have to have Vera poll the device. It already automatically connects to the Vera and updates its status every time there is a change.

Finally a reliable thermostat that works as it should. The CT30 is such a piece of crap that can’t even get the most basic functions right.

Oh and the best part, the Remotec has an auto mode that lets you set separate setpoints for cool and heat and it keeps the temps within that range (comes in handy these days in the spring when outside temps can range wildly between 50 and 80). The CT30 was either heat or cool, no auto.