ecoBee 802.11/15 Thermostat

LibraSun · August 24, 2009, 4:10am

Intriguingly, GMail touted a link to a web-enabled thermostat, called the ecoBee, whose specs are spelled out here:
http://www.ecobee.com/utility/product/specifications

It’s NOT Z-Wave, but speaks 802.11 b/g and (optionally) Zigbee. I figured I’d pass this along solely as a curiosity, as I remain uncertain about Vera’s ability to interoperate with such a device … except obviously Vera “speaks” Wi-Fi. Can she interpret Zigbee, as well? (I’ve asked elsewhere in the Forum.)

Anyway, the ecoBee at least has “cuteness” and “ambition” going for it!

325xi · August 25, 2009, 2:41am

Here’s all you need to make Vera xbee-capable Wireless, XBee Products Category on Adafruit Industries
And a plugin of course.

zigmoo · June 6, 2011, 2:53am

So, has anyone integrated an Ecobee with Vera yet?

Thanks,

moo

[quote=“325xi, post:2, topic:164765”]Here’s all you need to make Vera xbee-capable Wireless, XBee Products Category on Adafruit Industries
And a plugin of course.[/quote]

Michele · October 9, 2011, 12:30am

“So, has anyone integrated an Ecobee with Vera yet?”

Probably not and here’s why. I have not one but two Ecobees and have had quite a series of emails with their customer “support” about this issue Suffice it to say that Ecobee is mega-paranoid about their protocol. All communication between the thermostat and their website is encrypted and they absolutely refuse to make any sort of API available to customers or even provide a UI that allows local communication.

So in order to talk to my thermostat that’s 30 feet away, I have to connect to a web site 1200 miles away, in a different country.

It might make an interesting cryptology project but I honestly think the easiest solution may simply be to throw out their web server chip and replace it with a simple Netburner SB-70 or the like.

I’d love to hear from someone who’s gotten around this particular irritation.

Donfleck1 · January 18, 2012, 2:53am

I am looking to integrate my ecobee with Vera also. Frustrating that no one has found a solution.

Michele · January 21, 2012, 6:40pm

Yes, it’s quite frustrating. There might be some promise in looking at the Android Ecobee app. It should be possible to figure out how to talk to Ecobee’s servers yourself, but AFAIK, no one has cracked the encryption yet to talk directly to the thermostat. Maybe we can interest Anonymous in this project ???

Barlow · January 23, 2012, 9:48pm

Check this out:

http://jcs.org/notaweblog/2011/08/30/an_ecobee_automation_hack/

Joshua Stein made his own start on reverse engineering the Ecobee API and he’s succesfully developed a plugin for SiriProxy that enables him to voice control his Ecobee thermostat using an iPhone 4S. Joshua Stein’s plugin uses the JSON API that he found in Ecobee’s Android app. In a posting on the Ecobee users group Joshua provided a link to the pretty-print of the JSON data available through the API:

http://jcs.org/tmp/ecobee.json

That is the output of the /ecobee/thermostat call, passing the thermostat id found from /ecobee/summary. Joshua’s code for interacting with ecobee’s API can be found at:

github.com

jcs/siriproxy-ecobee/blob/master/lib/ecobee_thermostat.rb

# Copyright (c) 2011 joshua stein <jcs@jcs.org>
# 
# Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
# modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
# are met:
# 
# 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
#    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
# 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
#    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
#    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
# 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
#    derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
# 
# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES      
# OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
# IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
# INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
# NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,

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This all links nicely to the Siri topic.

Now all we need is someone with developer capabilities that could actually link this together ;D

Michele · January 29, 2012, 1:44am

Yes, this is an impressive feat of software engineering. Unfortunately, all it lets you to is talk directly to the same web server that I don’t want to talk to in the first place. I want to be able to communicate directly from my PC to my thermostat on the same LAN without making a multi-thousand mile detour through Canada.