Hoping someone else can help with a problem I am having with the Secure SRT321 wall mounted Thermostat.
It seems to become regularly unresponsive where it works for a while but then the set point and current temperature in Vera gets stuck, often when the set point is equal to the current temperature. In this case the temperature at the thermostat drops lower than the set point and the flame signal is shown but Vera shows the same wrong temperature continuously and thus never turns on the heating.
This is a real problem as the weather here is very cold and with a new arrival in our house in the last few months, we can’t have this level of unreliability when it comes to heating.
There are plenty of Z-wave devices nearby so comms is not a problem as they all work fine.
Could anyone advise how to troubleshoot or debug such a problem or how you fixed it if you had this issue before?
I had a similar issue with an SRT321 that is positioned a long way from Vera - and through two brick walls. I fixed it by performing selective Z-Wave repairs ( SETUP → Z-Wave Settings → Repair → Repair only node ?? → GO ) on nearby powered nodes and finally the SRT321.
Note that the node number refers to Z-Wave ID rather than device number. This is shown on the device’s Advanced tab as altid.
Although I have not quite got it working yet, your idea to run heals has definitely helped.
It does look to be a Z-wave mesh issue and I found from reading that the Vera lite performs an auto heal at 2am and battery powered devices drop off the network as they are don’t respond until they awake. The timing corresponds to my issue, so I have unticked the “Use Vera routing instead of Z-Wave (requires 4.5)” box to disable automatical heals. I will let you know how it goes!
PS How do you use the logs to debug these issues, and which logs do you use?
PS How do you use the logs to debug these issues, and which logs do you use?
All Z-Wave activity is recorded in LuaUPnP.log. See Logs for more information. I mostly use the log display function in the InfoViewer plugin. This has a pause button to stop the log scrolling while you look through it. It also has a search/filter facility.
Thanks for the tip on looking at the logs - Info Viewer very helpful but quite complicated on first view!
Looking closer at the issue I am having, it looks like the Current Temperature in Vera is not being reported after it reaches the Set Temperature, or for some other reason.
At the moment, the Room Temp according to the stat is 16 degC but Vera thinks it is 19 degC. I have the Set Temperature to be 19 degC so the boiler never fires up as it thinks its already there but it’s actually 3 degrees lower!
In the above post, the user found that the temp reported in the UI5 widget was not the same as the temp reported in the devices advanced settings. I have the same issue. One option might be to extract the temp from the advanced setting using the Variable Container plugin and work with this to control the boiler…similar here (in french): http://maison-et-domotique.com/9112-box-domotique-vera-ui5-par-la-pratique/
Have not yet tried this but will post results if it does work. Not sure I like the idea of a workaround to get this device to do its core function.
Very disappointed in this SRT321 overall, seeing the many posts elsewhere on-line it does not really seem fit for purpose.
The Nest might be getting a serious look in over the next few days!!
Very disappointed in this SRT321 overall, seeing the many posts elsewhere on-line it does not really seem fit for purpose.
In my experience, there is not a fundamental problem with the SRT321. Mine work very well.
One option might be to extract the temp from the advanced setting using the Variable Container plugin and work with this to control the boiler...
The UI displays the value in the state variable CurrentTemperature. Using that value some other way is not likely to fix the problem. Note that the values displayed on the Advanced tab are not automatically updated. They are only correct when the browser page is refreshed.
It sounds as though Vera is not receiving updated vales from the SRT321. This is most likely a Z-Wave mesh problem. You could verify this by temporarily placing the 'stat close to Vera.
Possibly the SRT321 is not set up correctly. If you capture and post the Settings and Device Options tab, we can check that.
Thanks for the continued help RB - appreciate your experience with Z-wave.
I understand and note what you mean about the refreshing of the values in the browser so I will ignore the difference in values.
I have 2 x SRT321 devices and they communicate to the relays via Z-wave as the distances are too far. I use PLEG to monitor the temperature and switch the relay and keep it refreshed at 30 minute intervals. I have moved the Vera Lite to be physically closer (within 15ft) to the stat but it has not helped, although I am pretty sure it worked through the night on one of the nights when I left them side by side (but the CurrentTemp may never have reached the SetTemp in that location.
I have attached the Settings and Device Options in two images and would be glad to know what you think.
Have been trying to understand the logs to identify any problems but it is very detailed and I imagine some knowledge of the syntax would go a long way!
Try setting the value of Poll this node at most once every to 128 seconds. The rule of thumb is to set this to half the Wakeup interval. Yours is currently set to 10800 seconds meaning that Vera only polls your thermostat every three hours!
When the SRT321 is directly controlling a relay through Z-Wave association, it sends on/off commands immediately that the status changes. As you are using Device Properties in PLEG to effect control, you have to wait for the next poll to get updated values.
Your suggestion worked perfectly and I have tested it for the past few nights without any issue.
I have attached a dataMine graph showing the current temperature being read flawlessly through the night and the oil burner heat switch coming on in most cases almost immediately after the temperature drops.
Cheers for all the great advice.
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