Comments on: Affordable WiFi Thermostat?

By: Eric Sandeen

Eric Sandeen — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:18:18 +0000

I see RTCOA has more (vaporware?) models on their homepage; at least only 1 (the CT80) is available to purchase, as it's been for a year or so... I may just get tired of waiting for all these clowns and make my own...

By: Eric Sandeen

Eric Sandeen — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:29:41 +0000

Peter, that’s slick! Too bad it’s VB / .net but still

By: Peter Fletcher

Peter Fletcher — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:12:18 +0000

The VB .Net Class is pretty much done, and it (and the hardware, of course) allows you to write to the Thermostat’s screen, as well as read from it and change its settings. See http://www.fletchers-uk.com/images/ConfiguredStat.jpg for an image of the Thermostat showing (bottom of screen) my PV Solar production and (top left of screen) the current real time electricity price data.

By: Peter Fletcher

Peter Fletcher — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:13:19 +0000

On the high (I assume that means mains level) voltage thermostat issue, one approach would be to install an appropriate 24 VAC transformer near your furnace, with adequately rated relays set up across the mains control lines – then you can use any 24V thermostat to switch power to the relay coils.

By: Peter Fletcher

Peter Fletcher — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:02:48 +0000

Well, I do have the documentation, and I now have a VB.NET Class to read and control the Thermostat about 80% completed. The device’s (UDP) interface takes me back to my days of programming real time data acquisition and control applications for DEC micros under RT-11! Because it is a UDP interface, you need to be able to program in a language that allows you to get down and dirty with sockets – you can’t just use HTML and JavaScript and/or WScript, so there is no straightforward way of writing a freestanding Windows Sidebar gadget (which is what I had hoped to do). I will be using an approach that I use to summarise and display the output of my TED whole-house power monitoring kit – run a VB.NET application in the system tray to do the data-acquisition and processing and use the Registry to transfer the data to be displayed to a simple sidebar gadget.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:08:24 +0000

…here’s a little note : I’m from up north, were most thermostat are high voltage in-line units. Hence, not only am I looking for what looks like vaporware, but even more so since high voltage will most likely

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:08:17 +0000

Hello there. Dropping in on the conversation. I have been on the lookout for these things for a loooong time. Even let go at one point, but I’m picking it up again. Thanks for your info, let us know how your stuff turns out ! I will experiment on my end, will let you in on what I find.

By: Eric Sandeen

Eric Sandeen — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:46:17 +0000

Peter – cool, keep me posted!

By: Peter Fletcher

Peter Fletcher — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:35:22 +0000

It turns out that I was doing the RTOA/ourhomespaces folks something of an injustice. I initially had trouble with a Yahoo Widget that you download from the ourhomespaces website and thought that its only function was to hook up the WiFi module with the site (their documentation needs serious work!). In fact, once I got thiings working properly, it turned out that the widget also allows you to do from the desktop most of the things that you can do from the control panel on the website. I also made contact with someone at ourhomespaces, who has offered to send me the protocol definition for the device. The widget’s JavaScript code isn’t encrypted in any way, but it might as well be for all the sense I can make out of it!

Also in fairness to the ourhomespaces folks, they haven’t asked me for a subscription (yet?!).

Having said all this, I, too, would like to have direct access to my data, and look forward to seeing the protocols.

By: Eric Sandeen

Eric Sandeen — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:20:09 +0000

Peter, thanks for the update! Seems the cheap one (CT30) is eternally out of stock... Yes, this device seems to be very focused on the subscription model, which kinda sucks, IMHO. RTOA / ourhomespaces / intwine / enphase are all following that model. I'm of the firm belief that devices like this should have open data access; 98% of buyers aren't hackers and would probably be glad to pay $20/year for pretty flash graphs, but folks like us would like the raw data too! Maybe the fear is that some other subscription service would undercut them for the masses if the access were open...?