I’ve got three ADC thermostats and two temperature sensors. The sensors are associated with two separate thermostats but one of them constantly loses its association with the “Upstairs” thermostat. At one point I had attempted to set up some rules where the temp sensor was ignored part of the day and then put back in play for the remainder. I removed that some months back thinking it might be the issue, but I constantly have to reassociate the sensor with that thermostat. Consequently the temperature set in that part of the house is wrong.
A very common cause of this kind of issue is that syncing Temp sensors to the thermostat must be added to the schedules themselves for it to remain connected when using a schedule. It looks like one thermostat is using a temp sensor on its schedule but the “Upstairs” one does not. Have you left the sensor disconnected and deleted it from the schedule intentionally or do the schedule selections not save?
Often the issue is that the temp sensor is connected on the main card, which is used when not running a schedule, but not on the schedule.
To confirm, you would need to sync it on the main card, then go to the thermostats page in Alarm.com, select Schedules, then select the thermostat you want to edit the schedules from the select box in the upper left.
On each applicable schedule period, hover over the name and click the edit pencil, you can then add the Temp sensor to those schedule periods.
If the steps above are performed and it is still dropping from the Tstat, I would first delete that RTS from the system, wait about 5 minutes, then learn it back in. Be sure it is in its permanent location when learned. After, does its behavior change when connected to the schedule?
I’m a little confused, perhaps I’m not understanding what you’re saying.
As far as I can tell, the temperature sensor is indeed connected in the schedule, see the screenshot below from the upstairs thermostat “custom” setting:
It’s also present and selected in the “home” setting:
However, when I go to the thermostat page on the dashboard, I see this as of right now even though we’re in the “custom” timeframe and in the schedule the sensor is selected;:
This is probably a big part of the issue. I can view a read-only version of the rules, and the upstairs thermostat on my end shows no selected temp sensor connected, so something is not synced properly.
The Master Bedroom one does show the other temp sensor connected.
Can you login to a web browser on a laptop/mac/pc and check the thermostat schedule page? Do you see it selected?
Ok, yeah there is something amiss. It is not getting saved properly.
I think deleting and relearning the temp sensor is the best next step. Get a fresh instance of it in the account and try adding it to the schedule again. I can double check to verify it is visible on our end.
I removed the temp sensor, did a network rediscovery and then added the temp sensor back to the network. I added it it to all the scheduled slots in both the heating and cooling schedules for the upstairs thermostat and it’s there now. Let’s see what happens over the next day or two.
If it’s stable, I will remove it from being consulted in the “custom” weekday schedule for the upstairs thermostat and see if it breaks again. Ideally I should be able to ignore it during that time period when there’s no one in that part of the house and it will keep the temp as I want it in the remainder of the upstairs where my office is and I work during the day.
So for the past few days, the temp sensor slaved to the upstairs thermostat has stayed connected whenever I’ve checked for its presence.
I just unchecked to include the temp sensor for the “custom” weekday schedule element. I verified again that it is still checked for the other scheduled periods (home, away, etc.). Let’s see what happens in the next few days.
A couple of notes: At first glance on the website when checking back on all the thermostats, it still appears that the temp sensor is being taken into account even though I’m in the schedule period where it shouldn’t be. I’m guessing it will only look at that the next time that scheduled period is invoked and won’t make a change in the middle of the window. Assuming that’s the case, I’m not going to manually remove it from consideration now and just let it be until next week.
I also noticed that the battery level is reporting about 59% for the upstairs thermostat while the other two are indicating 95 and 100%. Some time back I had issues with the thermostats reporting they were not on AC power even though they were. Can you check to see if that’s the case again?
The temp sensor still shows as connected in the schedule on our end, so it looks good.
I also noticed that the battery level is reporting about 59% for the upstairs thermostat while the other two are indicating 95 and 100%. Some time back I had issues with the thermostats reporting they were not on AC power even though they were. Can you check to see if that’s the case again?
To clarify, we do not see whether it is currently connected to AC power. We see whether it was learned in on AC power.
If we see it was learned in on AC power, that means it is not operating in power save mode and will properly work as a Z-wave repeater, and generally have better signaling.
A thermostat can show having been learned in on battery, but you might have it connected to AC later.
All your thermostats report being learned in while on AC power.
I’ll let this go over the weekend and verify that the temp sensor stays included when it should be and then drops out of the schedule during the times I’ve specified it shouldn’t be referenced.
The temp sensor stayed connected to the upstairs thermostat all weekend, which is good. That was an issue before.
Now however, it looks like it’s still connected even though this part of the day is when my schedule should kick in where it’s not referenced as there’s no one in that part of the house. Either I don’t understand how to interpret the status on the website, or it’s still connected and being referenced. How can I tell if that’s the case?
If the sensor is 76, the Upstairs Tstat is reading 79, and the temperature reading on that card shows 79, it should be only the Tstat which is influencing the reading. The inside temperature should be averaged while using the supplemental temp sensor.
Do you see the averaging take place outside of the custom period?
The thermostat is reading 79, the sensor is reading 78, the temp should be set to 78, so it’s averaging still and not relying on the thermostat alone. To answer your question, yes it’s been averaging all along as I’d expect it to when called to do so, but during the weekday schedule, it shouldn’t be and still is.
Another shot shows the issue exactly:
It says the temp is set to 78, but it’s 79 (and has been for a bit) and I’d expect the system to have turned on some time ago if it wasn’t averaging in the temp sensor from the cooler part of the zone.
I think I still have some confusion in this case. The temperature displayed on the card should be the averaged temperature if it was in use. The original few images showing 79 and 76 degrees, if pulled together at the same time, look to be when the tstat was not using averaging.
In the most recent images the temps are close enough that other factors would influence what occurs. The thermostat uses half degrees internally which I believe are rounded when displayed, for example.
The swing configuration setting of the thermostat will determine when the call for cool occurs based on the actual temp, including the partial degrees; how far past the set point the current temp must be. Can you confirm the swing temp being used when these images were taken?
Would you be able to provide a photo of what you see on the tstat card when the averaging should take place?
I would like that info as well just in case there is any discrepancy with the displayed temps, and so I can best send this info to Alarm.com to look into the issue and make sure that the averaging only applies to the correct schedule times. I don’t think core support will be able to clearly identify the issue based on the 79 and 78 degree images.
During the “weekday” schedule, the temp sensor should be ignored but what I illustrated in the screenshot in the previous post is that the temperature was displaying as 79F at the thermostat, the sensor was showing 78, the temperature was set to 78, but the AC didn’t come on as I’d expect it to if the thermostat thought it was 79 degrees. I’d expect it to come on and cool to 78 (or I guess 77.5) and then shut off. Instead, the behavior I’m seeing is consistent with an average temperature of somewhat less than the 78.5 required to turn on the AC.
Maybe I should ask this: what would I expect to see different on the temperature card if the temp sensor was being averaged in or not? Perhaps I misunderstand how it would be, or even if it would be, represented on the website as far as current status. I assume that the little blue “sensors” icon would be grey if the sensor was being ignored.
This is a screenshot when the temp sensor should be included, but keep in mind that it’s only 15 minutes after the schedule change so the indicated temp (78F) is carried over from the previous schedule period when it’s set cooler. Now it’s set to 79 with averaging expected.
The swing temp that the thermostat is set to is 0.5 deg F (see below).
Maybe I should ask this: what would I expect to see different on the temperature card if the temp sensor was being averaged in or not? Perhaps I misunderstand how it would be, or even if it would be, represented on the website as far as current status. I assume that the little blue “sensors” icon would be grey if the sensor was being ignored.
The little icon on that thermostat card for temp sensors is separate from selecting temp sensors on the schedule. Linking the temp sensor there does not link it on the schedule and I don’t believe the icon will follow what the schedule is doing. I’m trying to double check this with ADC but having trouble finding documentation on whether that icon would be affected in this circumstance.
What should happen, is the current temp reported on the card should be the average value when averaged, or the exact temp of the thermstat when not. That’s how I recall it working.
In your original images when the temp sensor was 76, it was showing the thermostat’s internally reported temperature only on the card, not averaged.
That’s why I was asking for an image taken when averaging should occur. I would like to double check that the current reported temp shows the averaged value, and not the individual thermostat temp when the schedule is set to use the temp sensor.
