Hey guys I am stumped on this one. I have a 2Gig Control Panel with a CT100 thermostat. Its been working fine the last year. I then put it into “Off” mode during the summer when we don’t need heat and a couple months ago turned the mode back on to heat when it started to get cold. Ever since then I have not been able to get the scheduling to work with Alarm.com. It’s almost like the temperature that it is set overrides the scheduling. So I am right now having to do everything manually from the app.
I know that the connection is fine because I can change the temperature from the app just fine. It’s just the scheduling that doesn’t work.
Things I have tried:
Powering off and on the thermostat.
Unpairing and repairing the thermostat with the control panel
Turning off and on the scheduler in the Alarm.com settings.
Nothing seems to work so hoping to get a few other ideas of what I can do to make this work.
General troubleshooting steps to take when a schedule is not working can be found here.
How long do you wait when setting a schedule to see if it activates? You will want to set a schedule and wait for the next scheduled temp change time. Your Tstat will only change temps during these times for a schedule. If you manually adjust the Tstat set point, it will not change back until the next scheduled change.
The target temp looks like it is reporting accurately as far as what your schedule says it should be now. Did this not occur with the schedule?
Thanks for the reply Jason. I understand that it will only change when the next scheduled time occurs. As a test, this morning at 8:45am I changed the schedule to change at 9am to a different temperature. And I am still not seeing the change occur. Smart Away is OFF.
House alarm system is currently set to AWAY.
At 8:45am current temp was 59 degrees.
I set the temperature to be 67 degrees at 9:00am.
I’ve attached a screenshot of my current schedule for weekdays. I am assuming the the “away”, “home”, and “sleep” do not have any correlation with the ALARM system state as long as smart away is off.
As a test, set the mode to Auto using website, then set the schedule to change about a half hour from now. You’ll want to check the target temp at the tstat a little after this scheduled change.
I am assuming the the “away”, “home”, and “sleep” do not have any correlation with the ALARM system state as long as smart away is off.
Nope, there are a few overrides that can be set up, but Smart Away is a self-contained feature. Extreme temp override and sensor left open overrides can also be set up.
Jason, I tried your test. Set it to auto with a range of 54-80. Current temp was 58. Set it to be 67 starting an hour later. Just checked and the range is still stuck at 54-80 instead of the 67-80 that it should be.
The schedule is just not changing the parameters like it should. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
When re-pairing the thermostat to the panel, it looks like the thermostat was running on battery power. Do you have the thermostat connected via the C wire so that it can operate on 24VAC?
Note that if it is not learned in while on AC power, the thermostat will be stuck in a form of power save mode, FLIRS, which limits the Z-wave radio functionality and has been shown in the past to impact automation.
In FLIRS, the thermostat also does not act as a repeater. Generally, it is always recommended to learn in the thermostat on AC.
Can you give that a try and then try schedules? Does this have any effect?
Warren we just moved into this house and I see that the thermostat has a C wire attached, but it is indeed running off of battery power. The AC and the HEAT are also connected and those work fine, but not sure why the C wire is not powering it. Without crawling through the walls I am not sure how to find where that C wire should be drawing its power. Might be a job for an electrician unless I can figure out where that C wire goes.
But, with that being said, even if the thermostat is on battery I should still be able to get this scheduling working don’t you think? Sending temperature change commands from the 2GIG control panel and Alarm.com app work great and the changes are made immediately. That would beg the question why can’t an automatic adjustment from Alarm.com at a scheduled time not do the same thing?
Apart from fixing the C wire issue, do you think I could pair the thermostat with an external C wire and then unplug it after pairing and use battery? Or would it just revert back to power save mode?
It looks like I would need a transformer and some copper wiring.
The C-wire would need to be connected to the appropriate terminal (usually also marked C) on the HVAC board where your other thermostat wire connections are found. Often if a battery only thermostat is ever used, this wire would be disconnected at the HVAC terminals.
Is the wire connected or disconnected from the HVAC? If you are unsure, please post a photo of the terminals and we would be happy to take a look! Make sure to turn off all power to the HVAC before connecting or disconnecting any wires.
That would beg the question why can’t an automatic adjustment from Alarm.com at a scheduled time not do the same thing?
This is not a change from Alarm.com in this case. The schedules are locally saved and run. We have noticed that schedules seem to have a tougher time with a thermostat learned in on battery so a good test would be to re-learn on 24VAC and test.
Apart from fixing the C wire issue, do you think I could pair the thermostat with an external C wire and then unplug it after pairing and use battery? Or would it just revert back to power save mode?
I’ve not tested this circumstance over a long period but if I recall from previous troubleshooting I believe the batteries will be used up very quickly in this event.
I took some photos of the situation that I have and I am still not full of answers as to where the C Wire that is plugged into the thermostat goes. Here are a few photos. Descriptions below to help annotate what I think is going on.
Photo 1 - Top of thermostat. There I can see the blue C wire along with the wires connecting the heat, cooling, power. and fan. All of which work by the way.
Photo 2 - Next to my HVAC is the power switch for the heater. On top of that I believe is the transformer. There is a light brown cable and a red cable hooked up.
Photo 3 - Those two cables go up a couple feet and it looks like they are split a couple of times in order to provide connection to the heater and the air conditioner (?). I think one line goes to the heater and the other is piped to my air conditioner outside.
Photo 4 - The 3rd split (I think) runs up to the main floor of the house. Where it goes I do not know. You’ll also notice that one of the red wires looks clipped. And none of the light brown wires goes upstairs.
So at this point I don’t know much. The one thing I have not done is taken off the thermostat to see where all of those cables go, but then again I don’t think I can figure that out by looking into a small hole.
But I would think that the light brown cable (W) on the thermostat is the same one that somehow connects to the light brown cable in the photos. The red cable I am guessing is the power (RC/RH).
The photo which will give us the best indication of how to assist would be a photo of the interior terminal board on your furnace/air handler. You would need to switch off power to your HVAC and remove the access panels.
Your thermostat wires will eventually track to the furnace control board, which will have a similar line of terminals as your Tstat. If you can provide the model of your furnace we may be able to provide a bit more detail.
Jason here are the shots from inside the furnace. I can see the terminals that you were talking about. There are two bundled cords that come from those terminals. Take a look at Photo1. One of the bundles is only 2 cables plugged into the “C” and the “Y”. That cable looks like it goes outside to my air conditioner. The other bundle is connected to “R,W,G,Y” but not “C”. That cable goes into the ceiling in my basement and I can only assume that it connects to the CT-100 thermostat. Unless I am mistaken. I still am not sure where the blue C Wire from the thermostat is going.
I still am not sure where the blue C Wire from the thermostat is going.
The blue wire from the T-stat would be the blue wire in the thermostat cable which is wrapped back around the sheath in photos 1 and 2. It is not connected to C, therefore would not allow the Tstat to run on 24VAC.
To fix, the Tstat C wire would just need to be connected to the C terminal. Leave all other wires as they are. Make sure the HVAC is unpowered if you connect the wire.
If you are uncertain at all it may be best to contact an HVAC company to get power to the Tstat.
Good news guys! I connected the blue wire to the C terminal and the thermostat is now running off electricity. I re-paired it to the 2GIG control panel and did some testing and the scheduling is now working again. So thanks for all your help. This problem has been solved!
