EvoControl - custom Alexa skill for Evohome

[Midland45]

I deleted the lambda completely and re-pushed which means all containers should be fresh now. Please try again Paul.

Excellent work once again Phil, a lot of issues I was having now solved.
Back up file upload now successful from dashboard, Activities and Schedules all replaced.
Evocontrol now linking with HA and gathering data from the HGI-80 (SSMD2), zone temps now matching HA 0.1 degC resolution

Only issue I have is two of my zones, Kitchen and Extension are showing 100% heat demand constantly. These are both UFH zones that have Y87RF2024 round thermostats and BDR91 relays fitted, all other zones have HR92s fitted. When I query EvoControl for heat demand these two zones display -------
These all work perfectly in HA with zone temp, heat demand, BDR91 active, open window and battery status displayed.
To test I actually "fired" the zones up from HA and confirmed I got 100% heat demand and BDR91 active on HA, however there was no status change on EvoControl.
Thanks for your help
Paul
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IMG_9924.JPG

[philchillbill]

[bruce_miranda]

@Paul can I just check, you have an UFH zone that doesn't use the Evohome UFH controller. Instead it just uses a simple BDR91 to control the UFH pump/valves on the manifold? If that is true then it "should" work. Perhaps PM me and let's see what the issue is for you.

[Midland45]

Neither Bruce nor I have UFH so the skill currently has no idea to handle it. If ok with you I’ll examine your config to figure it out and then implement.

@Phil Yes, that's absolutely fine, please feel free to share anything with Bruce too. If you need anything else just let me know. The skill worked fine in these zones with Domoticz btw

@Bruce Yes you are correct, I simply have Thermostat/BDR91 combination in each zone controlling zone valves/CH flow to independent UFH mixer valve/pump units.
Boiler is controlled via OpenTherm.

Thanks for your help.
Paul

[bruce_miranda]

In which case the "We don't have UFH" doesn't apply to your system and there is a bug in the skill or your configuration. We have not seen how an Evohome UFH controller looks in HA, but a simple zone valve zone should work.

BTW, now that you have moved to HA, you might want to consider using this for your BDR91 - UFH

https://github.com/zxdavb/ramses_cc/wiki/BDR91---Overriding-TPI-behaviour

[Midland45]

In which case the "We don't have UFH" doesn't apply to your system and there is a bug in the skill or your configuration. We have not seen how an Evohome UFH controller looks in HA, but a simple zone valve zone should work.

BTW, now that you have moved to HA, you might want to consider using this for your BDR91 - UFH
https://github.com/zxdavb/ramses_cc/...-TPI-behaviour

I'm hoping the issue is just EvoControl is simply not acquiring all the relevant entities for the two UFH zones, is it simply just missing data for the relevant zones "sensor.01_xxxxxx_01_heat_demand" and binary_sensor.34_xxxxxx_battery_low? These previously were read via Domoticz ok.

Just had a quick look at the "wiki/BDR91---Overriding-TPI-behaviour", so thanks for the info I'm up to post 2000/3459 in the relevant HA Forum, just trying to increase my understanding.

In operation I had noticed with heat demand in my UFH zones, the zone valves were cycling way too much for my liking! Actually just 2 step control really!
I'm assuming by following the wiki procedure much less cycling would occur as HA would hold these open also, this would also lead to less boiler cycling.

I'll definitely give this a trial in the next heating season.
So thanks for the info, and I'll PM you for guidance at the time if I get stuck, if that's ok.

Thanks
Paul

[philchillbill]

Excellent work once again Phil, a lot of issues I was having now solved.
Back up file upload now successful from dashboard, Activities and Schedules all replaced.
Evocontrol now linking with HA and gathering data from the HGI-80 (SSMD2), zone temps now matching HA 0.1 degC resolution

Only issue I have is two of my zones, Kitchen and Extension are showing 100% heat demand constantly. These are both UFH zones that have Y87RF2024 round thermostats and BDR91 relays fitted, all other zones have HR92s fitted. When I query EvoControl for heat demand these two zones display -------
These all work perfectly in HA with zone temp, heat demand, BDR91 active, open window and battery status displayed.
To test I actually "fired" the zones up from HA and confirmed I got 100% heat demand and BDR91 active on HA, however there was no status change on EvoControl.
Thanks for your help
Paul
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2039[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2038[/ATTACH]

The '--' is not 100%, it means UNKNOWN. HA was not reporting a value via the API and the state was either UNAVAILABLE or UNKNOWN. That regularly happens to me too (same with batt %). There may be a disconnect between what HA shows you via the UI and what it reports via the API which is what the skill has to go by.

On the main dash, the '--' should of course not display a flame so that's now suppressed. Thanks for uncovering that because I had not triggered it during testing myself.

[bruce_miranda]

The inbuilt "feature" of the BDR91 to force TPI on whatever it controls is what made me switch the BDR91 to a HM80 for my UFH.

[philchillbill]

Tap to plot Outside Temp graph

New feature: If you have a local outside temperature sensor connected via Domoticz or HA the header on the main dashboard where the temperature is displayed is now tappable to draw a graph of the outside temperature at your location over the last 24H.

[bruce_miranda]

There are some entities that won't or can't update for a long time. By which time the HA ttl has expired and it shows the entity as Unavailable or Unknown. This is where the restore_cache works well because states like the battery etc and then restored, rather than waiting a whole 24hours for some devices to send their battery status.

[philchillbill]

Inside-Average temperature plot

New feature: When you use the HA connector and also have a defined (local) outdoor temp sensor, when you plot the outside temp over the last 24h, the average indoor-temperature across all your zones over the period is also plotted. HA keeps track of this average via the climate.controller entity so as it's there for the grabbing, why not...

[bruce_miranda]

Super. This will come really handy when the temperatures drop to know how your house (or zone....hint) reacts in line with the outdoor temperature.

[Stevedh]

Haven't been here for a while, summer and too many other things to do, but just tried to use the skill and its saying.

"FYI your version of Domoticz is no longer supported'
When I opened the skill about 1-3 weeks ago, It didn't do this and I haven't updated Domotiz for a while.
I am currently on Version: 2023.1

I see you are now supporting HA... however at present Domoticz does everything I need and I can't face the hassle of switching just yet.
I hadn't copied the letsencrypt keys across for a while (really need to automate this), but have done this now and can access Domoticz via its https address.

BTW is there any where I can see a summary of latest changes and FAQs etc as searching through this thread can be a pain, I did have a look, but sorry if I missed something about this.

[Midland45]

Haven't been here for a while, summer and too many other things to do, but just tried to use the skill and its saying.

"FYI your version of Domoticz is no longer supported'
When I opened the skill about 1-3 weeks ago, It didn't do this and I haven't updated Domotiz for a while.
I am currently on Version: 2023.1

I see you are now supporting HA... however at present Domoticz does everything I need and I can't face the hassle of switching just yet.
I hadn't copied the letsencrypt keys across for a while (really need to automate this), but have done this now and can access Domoticz via its https address.

BTW is there any where I can see a summary of latest changes and FAQs etc as searching through this thread can be a pain, I did have a look, but sorry if I missed something about this.

You need to take a look at post 593

[bruce_miranda]

I think we need a new thread for newcomers.