Installation and Setup
The TRV Controller plugin controls Z-Wave Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs). The first and most essential installation pre-requisite is that you have some Z-Wave TRV devices, this plugin needs some TRVs to control!
If you are going to use the feature to create CSV files via PostgreSQL then you need to install the psycopg2 python library. Use the command:
sudo pip install psycopg2
TRVs supported by this plugin (as at TRV Controller version 1.2), include:
| Supported TRV Models |
|---|
| Thermostat (Spirit) |
| Radiator Thermostat (Living Connect-Z) |
| Radiator Thermostat (Living Connect LC-13) |
| Radiator Thermostat (POPP TRV) |
| Radiator Thermostat (Devolo 09356) |
| Thermostat (Comet Z) |
| Thermostat (Stella Z) |
This plugin requires Indigo 7.x. it has been developed and tested on macOS Mojave (10.14.2).
Download the plugin from the Indigo Plugin Store and install the plugin as normal for an Indigo plugin.
When the plugin starts for the first time, the Configuration dialogue will be displayed. This dialogue is also available via the main Indigo menu Plugins > TRV > Configure....
The plugin configuration dialogue has a number of options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Disable Filter | Tick to disable Heat Sources device filter in order to list Heat Source devices (in the TRV device settings) that aren't "officially" supported by the plugin but may work! |
| Variable Folder Name | Specify the name of the Indigo folder in which the plugin will list any pre-defined Heat Source variables when editing a TRV device. Leave empty if the folder is not required. The default variable folder is 'TRV' and if required and missing, will be created. |
| Enable Standard CSV | Enable the creation and update of CSV files on state change. These options take priority over the TRV Controller device options i.e if not enabled then selecting the option to produce CSV files in the TRV Controller will be ignored. This enables all CSV processing to be disabled. |
| Enable PostgreSQL CSV | Enable the creation and update of CSV files on demand using PostgreSQL. These options take priority over the TRV Controller device options i.e if not enabled then selecting the option to produce CSV files in the TRV Controller will be ignored. This enables all CSV processing to be disabled. |
| PostgreSQL User | If Enable PostgreSQL CSV enabled, User ID to access the PostgreSQL database [Most likely postgres] |
| PostgresSQL Password | If Enable PostgreSQL CSV enabled, Password for User ID [ignored if PostgreSQL password not set for user]. |
| Path to CSV Folder | Specify the path to the pre-defined folder which will contain any created CSV files specified for a TRV device in the TRV device settings. |
| CSV File Prefix | If required, specify a prefix to be prepended to the CSV file name created from the TRV device specified 'Short Name' and state name. The 'Short Name' is specified in the TRV device settings. So if the CSV File Prefix is 'TRVC' and the shortname is 'T93' (for example), the resultant file name for the TRV temperature state would be: 'TRVC_T93_temperatureTrv.csv'. |
| Debugging | Tick to enable debug logging and then select the debug logging to be performed by ticking the required logging option(s) below and then clicking Save. This log file can be easily accessed by clicking on the Show Events Logs Folder button in the Indigo Event Log window. The log file is plugin.log in the com.autologplugin.indigoplugin.trvcontroller folder. This folder also contains date stamped logs from the previous five days. Please note that debug logging is not normally required and will create a lot of output in the plugin log file, however it can be useful for fault finding and debugging. |
| General | Enable debug logging of General processing. |
| TRV Handler | Enable debug logging of TRV Handler processing. |
| Method Trace | Enable Method Trace debug logging. |
To create a TRV Controller device, select New... from the Indigo Devices list and in the Create New Device dialogue, select a device type of TRV and a model of TRV Controller. You will then presented with the following dialogue (which is broken down into sections here to make it easier to document):
The configuration options for this section are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| TRV Thermostat Device | You must select a Z-Wave Thermostatic Radiator valve device to be controlled from the pull-down menu list. |
| Heating Source Device for TRV | Optionally (and normally) select a Heating Source device for the TRV or select NO HEAT SOURCE DEVICE. When specified, the TRV Controller plugin will turn on the device (normally a Central Heating boiler) when the TRV is "calling for heat". Likewise it will turn it off when the TRV no longer requires any heat (assumimg no other TRV sharing the same Heating Source device requires heat). |
| Heating Source Variable for TRV | Optionally select a Heating Source Indigo variable for the TRV or select NO HEAT SOURCE VARIABLE. When specified, the TRV Controller plugin will set the variable to True when the TRV is "calling for heat". Likewise it will set the Indigo variable to False when the TRV no longer requires any heat (assumimg no other TRV sharing the same Heating Source variable requires heat). This gives the opportunity to set up an Indigo trigger to respond to the variable changing state in order to perform whatever action is required. |
Note: Both of the above Heat Sources (Device & Variable) can be set at the same time and the TRV Controller plugin will action both accordingly.
Choose the State Change Mode from the following options
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Individual State | The individual state that has changed is output to the CSV file. |
| All States | All states are output to the CSV file regardless of which state changed. This can help to create a more consistent graph display. |
This CSV Creation Method will query the Indigo Device History table using PostgreSQL and recreate the CSV files for each of the five states listed above. It is invoked by an Action Update All CSV Files via PostgreSQL and is therefore On Demand. This is potentially more efficient as you don't need to create the CSV files until you actually need them. The Action to do this also allows you to override the default retention period. So you could create data for example 24, 12, 6 and 3 hours.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Short Name | Specify a short name (suggested max 10 characters) to be used to uniquely identify this device within a CSV file name. Note: If the CSV File Prefix defined in the plugin config is 'TRVC' and the shortname is 'T93' (for example), the resultant file name for the TRV temperature state would be: 'TRVC_T93_temperatureTrv.csv'. |
| Retention Period (Hours) | Defines in hours how long the data should be retained in the CSV file before it is dropped. |
The plugin will ensure that an entry exists in the CSV file for the cut-off time. So if for example there were the following two entries around the cut-off time of 18:00 in the CSV file:
* 2019-01-19 17:50:03.00000,18.3
* 2019-01-19 18:20:05.00000,19.1
then all entries before 18:00 would be dropped and the resultant file would start with:
* 2019-01-19 18:00:00.00000,18.3
* 2019-01-19 18:20:05.00000,19.1
This helps to ensure that all graphs using this CSV data start from a common origin (especially if the *All States* option is selected.)
This section is only displayed for controlled TRV devices that don't support wakeup. An example device is the Eurotronic Thermostat (Spirit) which is a Z-Wave FLiRS device and is essentially always awake and therefore needs to be polled. rather than specifying the polling on the TRV device, you can and should define the polling you require, as shown below:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Polling Minutes [Schedule Active] | When a schedule is active, frequent polling is needed as the temperature is likely to be changing at a faster rate; Example is 5 minutes. |
| Polling Minutes [Schedule Inactive] | When a schedule is inactive less polling is potentially required; Example is 20 minutes. |
| Polling Minutes [Schedules Not Enabled] | When no schedules are enabled, the plugin won't be dynamically controlling the setpoint so less polling is potentially required; Example is 30 minutes. |
The configuration options for this section are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Hide Temperature Broadcast | Tick to hide temperature message broadcast in the Indigo Event Log. |
| Device Start Heat Setpoint Method | Specify what the Heat setpoint should be set to when the TRV Controller device is started either on plugin startup or via the Indigo UI. Select from Device Setpoint Minimum, ** Leave As Is** or Specify Setpoint. |
| Default Device Start Setpoint | Only defined if Device Start Heat Setpoint Method is set to Specify Setpoint |
| Default ON Temperature | Used by the TRV Controller Action: Turn On |
The configuration options for this section are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| TRV Model | Read Only value. Set by Plugin. |
| TRV Supports ON/OFF | Read Only value. Set by Plugin depending on TRV model. |
| TRV Minimum Settable Temperature [OFF] | Read Only value. Set by Plugin depending on TRV model. |
| TRV Maximum Settable Temperature [FULLY ON] | Read Only value. Set by Plugin depending on TRV model. |
| Valve Assistance | If the TRV supports Valve Commands, selecting this option can help expedite the response of the TRV to a setpoint change and also help ameliorate the situation where the TRV sometimes gets into a false state e.g. says it is off when the valve is still open. The plugin default setting is ON. |
The configuration options for this section are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| TRV Remote Control | Optionally, select a remote thermostat (or temperature measuring device) that can be used to control the TRV. |
| Remote Thermostat | Select a remote thermostat (or temperature measuring device) that will be used to control the TRV. |
| Remote Setpoint Heat Adjustment | If the remote thermostat supports it, tick to enable manual adjustment from remote thermostat. |
| Remote Delta Max | Specify the maximum number of degrees to increase the TRV Heat Setpoint by in order to ensure the TRV is controlled by the Remote Thermostat and not turned off too early i.e. if a Remote Delta Max isn't set the TRV might turn off as it has reached its Heat setpoint while the remote thermostat hasn't. Often, the TRV can be affected by heat from the close proximity of the radiator. |
The configuration options for this section are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Heating Schedule One [Two/Three/Four] | Tick to enable any or all of the four schedules. Then for each schedule enabled, define the ON Time, OFF Time and Setpoint. |
| ON Time | Define ON Time in HH:MM format. This time must be at least 10 minutes before the OFF Time for this schedule and at least 10 minutes after the previous schedule OFF Time if any previous schedules are enabled. |
| OFF Time | Define OFF Time in HH:MM format. This time must be at least 10 minutes after the ON Time for this schedule and at least 10 minutes before the next schedule ON Time if the next schedule is enabled. |
| Setpoint | Define the TRV Controller Heat Setpoint that will be set when the schedule is active. Format is in the form e.g. 20 or 20.5. |
