HAI Snap-Link iPhone App NOW AVAILABLE

Aaron,

I just installed 2 RC1000's last night into my OPII setup. I can view the thermostats from the panels with no problem and adjust them accordingly, but nothing shows up on my iphone in snaplink. I'm sure its just a configuration issue. I'm not sure if it's a configuration issue on the thermostat itself or on the OPII. I have PC Access if that makes figuring it out any easier. Could you help me out?


Did you name it in the controller via PCAccess or console? They need to be named.

Did you go into the Account Settings and "Retrieve Setup" again? The iPhone doesn't know that something has changed in the system, so you need to let it re-download the system configuration.

Aaron
All I had to do was to do a manual update invrhe settings screen. I can now see the thermostats and get to the screen where it shows the temperatures but I can't change the settings. For example, lets say it's 78 currently and I want to change it to 76. It will let me select 76 but about 2 seconds later it reverts back to what the thermostat is already set to. Any suggestions?
 
Aaron,

I just installed 2 RC1000's last night into my OPII setup. I can view the thermostats from the panels with no problem and adjust them accordingly, but nothing shows up on my iphone in snaplink. I'm sure its just a configuration issue. I'm not sure if it's a configuration issue on the thermostat itself or on the OPII. I have PC Access if that makes figuring it out any easier. Could you help me out?


Did you name it in the controller via PCAccess or console? They need to be named.

Did you go into the Account Settings and "Retrieve Setup" again? The iPhone doesn't know that something has changed in the system, so you need to let it re-download the system configuration.

Aaron
All I had to do was to do a manual update invrhe settings screen. I can now see the thermostats and get to the screen where it shows the temperatures but I can't change the settings. For example, lets say it's 78 currently and I want to change it to 76. It will let me select 76 but about 2 seconds later it reverts back to what the thermostat is already set to. Any suggestions?

Do you have hold "ON" on the thermostat.

Aaron
 
Aaron,

I just installed 2 RC1000's last night into my OPII setup. I can view the thermostats from the panels with no problem and adjust them accordingly, but nothing shows up on my iphone in snaplink. I'm sure its just a configuration issue. I'm not sure if it's a configuration issue on the thermostat itself or on the OPII. I have PC Access if that makes figuring it out any easier. Could you help me out?


Did you name it in the controller via PCAccess or console? They need to be named.

Did you go into the Account Settings and "Retrieve Setup" again? The iPhone doesn't know that something has changed in the system, so you need to let it re-download the system configuration.

Aaron
All I had to do was to do a manual update invrhe settings screen. I can now see the thermostats and get to the screen where it shows the temperatures but I can't change the settings. For example, lets say it's 78 currently and I want to change it to 76. It will let me select 76 but about 2 seconds later it reverts back to what the thermostat is already set to. Any suggestions?

Do you have hold "ON" on the thermostat.

Aaron


That's what it was on and I had to change the schedule to 'NONE' so that I could control it through PC Access programs. Thanks for your help. I'm up and running now.
 
Aaron,

I just installed 2 RC1000's last night into my OPII setup. I can view the thermostats from the panels with no problem and adjust them accordingly, but nothing shows up on my iphone in snaplink. I'm sure its just a configuration issue. I'm not sure if it's a configuration issue on the thermostat itself or on the OPII. I have PC Access if that makes figuring it out any easier. Could you help me out?


Did you name it in the controller via PCAccess or console? They need to be named.

Did you go into the Account Settings and "Retrieve Setup" again? The iPhone doesn't know that something has changed in the system, so you need to let it re-download the system configuration.

Aaron
All I had to do was to do a manual update invrhe settings screen. I can now see the thermostats and get to the screen where it shows the temperatures but I can't change the settings. For example, lets say it's 78 currently and I want to change it to 76. It will let me select 76 but about 2 seconds later it reverts back to what the thermostat is already set to. Any suggestions?

Do you have hold "ON" on the thermostat.

Aaron


Aaron,
I am having the some "issue" where if hold is ON then you are unable to adjust the thermostat controls. Is this a defect or this by design? If by design then I think a popup is needed to explain to the user that temperature cannot be adjusted while hold is "ON" and provide instructions on how to disable hold. Otherwise, users may think this is broken.
 
If Hold is set to ON, you can modify the temperature from the thermostat so why can you not adjust it from the iphone?
 
In general when a thermostat is stand alone, or if you do not wan the Omni to control it then you setup the programming in the thermostat. When the thermostat is connected to an Omni and you want the Omni to control it you disable the internal programming in the thermostat.

A human at the thermostat pushing a button is the highest authority and overrides all programming. So when hold is on it you can not change any settings (except hold) programmatically.

When sending commands from PC Access or Snap-Link (any version) you are not talking to the thermostat. You are talking to the Omni and the Omni is talking to the thermostat. So when you send a command to change a set point from Snap-Link, the thermostat does not know if it was in interactive command, or a command generated by automation programming. If hold is on the command will be ignored.

If you want to change something while hold is on, then you must first send the command to turn hold off, then change the set point, then turn hold back on.
 
Thank you Fred! That explains the issue I was having as well. Works like a champ now, super easy. TURN OFF HOLD, MAKE CHANGES, TURN ON HOLD AGAIN, if you like. Simple.
 
In general when a thermostat is stand alone, or if you do not wan the Omni to control it then you setup the programming in the thermostat. When the thermostat is connected to an Omni and you want the Omni to control it you disable the internal programming in the thermostat.

A human at the thermostat pushing a button is the highest authority and overrides all programming. So when hold is on it you can not change any settings (except hold) programmatically.

When sending commands from PC Access or Snap-Link (any version) you are not talking to the thermostat. You are talking to the Omni and the Omni is talking to the thermostat. So when you send a command to change a set point from Snap-Link, the thermostat does not know if it was in interactive command, or a command generated by automation programming. If hold is on the command will be ignored.

If you want to change something while hold is on, then you must first send the command to turn hold off, then change the set point, then turn hold back on.

First, Thanks for reading these forums and helping out users with questions. It is most certainly appreciated.

I think we now understand why it behaves the way it does. However, it is still user unfriendly. My wife simply stated that the new thermostats were "broken", and I had to play around until I figured out that I had to take hold off. While our thermostats are not always on hold, we have had one hold over the weekend because the temperatures were so hot that if we let it get up to 83 in the house it wouldn't have been able to cool it down in any reasonable amount of time.

May I recommend a feature request. If the system is set to hold, the HAI snaplink program turns hold off, updates the temperature, then turns hold back on.
 
You have the power to create your own solution with PC Access. Simply use the "button" as the interface to remotely turn HOLD ON or HOLD OFF remotely. Your new programing blocks would look like this:

When HOLD OFF button
Then All thermostats hold off

When HOLD ON button
Then All thermostats hold on

Once you create these custom buttons, you will have access to change the hold feature on any stat from any HAI interface.

Have Fun
 
Are there any plans to allow for push notifications? For example, when the alarm goes off for it to notify me or to notify me when a certain condition is present(i.e. certain person disarms the alarm, power failure, trouble, etc.)
 
May I recommend a feature request. If the system is set to hold, the HAI snaplink program turns hold off, updates the temperature, then turns hold back on.

As for the feature to automatically turn hold off from Snap-Link; I think this is unlikely. For safety reasons this probably should remain a manual process. Usually when the system is on hold it is for a reason and should not be "accidentally" overridden?
 
May I recommend a feature request. If the system is set to hold, the HAI snaplink program turns hold off, updates the temperature, then turns hold back on.

As for the feature to automatically turn hold off from Snap-Link; I think this is unlikely. For safety reasons this probably should remain a manual process. Usually when the system is on hold it is for a reason and should not be "accidentally" overridden?


There is a question mark at the end of your sentence, so I assume that leaves space for some wiggle room. :-)

I guess it depends how people use the hold system. In my case it means, right now I want you to stop following your programming and hold the temperature at this particular point. At some points, I may want to adjust the temperature it holds it at from my iPhone.. I fully understand the reason to not allow programmatic changes when it is in a hold state. But honestly, there should be no difference (from an end user perspective, not a development perspective) if I am adjusting the temperature on my iphone vs. standing in front of the thermostat.

However, I do firmly believe the current behavior of updating the display of the temperature and then flipping back to the hold temperature is not very user friendly. At the very least a modal dialog should popup informing the user that to adjust the temperature they have to take the thermostat out of hold mode.

I liken this to having my iPhone in airplane mode. If i am in airplane mode and go to access the internet the iPhone doesn't just not let me navigate anywhere, it pops up a modal dialog letting me know that to continue I have to leave airplane mode.
 
May I recommend a feature request. If the system is set to hold, the HAI snaplink program turns hold off, updates the temperature, then turns hold back on.

As for the feature to automatically turn hold off from Snap-Link; I think this is unlikely. For safety reasons this probably should remain a manual process. Usually when the system is on hold it is for a reason and should not be "accidentally" overridden?


There is a question mark at the end of your sentence, so I assume that leaves space for some wiggle room. :-)

I guess it depends how people use the hold system. In my case it means, right now I want you to stop following your programming and hold the temperature at this particular point. At some points, I may want to adjust the temperature it holds it at from my iPhone.. I fully understand the reason to not allow programmatic changes when it is in a hold state. But honestly, there should be no difference (from an end user perspective, not a development perspective) if I am adjusting the temperature on my iphone vs. standing in front of the thermostat.

However, I do firmly believe the current behavior of updating the display of the temperature and then flipping back to the hold temperature is not very user friendly. At the very least a modal dialog should popup informing the user that to adjust the temperature they have to take the thermostat out of hold mode.

I liken this to having my iPhone in airplane mode. If i am in airplane mode and go to access the internet the iPhone doesn't just not let me navigate anywhere, it pops up a modal dialog letting me know that to continue I have to leave airplane mode.

From the thermostats prospective, hold means "Do not allow any outside devices to adjust my setpoints." This is done regardless of what device is attempting to change the setpoint. I think by circumventing this, it would defeat the entire purpose. One can only assume that the user having set hold to ON, had a reason for doing so. We do allow you to remotely turn hold to OFF, to allow you to change the setpoint if you want to, but by making you turn it OFF, it makes the user acknowledge that it was ON for some reason!

That said, I can we how the setpoint changing, then changing back can be confusing. I'll try to come up with a better solution, at minimum I think I could not send the setpoint up/down command if hold is ON, or hide the buttons... Which would keep the setpoint from changing, then changing back. If I can somehow come up with a way of unobtrusively notifying the user that hold is ON when they attempt to raise/lower it, I could do that too.

I'll have to think it through to make sure there won't be any unintended side effects. Thanks for the input.

Aaron
 
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