Bosch BTH-RA: Proposed reversion of removal of "auto mode" (as done in #6761 - 1.35.1)

[dierochade]

With this merged pull request 6761 the bosch thermostat no longer provides the system modes 'heat', 'off', and 'auto' but only 'heat' and 'off'. This was done because the device internal schedule cannot be adjusted or even deleted with z2m (at the moment).

I would like to suggest to overthink this decision and propose to go back to all three modes.

• The device does provide this mode, so it would be the normal decision to expose it too
• It even has a hardware button/dial to select the auto mode
• If the device is in auto mode, it is reported as unknown in home assistant, what is kind of misleading
• this is a hard breaking change, if all modes have been used in the past (like I do). It thus gives less functionality, e.g.: If the changes of the schedule in auto mode are just catched and reverted by an automation, you were able to have an normal auto mode and the possibility to switch in manual mode directly at the device.

[dierochade]

@DerDreschner As you have effectively provided all the code and made this work for us (Thank you very much!!), I would like to ask you about your opinion on this.

[burmistrzak]

@dierochade 👋 I'm currently reimplementing most of the Bosch converters, based on fresh packet captures and utilizing modernExtend wherever possible. Up next is the Bosch BTH-RA, and it's quite likely that auto will be removed from system_mode, because it's actually not supported by the device itself (additional PCAP for verification still pending).

Support for auto in system_mode, according to ZCL spec, would mean that the device in question can automatically switch between a heating and cooling mode. That's obviously not the case here.

However, the good news: I've already added the Bosch-specific operating_mode for the room thermostat(s), allowing to switch between schedule a.k.a. auto, manual, and off. This key is also coming to the BTH-RA, and should allow folks to map these values to the correct TRV states. 😊