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gondalez / homebridge-izone-airconditioner

Homebridge plugin for the iZone airconditioner controller.
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Zone Support #3

Open gavc1 opened 4 years ago

gavc1 commented 4 years ago

The system controls are exposed to HomeKit, but the zones are not. iZone has the ability to have multiple zones with independent temperatures and target temperatures, would it be possible to add each zone as an accessory to HomeKit?

gondalez commented 4 years ago

Hi @gavc1,

Yes I think it is possible but a bit beyond my spare time capacity at the moment :)

I have been considering this as a kind of road map for zones so it can be done in chunks:

Unanswered questions

Thoughts welcome :) Also, are you using this plugin at home?

nickbower commented 2 years ago

Hi @gondalez perhaps points 2-4 above could be simplified if someone ever does this.

For zones without climate control, you want to be able to open/close and additionally be able to control airflow (10 to 100). I'm in this category and it sounded to me when talking to installer that very few people have all zones with climate control. It's more likely there is a particular room that gets alot of sun and people are trying to dynamically adjust airflow for that special case.

For those zones with climate control, you just want to open/close them knowing the system will manage airflow. Trying to set temperature per zone sounds like it's possible according to @gavc1, but I wonder how many people actually operate their aircon/heating like that. Particularly with the cost of the wireless wall plate sensors (which even themselves only permit local open/close).

Implementation wise I'm still trying to figure out if this means two types of accessories (an overall thermostate and a zone accessory for open/close).

gondalez commented 2 years ago

Thanks for the thoughtful message @nickbower 🙏

The optional climate control sensors is the part that has put me off taking on this work to be honest 😅

I find the main things I want are to turn the whole system on/off and also have the average temperature across zones where climate control is present. Things like airflow, climate control temperature are not something you'd adjust that often and so I'm ok with doing it on the controller panel. Also there is the awkward part of what does it mean to adjust a zone via homekit when the entire system is off? Should it turn on the system? 🤔

BTW I personally bought the battery powered climate control panels for my system as it saves power by keeping the temperature more consistent in the house. Previously I would have a really cold area (which uses more power) as the only sensor was in the return vent.

nickbower commented 2 years ago

yeah sounds similar. Did you change one zone to a constant so you could install these sensors?

You're right it's fiddly. There's the other issue of what protection logic would be required to enable a user to accidentally turn off all zones and block airflow. I've never tested but wonderd if that exists within the panel or the controller unit, and what that would mean for a homekit plugin if it was ever attempted.

gondalez commented 2 years ago

Oh yes good point around airflow / all-off.

Now that you mention it I did set a single constant as I read somewhere online that not setting one is bad for the unit. I wasn't game to try no constants lest it blew something up 😅

Another thing that may be useful to know is that iZone have come out with a controller that has official homekit support. I found this just now: https://www.izonepedia.com.au/index.htm?context=2340

I haven't read it in depth yet but it might help to see how they implemented zones.