Away Mode and Temporary Overrides

[thegregskinner]

Hi, Great homekit plugin, thank-you for making it! There are two features that are missing that would make this plugin super robust and usable; 1) Away mode instead of just off. I have a few pets and in the hot summers I dont let the house get over 80 degrees. I have this set up on the thermostat as the temperature for away mode. Id like to create automations to set the house to away when nobody is home. The reason I dont want to have it just change temperatures is that in the winters away will be heat at 55 degrees. Also away mode uses slower fans and less power etc

2) Temporary temperature adjustments. On the thermostat I have a schedule for daytime and night time. If I change the temperature on the stat it will pause the schedule and override to what I set it to until the next scheduled temperature change (I like it cooler at night) On the homebridge plugin when you change the temperature it turns the schedule off and it will not resume until I go to the thermostat and start the schedule again manually.

Not sure if those are too much to ask for or limitations of homekit itself but I greatly appreciate the work you've already put into it! You're already the go-to Daikin one+ homebridge plugin!

[jeffschubert]

@thegregskinner Thanks for the ideas! I'll need to give them more thought as I'm able, but off hand:

1. Homebridge/Homekit thermostats don't have an inherent way to handle Away mode that I've seen. But I think it could likely be done by adding an extra switch/toggle device handle that. Looking at the thermostat data the plugin has access to, it isn't immediately obvious how to set it Away/Home, so I'll need to figure that out as well.
2. The pausing of the schedule as you manually set the temp is new to the latest 1.0.4 version of the plugin. I thought the thermostat would resume like you expect it to, but it looks like I need to do more testing.

I'm glad it is working well for you overall! I can't promise any quick changes (day job and family come first), but I'll see what I can do when I've got a free evening here and there.

[thegregskinner]

Yeah I appreciate the work you've already put into it! Obviously I can't expect a free plugin to be your #1 priority Thanks!!

[jeffschubert]

@thegregskinner I've finally got a free night to dig into this. I'll start with the second item. The temporary temp adjustments seem to be working as expected with my setup. Here's what I tried:

1. I enabled a schedule
2. Used the Home app to adjust the temp
3. Noted in the Daikin iOS app that the schedule was paused
4. Waited for the next schedule event/time
5. Saw that the schedule unpaused and returned to the settings for the new schedule period/time.

This exactly mimicked what happened when I went through the same steps using just the Daikin iOS app to do the manual adjustments.

Can you double-check the thermostat is configured to resume the schedule at the next event in the schedule? In the Daikin iOS app:

1. Go to the Schedule tab (calendar)
2. Tap the menu button in the upper right (triple lines)
3. Tap settings
4. Tap schedule
5. Check if the Manual adjustment overrides: is set to until the next event in the schedule

Also, when you make these adjustments is the thermostat set to Home or Away? I assume Home, but want to make sure.

[jeffschubert]

As for setting it Away, it'll be a bit trickier. I've figured out that in order to toggle Away on or off, it will require the thermostat having geofencing enabled on the thermostat itself, the app doesn't seem to have a way to change this. So, on the thermostat:

1. Go to the Away tab
2. Tap the menu button in the upper right
3. Tap settings
4. Tap away
5. Ensure the use geofencing setting is checked

Now on the thermostat and in the app, you can manually toggle the Away on/off. If you additionally enable geofencing in the Daikin app on your iPhone/iPad, then the app presumably notifies the thermostat via Daikin's API when your phone leaves home and auto-sets it to Away. But, if you keep geofencing disabled on the phone (or via the iOS settings don't give the app permission to use Location), it won't use that device to auto-set it Away.

So, I think I'll probably need to add an Away toggle switch for the thermostat to manually toggle it on and off.

(Sorry for the long posts, it is mostly notes for me since I'll forget over time.)

[jeffschubert]

An Away switch will be available when v1.0.5 is published. Working on a couple other improvements for that version as well.

[thegregskinner]

As for the resume schedule in the daikin app, yes it is on resume. If i manually change the temperature on the tstat it resumes the schedule when the next change happens. I will update the plugin when the new update come out and see if it still happens.

Thanks for your work!!!