Combine Max! schedule with external contact sensors

---

Hello community,
I have a question regarding the Max! thermostats.

I have a Max! Plus thermostat and defined a weekly schedule via the cube and the Max! software.

I also use a Kerui contact sensor to detect an opened window.

I defined a rule like:

when fenster-kinderzimmer is opened set mode of max-thermostat-kinderzimmer to "manu" and set temp of max-thermostat-kinderzimmer to 1

That works for a few seconds, but then the auto mode is triggered again and the thermostat keeps heating the room.

Is there a possibility to set the “window is opened” mode of the thermostat by rule? Or do I need to delete the weekly schedule in the cube and do all the stuff via pimatic? If yes, there seems to be no benefit by buying the Plus thermostats.

Another question is, how could I access the defined device temperatures for eco and comfy in rules?

I would like to do sth like that:

when bla then set temp of thermostat to $thermostat.comfy

Or how else should I define a schedule without redefining all temperatures in extra variables?

@mwittig do you have an answer for the last question as you are the developer of the plugin.

@saxnpaule said in Combine Max! schedule with external contact sensors:
Try: when fenster-kinderzimmer is opened set mode of max-thermostat-kinderzimmer to "manu" and set temp of max-thermostat-kinderzimmer to 4.5

The thermostats cannot set lower temperatures. 4.5°C is the ‘off’-position.

Doesn’t work. It switches back to auto after a short amount of time.

@saxnpaule
Did the cube take the order? Only when the font changes from dark grey to black was the setting adopted. Otherwise, the cube reports the settings to Pimatic and is transferred there. So you’d be jumping back in.

The given rule works for me.

Which font do you mean? There are no different colors.

@saxnpaule

I only have one thermostat and it has the same color like all other elements.

@saxnpaule
I use the standard skin on my PC. And there the colour changes first to dark grey and after the cube has adopted the setting it returns to black.

What happens if you switch manually in Pimatic instead of by rule?

It changes the color to grey and after 20 seconds back to white. The setting seems to be kept.

@saxnpaule
Okay, so it basically works.

Try installing a small delay. For example: when fenster-kinderzimmer is opened set mode of max-thermostat-kinderzimmer to "manu" and set temp of max-thermostat-kinderzimmer to 4.5 after 10 seconds

But as I said, this rule works for me.

Maybe there’s a problem connecting to the cube. I’ve had that before. Restarting the cube helped.

I restarted the cube several times during the last days.
I try the delay.

I also get several connection errors every night between 4 and 5. “cube is busy” or ECONNRESET.

But this seems to have no impact because everything works still fine the next morning.

Cube has no internet access by firewall rule in the router.

@saxnpaule I’m sorry, then I have no idea anymore…

@SaxnPaule

The MAX Plus thermostats have no advantage when you have the cube.
These are only designed for stand-alone operation. The cube or pimatic is responsible for scheduling.

My recommendation for your problem is to switch to maxcul
and make the schedule with pimatic.

I have been using the cube with max-plugin for a long time, but i did the schedule with pimatic.
This had two disadvantages.

• delay due to polling mechanism
• and connection losses

The cube allows only one simultaneous connection. (MaxSoftware/pimatic)

That’s why I switched to the maxcul solution and flashed my cube.
This works properly. see here But there is no way back!

And since yesterday the maxcul plugin also supports wall thermostats, fake devices and
pairing devices together. (v1.0.0)

@kosta said in Combine Max! schedule with external contact sensors:

The MAX Plus thermostats have no advantage when you have the cube.
These are only designed for stand-alone operation. The cube or pimatic is responsible for scheduling.

I am not sure this is correct. My understanding is that Max Plus add means for directly programming the thermostat via the control panel. Another new feature is the childlock which has been added to avoid accidental reprogramming or state change. In turn, when the childlock is active it is no longer possible to switch to manual mode.

See also
https://www.elv.de/topic/unterschiede-zum-alten-heizkoerperthermostat-ohne-plus.html

Regarding the “cube is busy” problem I am not sure whether this is due to poor connection handling on the plugin side or the cube itself cause the problem. @kosta Did you ever look into this issue?

@SaxnPaule Getting back to the original problem, make sure the childlock is disabled.

Yes, the schedule is “flashed” to the thermostat it self.
Childlock is deactivated in my case.

Yesterday the “window open” case worked well for me with the delay. I will monitor it some additional days.

But another case occured. I pressed the “boost” button at the thermostat and the countdown started 600, 599, 598, …
When I looked again after two or three minutes, the thermostat was back on auto mode with setpoint to the comfy temp. There are no other rules defined in pimatic than window open/close. And the “update” rule that changes the setpoint every 10 minutes by plus/minus 1°

@mwittig What about the device variables (comfy, vac, eco)? Could you make them accessible via action?

I think I know whats going wrong.

The update rule crashes the whole logic.

For example pimatic seems not to recognize when the thermostat is on boost mode. Then the rule is triggered and changes the setpoint by 1°. That kills the boost mode.
If pimatic would know about it, I could check it via rule and only update when it’s not active.

The rule is needed to get the temperature measured by the thermostat. As it is only published on changes.

@saxnpaule said in Combine Max! schedule with external contact sensors:

If pimatic would know about it, I could check it via rule and only update when it’s not active.

In my case, Pimatic detects the boost mode, even if it is activated by the thermostat. It may take a few seconds. Simply query the variable $max-thermostat-kinderzimmer.mode (‘manu’, ‘auto’ or ‘boost’).

Well, okay. Does it also detect the “window open” mode? This is absolutely necessary. If not, the schedule would be activated although the window is open.
It would also be great if the “window open” mode could be triggered by rule instead setting the thermostat to manu and 5°

@saxnpaule
I don’t understand. The Max! window contacts are detected by the cube and the temperature is automatically reduced to a preset value when the window is open. If other contacts are used, it is not possible to use the cube but must be done with a rule via Pimatic.