Nest Thermostat Driver

[CinemarDave]

A new device driver for the Nest Thermostats has been released. It is a member of the Climate family and is available in the Installation Assistant.

When you install the driver don't try to add anything in Family Manager. The driver will automatically add the thermostats it discovers to the Climate family. Instead open the driver and go to the settings tab. Enter your Nest username and password and then click the Discover button. After a few seconds the thermostats should show in the list.

The Nest thermostats are controlled from the cloud. So you'll need a permanent Internet connection when using this driver. And since they are intelligent devices they do not offer or need a large command set. The driver currently supports three commands:

Climate|<<ID>~SetTemp~(Up, Down or Temp#) - used for setting the desired target temperature
Climate|<<ID>~Fan~(Auto, On, Toggle) - used for Fan control
Climate|<<ID>~Mode~(Auto, Heat, Cool, Off) - used for controlling HVAC mode

[MikeKade]

I tried using it today. It doesn't work. I put in my username and password and hit discover. Absolutely nothing. I turned on events and also got nothing.

I had been monitoring the Nest Thermostats thru the Vera (through a free plugin from Vera). That worked just fine. However, it would be nice to go a little more "native".

[CinemarDave]

Email me your Nest username and password and I will try it here. I have access to one other Nest thermostat from another customer and the driver can see that one.

[MikeKade]

Any news? I still cannot use my Nest driver. I put in my username and password, hit discover and nothing.... Turn on logging and get nothing there either.

[CinemarDave]

Been tied up with other drivers. I'll get to this today or tomorrow.

[edentel]

Minor glitch I found via the command builder

Climate|2~Mode~Auto

should actually be

Climate|2~Mode~Range

I've just started using the driver for real and was stumbling on errors in the log. I checked the variable listing and saw they were reporting range. Not sure if this is something Nest just changed or not. I changed the command in my scene and it works as expected.

[edentel]

Dave, can you let me know if SetTemp is working? I'm seeing some odd responses and it has me scratching my head.

If the TStat is set to Range it appears SetTemp has no effect.

If the Tstat is set Cool then Climate|2~SetTemp~Up raises the heat set point by one degree. Repeated issueing of the command does nothing.

If I have raised the setpoint then lowering it will work one degree. Repeated pushes do nothing.

I see the same behavior on Heat. Issuing Down by itself does nothing. Send a single Up and it increases. Repeated Up does nothing. If an Up has been sent a single Down will be accepted.

I have two Nest's and both exhibit the same behavior.

Thanks,
-Ed

[CinemarDave]

I don't have Nest thermostats here to test with. I have to use other people's Nests for testing. I know there is a long round trip time when sending commands. The driver must send the command to the Nest servers in the "cloud". Then the Nest server send the command to your thermostat. The driver then has to wait for the thermostat to send its status back to the cloud then the driver can poll for it. The time is measured in seconds.

How quickly can you increment the temp from their web interface? The driver is essentially trying to emulate the web interface. I can test the driver from here if you do not mind me changing your temps.

[MikeKade]

Still having problems with the device driver. The following screen shot illustrates the issue. I have 4 devices with aliases of "Back Bedroom", "Master Bedroom", "Casita" and "Family Room". However, with the device driver, I get 2 "Back Bedroom" entries.

[CinemarDave]

Ok, I'll look into this during the next week.

[edentel]

I lost track of this thread and just got back around to programming the Nest scenes.

The problem is still out there and I'll be glad to give you access for testing purposes. Just let me know.

[CinemarDave]

Ok, it has been a while since I looked at this. Also there are strong rumors that Nest is going to be launching an official API next month at Cedia. This would be really great if they did then we would be able to talk directly to the thermostat and not have to proxy everything through the Nest servers in the cloud.

[edentel]

Agreed and much cleaner. I'll hang tight and let you focus on other things like the Russound driver.

[edentel]

Seems like all of their announcements have come and gone without that rumored open API. Anyone aware of anything I missed?

[CinemarDave]

The way I read things is that Control 4 worked with Nest to make the API. Nest then gave Control 4 exclusive access to the api for x number of months. Nest, in theory, is to release their API to the public some time in January. I continue to check their site for any news.