Heatmiser controls

murphyep

Hi,
I installed a heatmiser heating control system in my house in 2011.

I want to be able to control this remotely from my phone.

It comprises of a UH1 control box, 15 digital thermostats and a touchscreen control panel.

I have contacted heatmiser about this, but they have told me that i will need to change all stats in the house and add a neo box.

This will cost around 1500 euro.

Does anyone know of a cheaper alternative for this?

Thanks

nmacc

I don't have an immediate answer for you, but it seems that some work has been done in this area, including talking to the Heatmiser 'N' suffix thermostats.

When you say 'digital thermostats', which model do you have?

This link has some information, although it's rather rudimentary. Depending on the model of thermostat you have it may be possible to come up with a much cheaper solution. I suspect that a lot of work has been done in this area.

murphyep

Thanks NMACC,
Yes I think my stats have an 'N' suffix.
This is the stat:

http://www.heatmisershop.co.uk/heatmiser-dt-n-12v-digital-room-thermostat/

Thanks for the link! , not sure where it leaves me, but will look into it further

nmacc

If you've got the touchscreen that looks a little like this (I mean a little, as this is the current web-accessible version), then your stats would need the 'N' for Network suffix.

I know a bit about the Heatmiser kit, but not enough to answer your question fully. However I'll have a go. One of the advantages - and disadvantages - of Boards is that sticking your neck out on something practically guarantees that you'll get slapped down by someone who knows the answer.

The thermostats communicate with the touchscreen using a serial communications method called RS 485 which needs just two wires - blue and yellow in the Heatmiser instructions. The stats do not communicate with each other, or with the UH1. They do tell the UH1 what to do, but they don't use RS 485 to do it, the data connections simply loop through. The key to the system is the touchscreen, without it there is no advantage in having the networked version of the stats and they won't even sync up their clocks - which is a pain if you have more than a couple.

You haven't said exactly how you want to control the system over the phone. If you just wanted to turn the heating on and off remotely, then there are a lot of products that will do this and quite cheaply. I presume you want something more sophisticated that will work with the existing thermostats and give you similar functionality to the touchscreen. That's quite a different matter of course. The fact that Heatmiser expect you to junk your perfectly functional kit suggests that it's not simple.

I can think of a couple of ways of doing what I'm guessing you want. Either way would require understanding of the protocol used to control the stats and one of the posts in the link in my first reply can provide that.

First suggestion would be to use an Arduino or Raspberry Pi with an RS 485 adaptor and connect into the data lines, leaving your existing touchscreen in place. You could then use a GSM shield to control the individual thermostats by text.

If you wanted a nice graphical app you would probably need a Raspberry Pi on the receiving end and an appropriate app on your phone, created with App Inventor or similar.

Another second way would be to use a USB to RS 485 converter and replace the original touchscreen controller with a cheap, web-enabled tablet. Of course that would be even more work as you'd need to emulate the Heatmiser programming on the tablet.

You can see why I'm hoping someone else has done this already and is feeling generous with their intellectual property. Given the popularity of the Heatmiser kit and the ready availability of the other hardware, I think the odds are good.

murphyep

Thanks for the reply, yes, i have a touchscreen similar to the one above

I would like to be able to control each room from my phone, similar to heatmisers' app if possible:)