Get the most of your Venstar Thermostat with this Node Red flow and MQTT

Tutorials & Examples
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This example is for a T3700, but should work on all Explorer and ColorTouch models

T3700.txt (69.5 KB)

Here’s what I did. There are multiple ways to achieve this.

While in Paper UI, create a new “Generic MQTT Thing” named HVAC. Then create a “Number” Channel with MQTT state topic set to “HVAC/Upstairs/Temp” and MQTT command topic set to “HVAC/Upstairs/SetTemp”. Repeat for whatever else you want to add to OH.

Notes:

  • I use a flow named “Injection Master” that handles all my communications in and out of Node Red. i.e. MQTT, email, and other APIs. Therefore, you will see “Link Nodes” where the MQTT would normally be. I do this to keep the number of calls and puts down.
  • I’ve added “Comment Nodes” for notes in this flow. You’ll see MQTT command topics and MQTT state topics for OH integration.

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I definitely like to see tutorials like this so thanks for posting. But I do have to ask:

  • why did you not use the openHAB add-on to NodeRed for the communication between openHAB and NodeRed?

  • why not use the Venstar add-on to openHAB and then you don’t need any of this?

This looks to contain a whole lot of work to do something supported by openHAB already.

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MQTT is just what I’m used to. I forgot there is an Node Red OH add-on. Additionally, MQTT gives a bit more flexibility for those who don’t use OH and I shared this post on the Node Red forums as well. As for the Venstar binding, calls for Alert, Runtimes, and Sensors are missing and I figured that I’d add it all since I was in the weeds with the API.

Thank you for such a great forum.

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