the US version of the Schneider wiser air appears to have ZigBee, according to their spec sheet, and supports forced air heating. Not sure how accessible its API is for building a binding. It also appears to be an almost direct back-plate compatible with the Nest and doesn’t look too bad. Unfortunately, I live in Australia, so not readily available here, and I don’t have ZigBee deployed.
I am, like everyone else, very annoyed with Google for this change in service, as I love the look and functionality of my Nest Thermostat. As for DYI, I’ve been playing with Arduino, WiFi, MQTT and OH to control curtain motors, and I can see how this might work with building a thermostat. Getting it to not look like DYI is the trick. There are a number of sensor and screen options for Arduino, and building a small power circuit to run off the 24V supplied by HVAC wouldn’t be difficult - I had to build an interface circuit for my Nest anyway as Australian heaters do not conform to the same standards.
Thanks for the post. It’s a pretty good looking thermostat. They definitely hide the fact that it supports zigbee. That fact sheet is there only place I can find that it supports zigbee, which is probably why it didn’t show up in my initial search. I’ll have to do some more research but this one could be an option. It’s simple and had a real screen with a simple display.
I know the evohome solution may be an overkill for your needs, but in case anyone else reads this later, I have now updated the python script such that it sends commands to the evohome controller as well. I thus now have local control of my evohome system. Details are in the updated README on the github link.
One other thing I forgot to mention before is that the arduino with radio can be bought ready assembled on ebay. This is actually a neater solution as a proper PCB is used to link the two. Cost-wise they seem to be going for about £20. It will of course need the firmware to be upgraded.
Just tried to sign into their developer console with my Nest account and it can’t be done anymore. They only offer to sign in with Google account already!?
Anyone found a way around this?
That’s not completely surprising. I think they have already cut off the ability to change anything in the developer portal so I suppose they just disabled the page.
I think your way around it is to stay looking for a replacement.
For the curious, I ended up supporting HestiaPi. Now that Google promised to let the API work past Sept 1 I have the time to wait until they ship (Oct 1 according to their site). The case isn’t my favorite but over time I might be able to manufacture something I like better. And it looks no worse than the zwave one I decided on (see above). And it will give me a while lot more control and freedom to customize than anything else I looked at.
I like being able to support a company that uses OH and a prob if every sale is donated to the OH foundation too.
Hm, they said one could add new connections until end of August, but if I cannot visit the developer console anymore…
BTW, I have the Nest Hello and I will not throw it just away if it does not work anymore with openHAB. Maybe, there will be a new solution to connect it.
Based on everything Google has said this far, there will be no way to connect it to OH. They are only slowing a small set of heavily vetted third parties to connect to and get any data from Nest devices. If IFTTT didn’t make the cut, what chance does a small open source project have? Even Alexa support isn’t a guarantee right now.
Best products are only going to be guaranteed to work with Google Assistant.
I guess, you are right. Then the question would be: Which new functionality will Google Assistant have in the future? openHAB is already connected to Google Assistant.
OpenHAB is connected to Google Assistant in the same way that Hue is connected to GA. OH provides sensor readings and the ability to control devices to GA. The integration is not reciprocal. GA provides no sensor readings it ability to control things to OH. And they explicitly stated this is by design.
So for all practical purposes, all Nest products are I longer compatible with OH. And unless Google changes their position and allow more than a few carefully vetted third parties, they will remain incompatible with OH.
Google is a very large, for-profit company, and like any other company the individual employees make good and bad decisions. I don’t even think this was a particularly bad decision in the grand scheme of things…in my opinion, it was just executed poorly.
There are lots of times where I’ve made decisions that put the best interests of the majority ahead of others. I never like doing it, but it’s often necessary to move forward. There are even more times when I’ve heard about similar “needs of the many” decisions and agreed with them, because I’m not personally affected. So I can’t be upset when I’m in the minority. And in this case, OH users are clearly in the minority.
Everyone’s experience with Google varies. I’ve received a lot of free service from them over the years for the cost of advertisements customized to my interests and data that I’m personally comfortable with giving them. They provide, for free, a Google for Non-profits account that provides my charity with web-based services we couldn’t otherwise afford. And when I fire up the free Chrome browser to search for something random or check GMail, they still don’t charge me any money.
Your experience with Google will obviously be different from mine, but if you want to label them as evil, then I hope you’re doing your best to avoid using their services at any cost–financial or otherwise. I also hope you’re aware of the far-more questionable and underhanded practices of many other for-profit companies. Compared to what some others will do to generate profits, Google looks pretty good to me.
just to be sure I’ve understood correctly. The as-is will stay as-is, I mean there won’t be disconnections on 31st of August. But they won’t accept new connections, and existing users won’t receive updates/new features.
Is that correct?
I mean, my current Protect will continue working with OH …
Andrea
Do not convert your login to log in with Google. You must keep your Nest log in.
They will shut the API down, probably by the end of the year. Google hasn’t promised to keep it running forever or even for a long time. They have only given us an extension to when the API will be closed down.
You have more time, but your current Protect will stop working with OH sometime soon, probably by the end of the year.
No, there is not. openHAB is not among and will never be among the “heavily vetted third-party systems” who are the only ones that Google will allow access to any data from Nest products. Google wants Google Assistant to be the hub. All information goes there and they want to control everything.
If IFTTT is definitely not going to be supported by Google and even Alexa support is in doubt, there is no chance that a smallish open source project like openHAB will ever be allowed access by Google. Make no mistake, this is all on Google’s side and it’s all Google’s doing.
@ariela@Ben_Douglas How are your Nest Protects integrated into openHAB, and what do you do with them?
I looked at integrating my Nest Protect (before Google’s announcements) to take advantage of the Away state, but didn’t feel like I was gaining enough functionality to justify the time and effort. I’m curious as to how others have benefited and if I’ve missed seeing some opportunities.
