V3+ users can now request Offline Schedule

Rob

@Wurls22 The firmware containing this feature has been rolled out a while ago. Assuming your compatible devices met the FW update requirements (good enough connection, decent enough battery) they have the feature available in their FW. The feature requires enabling on an account level in our backend. That's what the signup list is for. So no, you cannot check the status by FW number.

Honestly, I don't know how you can check without bringing the devices offline.

As far as I know, our engineers simply wait a while for the list of sign-ups to fill and then apply the feature to everyone on the list in one go. And then do this again for new sign ups a few weeks later. I presume they will let me know after they've applied it to the first batch, which I can then post here, but I don't want to over-promise.

ChrisJ

@Rob Since they have the e-mail addresses of everyone they have enabled the feature for, surely there could be some kind of automated e-mail notification? It really would be nice to know when the feature has been enabled.

Rob

@ChrisJ Fair point. I'll check if I can make that happen.

Vamp

Good to hear, i also register it, but not all devices compatible….

One question… not would be easier to make a new version of gateway that able to store the offline schedule? I think it easier to replace only one device…

hugbilly

I'm so very glad this offline feature has been developed at last and very much look forward to my system being updated; bravo!

Emcee

Hello @ChrisJ @Wurls22 and others,

Our team has confirmed they will send confirmation emails once Offline Schedule is activated.
The announcement and sign-up form have been updated to reflect this change.
Activations have just begun today.

ChrisJ

@Emcee great! Many thanks.

rorschar

Hi

I received the email :)

Thanks for it, much better receiving an email

pcone

Thanks, received my email just now. Will try to test it out later…

hugbilly

Ah, further to my previous post ("very pleased at this longed for feature being added at last") and having completed the form, I asked the support team about when I would know offline capability had been activated. The reply was confusing:

"Hello,

Thank you for contacting us.

Sure, that is how the X line devices perform, so it is already enabled with them. If there is any change with V3+ version we will notify the customers.

Best regards,

Nathaniel"

Not quite sure I understand that so I've asked for further clarification !

rafm5

@Emcee This is more the kind of thing I had in mind:

hugbilly

@Emcee could you please see my post above and also explain why I've had a further email (dated today) from one of your tadoº colleagues in the support team who has just stated:

"Unfortunately there is no such feature in the V3+ line yet."

I've attached a screen grab of the email and will also refer Nathaniel to this thread in the community forum, it really doesn't inspire confidence when one part of the tadoº organisation doesn't seem to know what another part is doing.

Please clarify the situation.

Best wishes

Hugh

Emcee

@hugbilly Nathaniel is out of the loop (not his fault, a small team is leading this effort for the community). I will loop him in as well.

hugbilly

Thanks for clarifying @Emcee, perhaps I could suggest that members of the support team are always kept apprised of developments such as this since, if there are difficulties, it's likely to be them who customers make contact with first for help.

Best wishes,

Hugh

ms1984

Have requested the feature update, will be useful as i have a couple of radiators which drop in and out of range. I have a couple of questions.

I have 2 or 3 TRV's (all VA02's) on older firmware as i've removed radiators for replastering earlier in the summer, and i took the batteries out. Will the firmware on these update without being mounted onto a radiator, or have they got to be mounted for the firmware update to happen?

Secondly, if a zone has a wireless temperature sensor (on the compatible firmware), and a TRV (not on the compatible firmware), and the wireless temperature sensor is the measuring device, will the offline scheduling function?

ChrisJ

@ms1984 For your second question the answer is yes. It is the version/firmware of the measuring device that matters.

Emcee

@ms1984

The activation does not occur through a firmware update (see Rob's comments above).

If you sign-up, the Offline Schedule will be available to you as soon as activated by one of our colleagues—even if your Smart Radiator Thermostats are not yet installed.

ChrisJ

Hi @Emcee @Rob2 just wondering how the first batch of activations is going and how long it will take to complete them all. I filled in the form a few days before the start of this first batch. I haven't received an e-mail yet but I have no idea on the likely timescale (days, weeks, months) to complete the first batch of activations. Any rough timescale that you can share? Thanks.

hugbilly

Agreed , @ChrisJ that would be very helpful . . .

Emcee

@ChrisJ

1-3 weeks is the timescale described in the announcement and the sign-up form.

The activations are ongoing - the responsible team sets time aside to complete those. Whether that means they do a little bit everyday or do a bunch once a week is up to them.

ChrisJ

@Emcee Thanks. Sorry, I missed/forgot that part in the announcement/form (it was several days ago now).

royi

I have just received confirmation that the offline schedule has been activated. Looking forward to testing it at a later date.

eezytiger

I also received my email today. One thing I don't understand - why would anyone not want this feature enabled? In other words, why not just turn it on for everyone, without the admin overhead and delay of individual requests and replies?

Clearly I'm missing something here.

ChrisJ

I also just received my activation e-mail. Huzzah!

jcwacky

@eezytiger They are collecting feedback from smaller groups to start with. The plan is to roll it out to everyone, eventually, I believe.

eezytiger

@jcwacky Understood. But I'm not sure what there is to learn by rolling out slowly. My heating won't go on until at least 1st October (judging by the weather forecast through till then) and my internet is extremely reliable - maybe one brief outage every few years. Having recently upgraded from FTTC to FTTP I assume/hope that reliability will only improve further.

Floob

Maybe they dont want a Crowdstrike issue :)

I imagine testing in a smaller group first is normal practice, even if no issues are anticipated if there are bugs it wont hit their whole userbase at once.

hugbilly

I haven't had a confirmation email yet but this evening one of my TRVs dropped out (as it does from time to time) despite this annoyance however I was pleased to note the new displays, shown below.

Thanks tadoº for developing this much hoped for feature !

cbd20

@hugbilly this is interesting as the example you've shown is a case where I don't believe the offline schedule would actually work, so surprised to see that message there.

People seem to have two different definitions for "offline" when it comes to tado devices:

1. Your connection to the outside world drops (i.e the internet) but all your local devices remain connected together.
2. A single device becomes unreachable (as per your example) because it's lost connection to the bridge.

In case number 1 the offline schedule can work flawlessly as all devices remain connected.

In case number 2 (your example) the offline schedule surely cannot work. The TRV may still follow it's schedule and open and close according to temperature but if it's lost it's connection to the bridge/ zone controller it cannot actually request the boiler to fire…

ChrisJ

@cbd20 This is an interesting point and I believe that you are correct. If the offline device is the measuring device for a room, and is offline due to a local issue with its connection to the bridge, then following its own schedule is not completely effective as it can only 'heat' if some other device is also requesting heat. Maybe better than nothing but not really the case this feature was intended to address I think.

Perhaps someone from Tado can confirm?