{"id":384,"date":"2020-03-30T20:32:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T01:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/?page_id=384"},"modified":"2020-03-30T21:28:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T02:28:46","slug":"venstar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/index.php\/home-info\/arduino-projects\/venstar\/","title":{"rendered":"Venstar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A good thermostat is one of the most consequential purchases a home automation geek like myself ever makes.&nbsp; Given my inclinations I wanted a thermostat that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>was programmable<\/li><li>handled heating and cooling<\/li><li>had an API (Application Programming Interface)<\/li><li>had web access as well as local access<\/li><li>had some way of recording runtimes<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/homeautomationprojects.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/venstar-t5800.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/homeautomationprojects.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/venstar-wifi.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> The Venstar T5800 was the best product for my needs.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve been using one for several years now and it has performed perfectly.&nbsp; You can get the basic thermostat from Amazon for about $190.&nbsp; For my purposes I had to add the wi-fi key which costs about $60.&nbsp; Or you can get both on EBay for about $135.&nbsp; Not cheap, but I&#8217;ve found it to be worth the cost.&nbsp; The price includes an online account at Skyport which provides you with the ability to control and monitor the thermostat even if you never do any of the projects I&#8217;ll be covering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The key feature that makes the Venstar so useful in my environment is the API.&nbsp; It provides the ability to send commands and queries over the wifi connection to the Venstar from another computer.&nbsp; Their examples and documentation, available at <a href=\"http:\/\/developer.venstar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">http:\/\/developer.venstar.com\/<\/a>, are not particularly useful but they at least provide a starting point.&nbsp; The sample programs they provide are for languages other than Perl, an oversight that I have fixed.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve also found that integrating the Venstar with HCA hasn&#8217;t been particularly difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are 3 basic operations that I&#8217;ve made use of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>query info (section 3.1.1 of their documentation)<\/li><li>query runtimes (section 3.1.3)<\/li><li>control (section 3.2)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the following sections I&#8217;ll beef up their documentation a little and cover my actual implementations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/index.php\/home-info\/arduino-projects\/venstar\/venstar-t5800-api-setup\/\">Venstar T5800 API setup<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/index.php\/home-info\/arduino-projects\/venstar\/venstar-api-documentation\/\">Additional API Documentation<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/index.php\/home-info\/arduino-projects\/venstar\/venstar-query-info\/\">Retrieving Status (Query\/info)<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/index.php\/home-info\/arduino-projects\/venstar\/venstar-control\/\">Controlling the Venstar from HCA<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/index.php\/home-info\/arduino-projects\/venstar\/venstar-query-runtimes\/\">Retrieving Runtimes (Query\/runtimes)<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A good thermostat is one of the most consequential purchases a home automation geek like myself ever makes.&nbsp; Given my inclinations I wanted a thermostat that: was programmable handled heating and cooling had an API (Application Programming Interface) had web access as well as local access had some way of recording runtimes The Venstar T5800 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sundrysites.com\/index.php\/home-info\/arduino-projects\/venstar\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Venstar<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":329,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-384","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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