Danfoss Ally valve: Slow actuator response [solved]

I found issue:

When Danfoss Ally Valve is controlled remotely by ZigBee, actuator response is really slow in comparation to direct control by valve’s control ring.

Bug description

When heating temperature is increased by valve’s control wheel, then actuator immediately change the position. For example when temperature increased from 10°C to 28°C, valve is immediatelly opened from 0% to 100%. This is correct and expected behavior. And expectation is that absolutely same situation happens when temperature changed remotely by Zigbee. But reality is different:

When heating temperature changed remotely from HASS (via deCONZ app for ZigBee network), there is no instant actuator change. In this case valve start opening really slowly (it takes 1-2 hours).

My measurement:

Open questions:

  • Is this issue present also when used Danfoss Gateway?
  • Is this issue present also when used ZHA?
  • Anybody experimented with this issue with some result?

I would like to collect more details and knowledge here. I would like to contact Danfoss support for details it is desired feature, bug, or HASS/deCONZ is calling incorrect Zigbee command.

Note: I found zigbee2mqtt issue 4504 and zigbee2mqtt issue 4783 with same issue. In one comment the table mentioned there can be parameter type, which can trigger “aggresive reaction of actuator”. … This is my last finding.

Feel free to add any information about this issue.

1 Like

Hi,

I’ve also just started fiddling with one of these thermostats, but I don’t have the “full package” - just the thermostat and a zigbee usb dongle.

Do you have the full package, with Danfoss hub + app? If so, it would be interresting to see if the change in valve opening behaves the same when temperature is triggered from the Danfoss app. I would suspect that the valve response is slower from programmatic changes than from manual changes by design - but I might be wrong and I have no way to support my theory without the danfoss made integrations.

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@nslr, I also have no Danfoss Gateway (hub). So we are still waiting for somebody, who has Danfoss Ally Gateway Zigbee to provide us an info, if same behavior is with official gateway + mobile app.

what you have found is correct and how it has been designed, if you want the same reaction use need to use the setpoint command also discussed in:

note that the setpoint command is a danfoss manufacturer specific command so manufacturer needs to be set at 0x1246 in the command and the flag that indicate manufactuer needs to set true.

Thanks for answer, @randomuser. Is there any way, how to test the command, you mentioned, in deCONZ? I tried to find it, but it looks like there I am able to read/write attributes only via deCONZ VNC connection. But I am confused, how to test the command you are talked.

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Updated the firmware to the latest version but no improvement in response speed

We need to wait for Deconz to be ila dated with the additional command needed to execute the new setpoint immediately.
I also update the valve but have the same old slow response.

How are zha and deconz related? I thought they were independent solutions.

In the latest release notes for deconz it says that the bug with the danfoss ally thermostats has been fixed. Does this mean that the thermostat will soon work correctly under zha?

I just downloaded latest Deconz Docker version and it looks it is really fixed. Now the response to temperature change is in 40-60 seconds. Valve is opened to correct possition immediatelly, not slowly as before. Perfect!