I am posting here as I suspect the issue may be one of my misconfiguring something. If I should be posting elsewhere, please let me know.
I have integrated my Google Nest Thermostat using the very detailed process for project ID, oauth…etc and while everything works, it only works for a few minutes. It seems that the thermostat just randomly won’t update despite effecting a change in temp either on the thermostat hardware directly (change not reflected in dashboard) or change initiated via the dashboard (thermostat doesn’t reflect any change). If I manually reload the config, then everything works as it should again…for a few minutes.
My search in the community here didn’t seem to reveal anything I could use so I wonder if anyone else may be experiencing this too?
The logs don’t indicate any errors so I’m a little lost as to why.
If your internet connection goes down and comes back, the integration typically needs to be reloaded. This is all being reworked in 2024.2.x. So if you have a flaky internet connection this may happen. Turn on debug logging for the integration.
Thanks. My internet connection, despite being fiber to the home, regularly blips and disconnects. Appreciate the info on the upcoming release and I’ll give the debug logging a try.
I had noticed that my TP-Link integration for Kasa lights also regularly dropped and I had built an automation to detect and reload the config. May need to do this with the Nest for now but limit the number of reloads so I don’t get banned for spamming API calls.
Yeah. I’ve struggled a bit with detecting when the NEST is disconnected as it can be connected and not update its temperature for many hours. I have a ping sensor setup that pings google.com. When that transitions from off (disconnected) to on (connected) for 10 minutes I reload the integration. Or if the temperature doesn’t change for 4 hours.
I’ve thought of writing an automation that periodically bumps the setpoint down by 1 degree (when in heat mode), delays for a minute and check to see if the integration reports the update. If it doesn’t then reload the integration. In either case restore the setpoint.
After alot of trial and error, this makes my Nest Learning Thermostat fairly stably connected - I never had a problem with the integration itself (frrst two most important):
DO NOT USE WPA3, only WPA2 Beacon control OFF
Nest on it’s own SSID
Static IP reserved on the Router (DHCP server)
802.11.r turned OFF
ONLY 2.4Ghz on that SSID, not 5Ghz
DHCP Lease time 120 minutes
Turn OFF any other sophicated WiFi and LAN routing settings, including multicast, etc.
@PeteRage I would think that pinging your nest would be a better way of ensuring it is on your network - and possibly keep it active on the network instead of “falling asleep” and dropping off?
That’s not the problem, The NEST itself is fine. The problem is in the google APIs that the integration uses. The google API will silently fail when the internet connection is lost and will never reconnect until the integration is restarted. Here is the PR Alan and I worked on last year for the google API fix that was rejected by google.
Bummer. Since you are much better versed in this than I am - I am using the below automation but now sure if it would work - just setting thed HVAC mode to whatever it already is every 5 minutes (just to keep traffic going…) is this a good idea or useless and why?
alias: Dining Room -> Keep Nest Awake
description: >-
Keeps the nest awake by issuing a command every 5 minutes to set the HVAC move
to whatever it already is
triggers:
- minutes: /5
trigger: time_pattern
actions:
- data:
entity_id: climate.nest_learning_thermostat
hvac_mode: "{{ states('climate.nest_learning_thermostat') }}"
action: climate.set_hvac_mode
mode: single
That will fail if the internet is disconnected when you issue the command. If the integration is in the bad state from a prior disconnect but the internet is currently connected - the command will get processed. The part that fails is the subscription to changes - and since nothing changes you wont know if the subscription is working. I would definitely not try turning the mode off and then back on as you don’t want to be in a situation where the heat is off because the command to restore it failed.
The whole comms for the integration has been re-worked in 2025.2. I’ll upgrade when 2025.2.3 gets released - as i have a policy to never use a .0 release.
I had thought of that too but a little more digging brought me to the thread below and when I tested it, it is true that the Nest thermostat stops responding to pings once the display turns off. You have to be standing in front of it to enable pings to respond. As soon as the display turns off, all pings stop and I can’t find an entity anywhere that would be used to trigger the motion sensor in the thermostat (it obviously has one since it turns on display when I approach). I would love to be able to leverage that motion sensor to trigger a state to respond to pings but nope. Likely gonna have to wait for the 2025.2 release to test.