Homekit, ecobee, HA local control question

@RomSand Min/Max temp is set directly on the Ecobee and not within HA. Once set, you should never have to touch it again. You simply use HA to manage the target temp.

Hi all. Just trying to make sure I understandā€¦ If you use the ecobee HA integration, it is hitting the cloud/ecobee servers periodically for updates. Versus if you use homekit_controller, it will then access your ecobee locally/directly. Is this correct? Is there any advantage to use the HA integration over the homekit_controller integration?

The homekit_controller does not currently have the ability to control the modes (Home, Away, Sleep, etc). There is ongoing discussion by the developer of the homekit_controller integration to try to get that working for Ecobee, but it sounds like itā€™s not an easy task.

For now, Iā€™m using homekit_controller with my Ecobeeā€™s and then simply toggling them On and Off based on presence. This works well enough for now. And I like the idea that itā€™s completely local.

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Is anyone else having connectivity issues with the ecobee through the Homekit controller. Iā€™ve been using it for years without issue, but now the device becomes unavailable every few minutes. I tried deleting the Homekit controller integration, disconnecting the device from Homekit and reconnecting it and am still having the issue. Iā€™m on the latest HA version: 2022.9.7 and HAOS 9.0 with Supervisor 2022.09.1

I did just install a new Unifi AP and there is some overlap in the coverage from 2 other ones in the Thermostatā€™s location. I tried forcing the device to stay connected to one AP and ignore the others to prevent it switching, but that hasnā€™t helped. I did notice that it I force it to reconnect (through the Unifi controller software) it immediately becomes available once it reconnectsā€¦ Looks like it might be a Unifi issue though: https://community.ui.com/questions/Ecobee-thermostat-connection-issue/15e392a7-56f4-4d0d-b4e4-ac1621b2b638?page=3 https://community.ui.com/questions/Issue-with-Ecobee-thermostat-connecting-the-Ubiquiti-Wireless-with-and-without-DHCP-enabled-on-the-/24cefcc8-446a-48e9-99f9-3089815e6387

Iā€™m just curious how everyone else is ā€œloweringā€ temps for a preset ā€œAwayā€ mode. And then returning to a home mode.

I set up a proximity sensor that detects if everyone is outside of a 1KM zone around the house (otherwise the home/away kicks on and off too often). I use this 1KM proximity sensor as the trigger in the home/away automation in node red.

Screen Shot 2022-10-20 at 08.06.31

Where you able to solve this? I am seeing the device also go unavailable (but in my case it doesnt seem to reconnect at least within the next two hours). Reloading the integration doesnt solve this. 2020.10.4

I setup my AP to stay on one channel and I no longer allow it to roam if it finds a better channel (default setting). I also restarted HA after re-adding the device via Homekit. After doing both of those itā€™s been solid. Iā€™m pretty sure it I just needed to reboot HA after adding the Homekit integration. Iā€™m trying to rememberā€¦ I think I was still seeing the issue after setting the channel, but I canā€™t remember. Thatā€™s the problem when you try to solve a problem with a shotgun approach and in a short time period. Itā€™s hard to recall what actually solved the problem. :roll_eyes:

I have ecobee in local mode by integrating to homekit. And then I blocked ecobee access to call home to ecobee cloud server by blocking at router.

Question: I noticed date/time on ecobee is not correct but when I try to manually update via ecobee UI on the device, it said I need to log into my ecobee account. Anyone know how to update date/time on ecobee device without giving ecobee device access to internet again?