VITODENS 300: is there an API for setting the date & time automatically?

[joeH68]

Hi,

last week I had a situation where the date/time setting of my heating went completely wrong, something similar to Probleme mit Einstellungen und Verlaufsdaten seit ... - Viessmann Community (viessmann-community.com... which is also very recent.

It took me sometime to figure out that the reason for the cold water was the wrong date-time in my heating system. This was probably caused by a power out problem we had in the region 2 days before. The system is around 5 years old and had other power out cases in the past without loosing the date/time setting, but not this time. I manually entered the correct values in the touch panel and everything is working fine since then.

My question here to the community and Viessmann support: 
is there a way in the API to (1) read the current date/time setting in the heating system (2) set a new date/time (3) synchronize it with an NTP server?

Thanks in advance for your support!

[Fiedel]

Hey Joe 😉,

pls. post the serial of your heater or a photo of the sticker.

Greetings

Fiedel

[joeH68]

Hi @Fiedel! 

thanks for your prompt reply. Here the serial info's:

"HeatingBoilerSerial": "7560881502880101", "HeatingControllerSerial": "7555113508520100"

Would be great if you have a way to automatically correct date/time should it go wrong.

All the best

[Fiedel]

At first here your Parts App.

Looks like it has no NTP: See page 33 here.

[joeH68]

No NTP through the operating panel, but perhaps through the Vicare API?  

Verifying and/or setting the date/time through the API would prevent similar issues in case the local clock goes bananas ...

[Fiedel · Accepted solution]

Doesn't look like it either: See here. 

[joeH68]

Thanks @Fiedel , in this case it seems the clock of my VITODENS 300 can only be set MANUALLY. 

For me, it means all heater schedules (boiler and pumps for warm water and heating) and optimizations made using ViCare or similar smarthome tool using the Viessman API will stop working as intended in case the VITODENS 300 clock is reset. This may happen inadvertently after a power lost.

It also means there is no way to detect it, except when the end user notices it (i.e. water to cold) or visually checks the heater's datetime in the touch panel.

This is a pity or even a shame 😩  

[Fiedel]

This feature is not a big deal to program an should be part of an to come software update!

Maybe one oft the Viessmann guys like @CustomerCareChris can handover this idea to the developers.

[joeH68]

Thanks @Fiedel, I take you at your word 👍 

Let's see how long it takes to receive a response and update from development. If you need someone to do beta testing here I am.

Thank you!

[Marioo]

I have a boiler bought over 10 years ago, and the internal battery died a long time ago. I had a real journey to address the issue.

1. I had to coincidentally learn that it is caused by a dead battery and understand that it is not a normal behavior of the boiler. I learned that on the phone support line when described the problem and asked why the internal clock is not synced with the cloud by the gateway.

2. I had to learn that the battery is hard-mounted somewhere on the PCB and cannot be replaced easily. I spent a long while looking for it without success.

3. I finally called for a service person to come and show me where the battery is located.

4. I spent a lot of time scouring internet forums looking for any clue on the symbol of the battery (HB414 II06E in my case if anyone may find it useful).

5. I spent hours looking for the battery on various online stores with no luck.

6. I was eventually lucky to coincidentally find the battery on AliExpress weeks later, and waited a month before it was shipped.

7. When it arrived, I had to pay an electronic engineer to replace it, hoping the module won't get damaged.

This is what it took me to address the clock resetting problem, initially having no idea about the cause and how to solve it.

I have no slightest idea why the gateway doesn't sync the clock automatically! For me, this is one of the primary features this device should handle.

[Fiedel]

You are abs. right! And such a battery should be replacable in a socket like on a computer board.

[joeH68]

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@Marioo  schrieb:

...
I have no slightest idea why the gateway doesn't sync the clock automatically! For me, this is one of the primary features this device should handle.

---

@Marioo a real nightmare! what is your heater's model? I wonder if the VITODENS 300 (my case) has a battery that needs to be replaced too, and nobody tells the user 😠  

This feature is not a big deal to program an should be part of an to come software update!

Maybe one oft the Viessmann guys like @CustomerCareChris can handover this idea to the developers.

@Fiedel  ,@Customer_Care , 4 months later, are there any news from your developers?  

Thanks!

[Marioo]

@joeH68, my boiler model is Vitodens 200-W WB2C (26 kW).

@Fiedel, while researching about the clock resetting issue, I learned that later models do have a replaceable battery, but can't tell for sure and can't list them.

If you wan't to check your module what battery it contains, its the LCD panel at the front of your boiler. You can remove it easily by pulling one of its sides (the left probably?), then remove its back cover. You can see the battery in the picture I attached here. Of course be careful and do it with the boiler disconnected from the grid ;).

[Marioo]

BTW, I noticed recently that the ViCare app does have an option in the boiler settings to set the clock. I'm not sure if it was there from the very beginning of if it was recently added. While it's already there, I hope they are one step from implementing automatic synchronization, but let's see what they say :).

[joeH68]

thanks @Marioo for the photo and infos, I'll check at the next chance. 

Anyway, now it seems obvious to me I must have a battery too (s. Bedienungsanleitung für den Anlagenbetreiber):  "Uhrzeit und Datum sind werkseitig eingestellt. Falls Ihre Heizungsanlage längere Zeit außer Betrieb war, müssen Sie ggf. Uhrzeit und Datum neu einstellen."

As of the ViCare app, this feature has been there for a long while. It's just the standard API that misses it.

[Marioo]

A couple of days ago there was a power outage for around two hours in my area. Even though I replaced the battery a couple of months earlier (so it's brand new), the time was reset during that period and it had to be set manually again.

So either something is wrong with the battery I bought, or its capacity does not ensure that the time will be sustained for more than the two hours, roughly. That's better than nothing, but compared to computer motherboard batteries which last for years, it's a joke.

[Fiedel]

If you bouhgt the right one, it lasts for years (and not only four years... 😉).

[Marioo]

@Fiedel, just out of curiosity, do you mean that the battery in your case is able to sustain the timer for several years when you unplug the boiler or remove the panel? Or do you mean that the battery should be able to sustain battery for the couple of hours throughout years whenever there is a short power outage? 🙂

[Fiedel]

Both. Normally nobody stores the panel outside the system without power, and the longest

power off- period is the summer if one has a standalone thermosolar- system like me.

But if one would do that, this battery holds the time and settings for many (more than 10) years.

This battery ist the same as they use in 10-year Smokewarners.

[Marioo]

If that's the case, then something may be wrong with the battery I have. I don't know... In fact, however, I've had the boiler for over 10 years now, and the original battery died at least a couple of years ago. Thanks for the response.

[Fiedel]

If you check the battery - use a batterychecker like this. Normal meters show like it´s still full.

[Marioo]

But the problem is that I have no idea whether it's a battery, a rechargeable battery, or a capacitor. On the forums where I found the battery type they referred to it in three different ways :). The electronic engineer that soldered it to the board advised me to wait for a couple of hours before I make a first test, so he assumed it's a rechargeable battery.

What's interesting, when I check the voltage level with a multimeter, it shows 0 V (zero). I'm not experienced enough to tell if that's normal or not. If it was a capacitor, then I'd say yes, but for a rechargeable battery?

[joeH68]

@Marioo sounds to me like you will have to change the battery, again 😞

@Fiedel thanks for pointing out to a working battery tester 🙂  Would you be so kind to recommend a battery too?

[Fiedel]

Best battery- link for germany is here. It ist just a lithium- battery. No "goldcap", no accu.

If it gets emty after a few years, maybe it was not ok, or the panel takes too much current.

[Marioo]

Oh, now I understand why your battery lasts 10 years 😃. See mine in the picture I posted somewhere earlier in the conversation. It’s a micro battery HB414 II06E.