Anyone get their Color Viewstat Yet?

TurnipTruck

Greetings,

After about a year of waiting, it seems like my Color Viewstat may have shipped. I'm out of town for another week yet and I am curious if anyone actually got one.

Anyone got one yet? What's in the box?

bwestlake

1 of 3 worked

I received 3 of the new color viewstats. Only one of the three worked. The other two are completely dead. AMX does not have any more to replace the dead units so I have to wait again. The Duet module is not available yet. Still a little frustrating.

TurnipTruck

Have you gotten any sort of explanation to what has/is going wrong with the Viewstats? I've heard that they were talking about it at CEDIA.

TurnipTruck

Mine arrived on Friday! I was told that it came with an autorization form for iWeather with an FG number matching that of the existing Netlinx version. Hopefully I can use that one. I would prefer not to run Duet on my system if I don't have to. I'll be making a call on Monday!

TurnipTruck

I got my authorization for NetLinx iWeather today. I hope to start working with it later. No module currently exists to drive the forecast display of the Viewstat. However, the Axlink commands are quite simple. I intend to write my own accomodating the Netlinx iWeather. I suspect that any AMX release will accomodate a future Duet version. So far I have been able to keep my system fully Netlinx!

Joe Hebert

Are the new Viewstats still in limbo? Anyone got any info on when these are actually going to ship?

Thanks.

TurnipTruck

I got one. However, all that were shipped are being recalled due to a power supply compatibility issue. No date has yet been given on availability of the revised units.

Aside from the potential power problem, I am very happy with the product. It is very attractive and easy to program. There are still a few things that need attention at a firmware level, but I'm sure that they will be dealt with in due time.

Joe Hebert

Thanks for the response. Care to elaborate what kind of firmware issues need to be resolved?

TurnipTruck

Most notably, the current barometric pressure is set by an Axlinx level. For this, the displayed barometric pressure can only be expressed as an integer although it needs to be displayed in hundreths.

There are some other nit-picks, but they're minor and I'll give them some time.

Joe Hebert

Thanks again. I hope I get my hands on one of these sometime soon..The wait continues...

alexsquared

I've also heard comfirmation that items shipped will be recalled due to the power supply issue. It sure would be nice if they didn't push a Duet module but instead offered a Netlinx version.

TurnipTruck

alexsquared wrote: »

I've also heard comfirmation that items shipped will be recalled due to the power supply issue. It sure would be nice if they didn't push a Duet module but instead offered a Netlinx version.

I've already modified the original Netlinx iWeather module to support the VST-C with forceasting. The protocol is very easy to deal with.

alexsquared

That's great to hear. I'll have take a peek at my iWeather app to see how cumbersome the mod is. Thanks.

TurnipTruck

alexsquared wrote: »

That's great to hear. I'll have take a peek at my iWeather app to see how cumbersome the mod is. Thanks.

It's very nice. It creates a structure containing all elements of the weather forecast.

The protocol of the VST-C is very easy to deal with as well.

jazzwyld

Gotta Love it

We did get ours, but we had to return them for their firmware update. We now have 30 thermostats for a job that we will be returning after the "good ones come out"

RicardoSiqueira

Here are my first impressions:

LCD: looks good in color. I wish we had similar house audio keypads looking like this.

INTERFACE: To change modes (Auto, Cool, Heat, Off) hold the MODE/SELECT button while in the main display, keep pushing the MODE/SELECT button to toggle through the Fan settings and under Heat or Cool use the arrows keys to select (Auto, Cool, Heat, Off). You can also access this menu from the settings display. I think they could have done a better job here, like listing the modes instead of toggling all over. This maybe confusing for the end user if they are working with the thermostat. If they are using a touch panel, then you can make discrete buttons to change the modes. Preset changing is very easy. FRom the main display press any of the arrow keys to acces the presets for Cool and Heat.

SCHEDULE PROGRAMMING: It is very easy to program the 4 available modes (Wake, Leave, Return and Sleep) in the thermostat. You can also Enable and Disable the schedule.

DUET MODULE: Needs improvement. It covers just the basics. Modes, Fan control, presets, etc. It is lacking the most important thing: The ability to schedule from a touch panel. In the past, I have used a module written by VAV Vining for the Enerzone/AMX VST-Stats, which provides the touch panels the ability to set up schedules for the VST-Stats. Vining did a great job here. After a few adjustments on Vinings module I was able to implement ICSNet control as well. WE NEED AMX to implement a similar approach to the color thermostat (ENV-VST-C). Maybe Vining will adapt his module for the ENV-VST-C as well. I wish AMX would take the next step and polish their modules so we could spend more time selling AMX stuff than trying to implement them. I have a job with 36 thermostats and I am still considering using the older module and thermostats. I wish AMX would get in touch with a guy like VAV Vining, who problem spent a lot of time creating the scheduler and implement something similar on their modules. I am just sick of the start up AMX modules. In this case, a scheduler is a must. I will contact AMX and VAV Vining and see if they could exchange some info and bring the scheduler to the ENV-VST-C Duet module. Overall, the product has great potential.

TurnipTruck

Why not use iSchedule? Most of my resi systems do. I have events scheduled to change setpoints.

RicardoSiqueira

Have you seen VAV Scheduler? It is dynamic, can be implement to acommodate larger installs, offer 4 daily setup points with holding capabilities. All settings are saved into a xml file that lives on the Netlinx Master. Lost power, system crashed, locked up, no problem, during rebooting all saved settings are reloaded. Vinings scheduler has almost the same structure of the new thermostat PROGRAM settings. How would you implement the iScheduler for 36 thermostats with 4 daily changes and holding capabilities per thermostats. Wouldn't you mind sharing your iSchedule implementation? Thanks!

TurnipTruck

Not much to share. For HVAC I would have four times per day that stats would change to new setpoints via iSchedule events. The various setpoints are set on a screen that is part of my overall HVAC module.

iSchedule stores all parameters on the flash as well.

I've never seen the VAV module, but I'm sure it's nice. I'm a roll-my-own type.

DHawthorne

I used to routinely include i!-Schedule in all of my proijects, and found I almost never used it. The problem for something like a thermostat is that it can quickly get very unwieldy if they want to use multiple time periods on multiple days of the week. Like VAV, I rolled my own just for thermostats.