Launch a range extender or upgrade to mesh network

191012141523

Comments

  • I haven’t found it that bad. I’ve had really good after sales service when one valve failed (replaced promptly foc) and sensible responses to concerns and problems. Both my installations have now settled down and are running reliably with rare dropouts, and my son now has an 8 valve installation too. I’d recommend being patient and paying really careful attention to siting of the internet bridge. It’s definitely a matter of trial and error.
  • Pete
    Pete ✭✭✭
    @CIW
    Very pleased for you but I'm not sure posting about NOT having a problem is that useful in a thread for people who ARE having a problem.
    Sadly physics problems in reality don't tend to "settle down".
  • If you look at my earlier posts you will see I go into some detail about this.
  • @Pete it is certainly my experience too that it does 'settle down' - finding the best location and orientation for the bridge and only using quality batteries made all the difference.
    There must be many thousands (ie a vast majority) who don't come to this forum as they don't have a problem either.
    I can't help thinking that those with problems may have external interference from some as yet unidentified source?
    Also, all our TRVs are the V1 type (that don't take rechargeable batteries) - I wonder if the V2 type are more susceptible?
  • That matches my own experience exactly.
  • Robbie
    Robbie ✭✭✭
    edited February 2022
    I wonder why the 2 of you without these problems bother to keep replying to people who do.
    People ask for a repeater since 5 years for a reason. The point is that there still isn’t one, not that you two don’t need one.
  • Because I was one of those calling for this. My earlier posts are very relevant.
  • Robbie
    Robbie ✭✭✭
    Not to those who aren’t as lucky as you ;)
    But okay, let’s carry on.

    I for one stíll need a repeater! One bridge can either connect to one side of the house, or the other half. There is not one position where it reaches all TRV’s.
  • Would it be possible to just use 2 bridges or can a home only have 1 bridge?
  • Hi Rob, any update on the connectivity status? I currently have my bridge strung up unattractively in my living room so that it can - just - reach throughout our house.

    Tado is a great system - except for this one very weak point. Surely you are moving forward on a better solution?!

  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭
    We'll referring back to my earlier post on here on the 9th February about 1 of my radiator thermostats having random off days every few weeks..

    It disconnected for an entire night on the 7th March - first time in 4 weeks. Woke up in the morning and spotted it, realised I didn't have any spare AA batteries in the house (school boy error), so pulled the existing batteries and reinserted. It's been rock solid again ever since... Exactly as every time previously.

    Note, this device had new batteries in October. It's fine for several weeks on the trot, then will have one bad day, and will then be fine again for weeks on end.

    I'm starting to think its unstable firmware... The thermostat gets itself into a corner case condition and the firmware keels over. Restarting the device gets the thing back up and running again. It only started happening around the spate of firmware updates before the winter period, previously it was rock solid for a whole year.

    Complete guess though.

    If it was bad batteries I'm sure it wouldn't happen so sporadically (i.e several weeks apart).
  • Just came here to say, that connection is much more stable lately to all of my Smart radiators. I mean on the Tado app as well on the Apple Homekit app. Well done!

    Even as I mentioned before, i only have Smart Radiators on the 2 bottom floors of my house. (my house has 4 floors) and still waiting Tado to release updated products (range extender, additional home hub our whatever) so that I can expand the system to all floors of my house.

  • I have the same experience. Initially I was desperate to get an extender or a second bridge but increasingly I am getting by. I still wouldn’t say no but the negative is just that from time to time I lose the furthest radiator(s) for twenty minutes or so. Wish I knew why…
  • johnbur
    johnbur ✭✭✭
    @CIW don't tell @Robbie.....
  • Pete
    Pete ✭✭✭
    I'm still confused as to why people who DON'T feel they need a range extender are posting in a thread for people who DO need a range extender.
    Btw, a 20minute drop out is a loss of connection for a lot more than 20 minutes.
    The valves buffer the data, so that is 20 minutes of lost data due to the buffer being full, probably more like an 40+ minutes drop out.
    And if that room is the master bedroom and that period is over the morning start time, the valve misses it's switch on and you wake up cold.
    My wife is not hugely understanding of "it will reconnect soon", or "I think it's working now".
    I have radiators that don't show any data loss (as this is caught up subsequently with the buffer) but still don't switch on when or are very late switching on.
    Let's hope @Robbie can confirm release later this summer and that it will be compatible with our older equipment.
    I suspect this talk of threading is just talk and actual release is more likely 2024.
  • Don’t be confused. I have been contributing to the thread as someone who badly wanted an upgrade on this issue but have a user experience worth sharing as the system has adapted and improved over time making the need less acute. Seems I am not alone in finding this and that the finding was therefore worth sharing.
  • ESMSL
    ESMSL
    edited March 2022

    I am very worried about the system, we are trailing it against Honeywell Evohome and whilst the app and pretty graphs are streets ahead in technical terms the Honeywell Evohome system leaves Tado standing

    Not impressed after 3 days will be sending it all back to Amazon

    Our test property has 12 radiators downstairs and on a second circuit upstairs 9 radiators so that is two Tado receivers - I think we will need to pray!

    So I cannot as a business recommend the same

    The householder has told us to remove the same !!

  • I want a bridge range extender or secondary bridge. In my home it is very difficult to find a place were I can make connection to all tado devices. And connection is erratic
  • GrayDav4276
    GrayDav4276 ✭✭✭
    edited March 2022

    Hi @GertJan04

    Have you carried out a search of the Community Forum for other requests for this..........please add your VOTE to an already opened request.........otherwise your "new request" will not achieve enough votes to even register on tado°s list of customer generated requirements.

    #UPDATE# (14:55)

    @GertJan04

    It now appears that either you or a tado° moderator/admin has added your original post into this thread 👍

    Have you added your VOTE to this thread ?? 🤔

  • >> but customers who have no issues will not show up here.

    Also there a toon of clients that also just don’t complain or say anything… this is not really a measure to go by @tado.

    Product is great but serious connection issues exist. If you are really serious about this product and brand look for a solution. Software or hardware. As a customer I don’t really care as long as there is a solution.

    Makes no sense that there is no such thing as an extender for instance.

    Good luck with this and hopefully we will have product that works properly one day.
  • JamesU
    JamesU ✭✭
    edited April 2022

    +1 Need say no more?!

    This would actually be tremendous, and means MORE SALES... surely a good thing for TADO?!

    What is the issue? IPSEC VPN tunnels? Texas Instruments relay chip? Loadbalancer tech? BGP gateways? Link State tech... there are dozens of ways to solve it...

    See: https://www.ti.com/wireless-connectivity/other-wireless-technologies/products.html

    Other suppliers obviously exist...

  • Hi all. Found this thread when searching for TaDo connection issues!
    New system installed, loved it right up until I couldn’t get the furthest TRV to pair and connect. Now I have, it’s a game of moving the bridge so that most of the TRV have reliable connections but it’s a trade. Not happy with the lack of a bridge repeater, this is such a basic requirement.
    My flat is on one floor. Ranges well within the quoted 13m. Only using 4 TRV. Pretty pathetic bridge.
    Will likely return for a refund.
  • @Jurian over a year has passed and my new installation is already having connection issues with one radiator thermostat. A repeater would be a simple quick, cheap easy fix. I really don’t want to deinstall and return what seems to be a good system but for a small hardware addition needed.
  • Agree. A repeater is a fundamental basic requirement for a system like this. Other home automation systems have it - e.g. Lutron lighting works fine. Many customers must have larger homes - why is Tado clearly ignoring the needs of these customers?

  • Robbie
    Robbie ✭✭✭
    Money. Lack of skills. Bad strategy.
  • From time to time I notice wireless blackout periods for one of the system devices. It would be great if the system issues a push notification when a communication error happens with one device, not just a transient warning red dot in the settings screen.

    It would be a great improvement if for all wireless devices the signal strength is displayed (or the error rate). Maybe due to the size of my house (1500 m3) and/or interference with my alarm system the wireless environment seems not optimal. An option could be relay transmitters.

  • squeeb
    squeeb
    edited May 2022
    Same problem here. Not sure why this hasn’t been implemented from the start given 6LowPAN’s native meshing capabilities.

    Poor engineering design choices. Sign of a company in trouble from the top.

    I have 10 TRVs, wifi thermostat and extension box connected to boiler. Willing to chuck it all for a system that works.

    EDIT: meshing functionality really only needs to be in the internet bridges, and for multiple internet bridges to work together.

    Or even if we had the option to run two separate internet bridges, with TRVs paired to specific bridges, but then for all the automation to be tied seamlessly to one account.

    Not super challenging to proxy a call for heat from one TRV, via the internet bridge to another Internet bridge to the boiler.
  • I agree with the above. How hard can it be to connect devices to multiple bridges? Wifi uses multiple AP's, Zigbee allows for multiple bridges. Messing around with finding the best location for the bridge is not practical, unless you have a simple detector that shows the quality (BER) of the specific radio signal that is used to connect all the Tado sensors to the bridge.

    Perhaps the simplest way it to allow for additional bridges in the app, linked to the same account. In the app we should be able to set-up an additional bridge and then add devices to one of those bridges.

  • mperedim
    mperedim ✭✭
    edited May 2022

    2022-23 will be my fourth "winter season" with Tado. Even if last year was somewhat better, presumably due to firmware fixes, I'd still sleep better if I didn't have to worry that a TRV or a wireless temp sensor would lose connectivity in the middle of the night. It's kind of annoying that we still need to ask for this and can't even get some high level roadmap (will we get it this year? will it be backwards compatible to our existing TRVs and extension kits? if not, will there be some buyback plan? etc.)