Radiator Thermostats out of Range
Answers
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I think that's the main frustration, in this space repeaters are fairly common and should be an option, one size does not fit all!1
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I have external access issues with my radiator valves as well. Customer service tried switching channels which didn't work. Now they sent an email suggesting a replacement of the bridge. On reading this thread, I doubt that will make a difference. Also, since the need for a repeater/extender has been a point of discussion for a few years already, I am not convinced tado will ever deliver it.
Still, the radiators that are unstable are only 5-6 meters away from the bridge. On buying tado I never ever considered connection stability could be the issue annoying me most with the system. I guess you live and learn. Not sure if anyone here is aware of how competitors like Netatmo are doing.
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Hello all,
I am also so disappointed regarding the support from tado. A year before I invested for two room thermostats. It was fine, and during a system upgrade I extended the system with several radiator thermostats and an extension kit.
Du to that I had to relocate of internet bridge due to continuous disconnecting of one radiator thermostat. Since September almot everything is fine, but there is one issue bothering my user experience.
In each 15 days one radiator thermostat gets unreachable/disconnected. So Extension kit goes to fall back mode (continuous light and two times blinking).
I contacted to support and as answer they released a copy from user manual: I shall move internet bridge closer.
It is not possible from me. During the last weeks I experiences how to solve this issue. By restarting internet bridge (plug out from electricity and after 10 sec plug in) the radiator thermostat becomes visible and full operational again. With extension kit there is nothing to do. after the first operation from the "lost" radiator thermostat it gets back to normal operation.
Before I tried to restart it, but it does not help, just pushing extension kit to another error mode.
From my understanding such issue may be caused by SW issue and kind of weak connection. I cannot believe radiator thermostat signal get tired always after 15 days. Always in the evening...
Support does not help. And it making me so disappointed, because based on the description I would expect kind of normal range to cove a two flat House. So a medium size.
It seems to be for me Tado does not care really about range issues. No reply here, and support best recommendation to relocate internet bridge to the center. (It is almost there for me...
So now if any of my friends asking, I recommend Honywell... :( However Tado design looks better for me.
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I have been having similar issues to everyone else. No matter where I placed the internet bridge, I could only ever get one of the TRVs at either end of my house to connect consistently with the other always dropping in and out.
Using the photograph in Wandal's post on this thread I soldered a short length c9cm of copper wire to the antenna on the internet bridge board. For the last 3 days, all my TRVs have remained connected. Too early to tell if battery life is affected, but so far so good.
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It looks like the Tado internet bridge may be able to use the usb power cable as an external antenna. Had connection challenges in a 2 story house either with the thermostat on the ground floor that was furthest away or the upper floor thermostats no matter how or where I positioned the internet bridge. Periods it worked well at times 1 to 3 thermostats started reporting being unresponsive.
Tado is now mounted on the ground floor upside down with theism power cable straight up at a length of ~34cm before it makes a bend (34.54cm is the wavelength of a 868Mhz frequency wave). The whole system now works like a charm........
Do give it a try...not sure if it is the solution. I have a stable connection though for the last 1.5 month....1 -
@cash99 . I'm really interested in trying your solution. Is it still working well?
Did you or could you take a photo of where you soldered the wire to?
Thanks.0 -
Would also be interested in seeing your solder job @cash99.
I wonder if so many problems could have been solved by exposing a female SMA connector on the Bridge, so those of us with range issues could have attached an optional antenna.
This range issue seemingly affects the customers that spend the most money on tado products (most amount of TRVs), but the product is seemingly designed for people living in small apartments, or wanting to just add 1-2 TRVs in a room or 2.1 -
@Liviu If you are in the UK you could try and claim that the products are not fit for purpose under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but this will be against the retailer and not the manufacturer.
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@liviu @what_a_tado
Suing and consumer rights act seems a little excessive.
Just ask the supplier to return them stating they don't work (if they don't work in your property).
Can you imagine people suing their wifi router suppliers when they don't get a signal in the bathroom?
In the mean time, I'm currently trialling a homemade passive repeater. So far had some reasonable results but need to test more thoroughly before I report back.
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@Pete The advice was for the benefit of the OP. Please feel free to ignore it.
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Has there been any progress with improving the signal propagation of the 868Mhz radio link from the Internet bridge?
Ideally Tado will realise that the bridge <-> TRV wireless links are so flaky that users will start to 'vote with their feet' and, as such, it presents a real threat to the business.
I have 11 x Tado thermostatic radiator valves in a moderately sized home and, like many others, I'm seeing signal outages far too often to be able to recommend the system.
I understand that, due to the need to conserve battery life, the TRV's cannot create a mesh network so it really does seem that the obvious solution would be for Tado to produce a powered 868Mhz signal repeater. Given that they have already engineered the wireless communications between all the devices I fail to see why manufacturing one is proving so protracted.
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Inspired by the posts here i modded my bridge yesterday. I cutted the old antenna on the pcb and soldered a slim wire from an old usb cable instead. I used 8,6cm and drilled a hole to the case.
My findings are, that the signal is not generally better, but for it helps that i now can move around the antenna without having to re-mount the whole bridge. For me all radiators ore online now since 1/2 day. Prior the outer two lost their contact every hour for some minutes.
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@solbadguy2010
That looks great.
Let me know how things are looking in a few weeks and if it looks good I'll do the same!1 -
Additional interesting finding: I have a second, unused bridge that has more chips and sma connectors. I do not know if it is an older or never version... maybe a V2? This is something i will test when my soldering experiment fails, but i do not have sma antennas at hand. Maybe time to kill an old laptop...
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Until this moment all radiators were online all the time. I check my Tado App muliple times a day and never saw one disconnected since my mod. I am happy. Would do it again.0
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Hey @solbadguy2010,
3 weeks on from your mod, how are things looking??
Cheers0 -
As the OP for this long living thread I’d just like to update everyone on what’s happening here with me.
My connection issues are about the same. Two of my radiators are well out of range and are just on manual, they come on if there is any heat in the system, off if there isn’t, so at least they go on and off and I can set a temperature in °C.
One or two thermostats lose connection to the hub fairly often, at random really, quite annoying!! They are part of a room, so if one loses the connection to the hub the whole room goes cold.
One thing which has certainly improved things a bit (tip from this thread) is to mount the hub vertically high up on a wall and make sure the power cable is not touching the Ethernet lead.
I’ve just now raised it above some other electronics in the room and two thermostats that weren’t connected intermittently have now re-connected without me having to do anything. So I am quite pleased with that, but don’t really know if it’s permanent…
I might even have a go at reconnecting the two thermostats that have been out of range ever since installation…
Winter is coming, so I am playing around with everything to try and get it working reliably...
( PS... I can't see how to add photos here :s )0 -
@KeithFachwen To add a photo click on the upload image button (see below) and select the file you want uploaded.
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Thanks… I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there before!! But it is now.
Photo of the bridge (I was calling it something else!) in it’s new location, a bit ugly, but it works 👍🏻:
Screen cap of all my rooms working properly.
Will report any improvements to the two radiators normally out of range…
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@KeithFachwen I have found that mounting the bridge the other way up (ie with the ethernet cable coming out of the top) works even better for me - mine is in the loft, so well above all the radiators and thermostats.1
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interesting ! will try that out…
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Is any RF 868Mhz repeater 240001R enough to boost tado signal? Are any special devices required?
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@Alinoe
Good question. I suspect that it will only repeat signals for 'Invisible systems' products.
This is really the type of product tado should be releasing. Can't be hard to configure an off the shelf device like this to repeat tado signals instead.0 -
@solbadguy2010 You soldered into the wifi antenna!
The antenna you want is in the end of the pcb as a coil going through the layers. Find where it is connected to the PCB and desolder it, and mount an external antenna.
You need to calculate the right length for an antenna for 868mhz. That would be 34,5cm?0 -
@Hjmogelmose
Not sure that's correct given that the tado bridge doesn't have WiFi.0 -
I also wonder if it would be safer to extend the existing antenna rather than de-solder what's there?!
That way the additional antenna could be removed if it didn't help without impacting the existing antenna.0 -
i've set mine up in a large stone build farm house and no way does the IB connect to all devices. the range is rubbish.
I can't believe in this day and age the devices are not using the house wifi??
Tado - Please take the lead from companies like sonos, who started life with a complex bridge and now removed the need.
will be looking at other companies that use the house wifi
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