Local Access to bridge

I'd love to see local access to my Tado setup. It does not make sense to me to have no remote capabilities at all without an internetconnection.

Nowadays internet is pretty stable but it is still possible that either the servers, an ISP or something else breaks and takes down the remote capabilities of Tado with it.

Local access is not only a backup but also a faster way of communicating with the bridge when at home.

Using the app to connect to servers to connect to the bridge makes no sense at home since app to bridge is much faster.

Also it enables proper offline integration in home automation platforms such as Home Assistant.

I agree that online services add value, such as firmware updates and troubleshooting. I just think that products can be much better if we do not have a big restriction on the offline capabilities.

77
77 votes

Active · Last Updated

Comments

  • Hi all,

    Yesterday we had a outage from our ISP (cable). So we didn't have internet, tv or telephone🤬. This was the first moment that I noticed that Tado doesn't work without a internet connection🙄. I think this is an odd thing for a smart home product.

    I mean you have a bridge from Tado but without a internet connection you can't raise or lower your heating by the Tado app or other smart home integrations hubs like: Homey, Home KIT ect.

    I was at least expecting that with your local LAN your products would still work and the app as well. But this didn't so the heating was on before the outage started and to turn it down I needed to go to all the radiators and do this manual🤔.

    I'm hoping that you/Tado could make their app/products not depending from a internet connection so that you could still control your heating system offline from the tado app or other smart home integration platforms with only your local LAN.

    I think this will help a lott in case of a outage on your internet or some other problem outside your house that you have no control over.

  • Hi @ProofofD3ath,

    You are not the first nor will you be the last person to request that Tado sorts this issue.
    You should do a search and read and "Upvote" one of the original threads, as this will be more likely to prod Tado into doing something about it.....
  • Hi @GrayDav4276 I had searched but didn't find it so fast.

    Put I see one post from @Blender


    I will just vote up that one but how serious is Tado about doing something with the voted treads?

  • I hope Tado will do something about this! I just had the same issue yesterday when my ISP was down and notice this for the first time 😡

    If it was able to do this with Tado we all had no problem when something like your ISP goes down.

  • Philips (Hue lighting system) appear to be the only company that has done this right. Default mode is that the app connects locally, and you have to enable the "out of home" connection. Sadly newer smart home companies have been going "cloud first" which is a real pain when there's an internet outage.

  • I think local control is important for obvious reasons.

    Other companies can deliver on this, and I know that tado has an override via the extension kit to turn things on but it's basic.

    I have a lot of unifi equipment which is cloud based, but depending on whether I'm at home or not my connection to my equipment is "local" or "remote"

    Maybe there are technical limitations preventing this and the cloud is needed for the processing and device management .... ?

  • the current smart devices won't have the compute power to support this. They are battery powered as they don't use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, just low frequency channels on the 868MHz band.

    most likely a new product would need to be introduced to provide this functionality

  • thomasv
    thomasv
    edited March 2022

    @gygabyte The battery operated devices have to do nothing they aren't doing already. Its the Internet Bridge that has to do a little bit more than its currently doing, as this is what would host the local access. And that is not battery operated but constantly powered by a 5V (USB) power supply.

  • So, there is not even an open api for local communication with the bridge?

    My thermostatic local valves are not even able to trigger the boiler when the internet is down. To turn on a single radiator i have to set a chosen temperature on my local radiator and a temperature correct just enough to trigger the boiler heating.

    This said, if i miscalculate the second temperature i risk running the water heater with all the radiators closed, witch is damaging to the heater.

    if it was possible i would at least make my own software to handle this kind of situations.

  • +1

    Please allow local control of the bridge. It doesn't make sense to be completely reliant on Internet access for what is an extremely essential service. I know you can use the thermostat or the TRVs but that defeats the point of having a modern control system.

  • +1.

    My internet connection has failed and I now need to wait until a new fibre ONT is installed, for my TRVs to work. My internet went down in the early hours, when in frost protection mode and now won't come on.

    Having no local control over heating and hot water in the event of an internet outage is very short sighted. As others have already said, a local control first, cloud control second is really the only sensible way ahead, unless there is a robust backup system.

    Currently, many smart heating system owners are entirely reliant on a fully functioning internet connection.

    Hacking, anyone?

  • pcone
    pcone ✭✭✭

    Without internet you should still be able to set the temperature manually on the Tado thermostat or TRV

  • +1 Please allow local control of the bridge. It doesn't make sense to be completely reliant on Internet