Flood of calibration errors

[marcwau 30]

The Heat Controllers are seriously testing my tenacity in trying to get an automated zone heating system to work

 

 

Despite the many flaws in v4.0, I never had this before I upgraded the FGT's to v4.3.

It seems that one valve after another is causing calibration errors.

If this goes on (I have 18 of them) I will put back the old mechanical TRV's they were supposed to replace.

What a terrible experience, waste of time, and waste of gas due to valves that open despite being OFF.

 

[petergebruers 1,268]

They run a "descale" = calibration once a week, this explains why they occur at the same time. If all valves on your radiator are the same make/model, the error could be genuine... I am curious, could you send me a picture of your valve? Or link to the datasheet of the valve?

 

BTW is Fibaro investigating this for you?

 

BTW2 here is a topic regarding mechanical incompatibility:

 

 

[marcwau 30]

I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

But the weird thing is that the past two weeks (on v4.0), this didn't happen on these valves.

Also, immediately after upgrading to v4.3, I ran a manual calibration on all of these valves, and they did not give errors either.

So why now?

[petergebruers 1,268]

7 hours ago, marcwau said:

So why now?

I can think of a few explanations, and there are probably others as well... I'm thinking out loud.

• Maybe it did not show these errors, because the algorithm was different.
• Maybe it only calibrated once per month?
• Maybe it is a new bug.
• My personal statistic (info from about 20 users) says version 4.0 did not work well, and 4.3 is an improvement. So I am not sure the fact that it did not throw "calibration errors" was a good thing.
• Maybe the TRV is not compatible with your valves, and the 4.3 has an improved algorithm to detect that.

If the radiator stays warm when set to OFF, you experience the same issue as me and this bug has been confirmed. This problem is not quite the same as "calibration error" though they might be related. A few other users reported heating in the OFF position and they do not have these errors (neither have I).

[marcwau 30]

1 hour ago, petergebruers said:

• Maybe it did not show these errors, because the algorithm was different.
• Maybe it only calibrated once per month?
• Maybe it is a new bug.

 

What puzzles me is why the manual calibration (after re-installing the FGT's after the 4.3 upgrade) did NOT generate calibration errors... hence my question "why now?".

 

It could indeed be a mismatch with the valves... 

Similar to what you reported, I can put the FGT in any position, they do not "lock" onto the hexagon of the M30x1.5.

Worst case is that I have to call in a plumber to install all new valves. The question then is: do I ask for (another brand of) M30x1.5 or does any of the two other options (RTD-N or RA-N)  have a better chance of success...

[petergebruers 1,268]

3 minutes ago, marcwau said:

What puzzles me is why the manual calibration (after re-installing the FGT's after the 4.3 upgrade) did NOT generate calibration errors... hence my question "why now?".

Yes, my favorite explanation from that list is "new bug"

 

Only Fibaro can tell if "weekly calibration" is the same as "manual calibration". You would expect them to be the same, but I wouldn't completely rule out a difference in procedure (internal code). Anyway... Does the error really mean what it says? We're not even sure about that!

 

Does manual calibration work, after it has reported failure? Just being curious...

 

7 minutes ago, marcwau said:

Similar to what you reported, I can put the FGT in any position, they do not "lock" onto the hexagon of the M30x1.5.

 

I don't thing they have to lock onto that nut... It was suggested, the hex nut should somehow prevent the "knob from popping out". I do not have this issue. My valves are either Imi Heimeier V-exact II (fairly new) or very old Danfoss RAVL (not to be confused with RA or RA-N, not compatible at all) + metal adapter. I have no mechanical issues and no calibration issues. This is my old valve:

 

13 minutes ago, marcwau said:

Worst case is that I have to call in a plumber to install all new valves. The question then is: do I ask for (another brand of) M30x1.5 or does any of the two other options (RTD-N or RA-N)  have a better chance of success...

 

I am not a heating expert... But I'd say M30 because it does not need an adapter. But I am not sure you need new valves... 

 

Plenty of (incompatible) stuff to choose from (and this is only a small selection):

 

 

3rd party adapters for Danfoss can look like:

 

 

These all seem to have that hexagon part, but my adapter has a round element...

[marcwau 30]

11 hours ago, petergebruers said:

Does manual calibration work, after it has reported failure? Just being curious...

 

After trying to manually calibrate, 5 of the 6 valves confirmed a calibration failure. 

One valve now seems to calibrate (manually).

 

In one room, where I have 2 valves, of which one gave calibration errors even after manually calibrating, I tried to calibrate the other valve manually, and that made it worse:

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So instead of a calibration error, I now get a motor failure.

 

I opened a support case on this one, and on the one that drains its battery in a day.

 

The valves that I have use a metal adapter (from M30x1 to M30x1.5), somewhat similar to your situation:

 

 

As you can see, there is a lot of white plastic debris - I noticed that in your picture too, but here it's even worse.

So that indicates that the metal thread digs deep into the plastic of the FGT.

 

All of this is not exactly reassuring...

 

The score so far is (of the 18 valves in total):

- 1 with motor failure

- 1 that drains in a day

- 2 that have broken off plastic retainers making them unusable

- 5 that no longer calibrate

- 5 that are still working (with bugs) on v4.3

- 4 that are still working (with bugs) on v4.0 - which I don't dare to upgrade anymore in view of the above.

 

 

[djefmo 7]

I have exactly the same calibration errors. In the beginning it was weekly, however, now it again happened only three days later. I have a regular M30 valve

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[NuclearTrousers 0]

Hi,

I have 7 of the FGT's and upgraded 6 of these to firmware v4.3. All 6 report a head calibration issue since the upgrade. Luckily I retained 1 at v4.0 and this is still apparently working without fault.

 

A case was reported with Fibaro support who looked at the logs and confirmed a calibration error, advised that they will send me some 'shims' to put in the FGT's which should resolve the issue.

 

Said shims arrived and were put into the FGT's. I can confirm that the head calibration issue was resolved... yay!! However, the valve now doesn't open properly!!

 

Remove the shims and the FGT works (to a degree) but still revert to reporting calibration errors...

 

I have the same type or rad valve as above, worked fine with the old firmware.

Edited May 4, 2018 by NuclearTrousers

[NuclearTrousers 0]

What I have found is that the valve calibrates fine with the TRV with the black and thin valve stem. The one fitted, shown on its own just does not calibrate. It also now pops the valve out of the screw sleeve when calibrating... i have found that with the black thin stemmed one the clips sit in a groove holding it in place whereas with the other, silver, brass, fatter valve the FGT not only rotates unless done up super tight but pops the head off as per above!!

 

I believe that Fibaro need to make some sort of additional adapter to support the erronous valve type... either that or I am going to have to replace 6 or 7 of my brand new TRV's

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