Model S and Home Automation

[wayner]

Has any successfully tied their Model S into their Home Automation system? I have a Control4 HA system and it would be nice to be able to tie this system into the Tesla API. It would be nice to be able to turn on the climate with just pushing one button in my bedroom and even to be able to see charge status from the colour of the LEDs on my Control4 switches.

But I guess the issue now is that Tesla isn't letting you into the "mothership" other than from an app. I have only had my car for a few days and I am unable to authenticate with Visible Tesla so that would be a necessary precondition to doing any of this.

 

[AnOutsider]

Has any successfully tied their Model S into their Home Automation system? I have a Control4 HA system and it would be nice to be able to tie this system into the Tesla API. It would be nice to be able to turn on the climate with just pushing one button in my bedroom and even to be able to see charge status from the colour of the LEDs on my Control4 switches.

But I guess the issue now is that Tesla isn't letting you into the "mothership" other than from an app. I have only had my car for a few days and I am unable to authenticate with Visible Tesla so that would be a necessary precondition to doing any of this.

The API has been taken apart and many members have written custom apps. I suppose you could write a custom C4 driver and add the MS as a device. Once it's a device in the system, your possibilities open right up..

 

[wayner]

But I have to be able to access the API and it seems like that has gone away for many Tesla owners, especially brand new owners like me.

 

[AnOutsider]

But I have to be able to access the API and it seems like that has gone away for many Tesla owners, especially brand new owners like me.

Ah, I had not been following the thread on the API, so didn't know that. I use an unofficial Windows 8 app and hadn't noticed any issues.

 

[wayner]

Has anyone done any integration with an HA system yet? I have done a little bit with my Control4 system but it is a big of a kludge as it requires an intermediate server.

I have set it up so that I can use buttons on a keypad in my bedroom to start the climate on my car. As it gets colder in the winter this will allow me to warm the car up before I leave so that it is more comfortable and to minimize regen limits. You could do this on a schedule but then you need to leave at the same time every day which isn't the case for me.

The process is as follows - when the button is pushed it causes the HA controller to hit a URL that is something like http://rasbpiserver/cgi-bin/startclimate.py. This kicks off a python script on a Raspberry Pi on my LAN that sends the Tesla API command to start the climate. Alternatively you could run any command, such as start charging, stop charging, etc.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I have set it up so that I can use buttons on a keypad in my bedroom to start the climate on my car

I like the sound of that. My wife leaves early, but it is variable if she if visiting a client rather than going to office, and "when I get up" would be an excellent trigger to warm the car's cabin. I'll see what my HA guys have to say ...

There was a recent change to one of the API programs (sorry, can't remember which one and can't now find the thread ) which talked of allowing of www.TheAppName.com/ClimateOn type URLs which would trigger that event. Might be possible to use that, rather than having to build some Python/similar.

 

[kfly212]

I have my Model S on my home automation ipads mounted on my wall throughout the house. I currently just use it to monitor Charging and some info. I guess I could put buttons on it to turn on heat,unlock,etc
I use CQC www.charmedquark.com
It is really geared to the DIY community and gives me lots of flexibility designing screens.

Tesla Screen:

My home screen where I can really keep an eye on charging level/status at a glance without any keypress...
Checkmark is connected and completed charging.

 

[wayner]

Nice!

One thing I am worried about is that I think that I am causing vampire losses. My HA system pools my car every five minutes and I also subscribe to TeslaFi which does something similar. I am going to have to start logging my charge status every once in a while to quantify how much the drain is and then try shutting off some of the polling.

 

[kfly212]

The driver for CQC is using TeslaFi.
I wanted to consolidate all data polling to TeslaFi api because it seems to allow the car to sleep and don't want multiple apps polling the car.

 

[kfly212]

Made a few enhancements to the driver and the screen.