aap82 / pimatic-nest

Nest Plugin for Pimatic

pimatic-nest

Nest Plugin for Pimatic using old version of Firebase.

Nest Token

You need to obtain a nest api token for authentication using firebase. If you have on already, continue on to Setup

First start by signing up for a Nest developer account. Then sign in.

Click on CREATE NEW PRODUCT

Fill out the top section, and under Users select Individual.

In the Permissions Section, click on the following:

Away
Structure
Thermostat

Make sure you select read/write radio.

Also, feel free to add items if you have them (I do not).

If everything went well, you should now be directed to a screen that provides the following info:

Product ID
Product Secret
Authorization URL

Then click copy the Authorization URL and in a separate browser, navigate to it. It will ask for you sign in, and if all is successful, you should see a screen that says: Use this pincode to connect to Nest

Now, with the Product ID, Product Secret and PinCode, you can obtain a token by executing the following in a terminal:

 curl -X POST \
   -d "code=PIN_CODE&client_id=PRODUCT_ID&client_secret=PRODUCT_SECRET&grant_type=authorization_code" \
   "https://api.home.nest.com/oauth2/access_token"

Replacing the PIN_CODE, PRODUCT_ID, and PRODUCT_SECRET with your own.

After executing, you should get a response like:

{
    "access_token":"YOUR-NEST-API-TOKEN",
    "expires_in":315360000
}

No you can use the "access_token" below.

Installation & Setup

first stop pimatic with either:

sudo service pimatic stop

or

sudo systemctl stop pimatic.service

From the root of your pimatic app installation folder

cd node_modules
git clone https://github.com/aap82/pimatic-nest.git
cd pimatic-nest
npm install

edit the pimatic config.json file, adding an entry in the plugins section like so:

{
    "plugin": "nest",
    "token": "YOUR-NEST-API-TOKEN"     
}

Restart pimatic, and head over to the DEVICES section of the front-end app, and click on DISCOVER DEVICES

Devices

After clicking on discover, you should see the three types of devices provided by this plugin: NestThermostat, NestHomeAwayPresence., and NestHomeAwayToggle

NestThermostat

It is required that you LOCK any Nest Thermostat you wish to control via pimatic.

The NestThermostat device has one configuration option: show_temp_scale, which will add either F or C to the unit property of any temperature attributes. There is a temp_scale config option, but this will be auto-populated on discovery.

Using the Temperature Lock feature of the Nest thermostat allows for changing the hvac_mode of the thermostat through the api, as well as providing sane boundaries of allowable temperatures.

See the devices/nest-thermostat-attributes.coffee to see all device attributes. Aside from Nest specific attributes, the device provides attributes for ambient_temperature and humidity provided by the thermostat.

Only one attribute is not directly linked to the Nest API: is_blocked. Nest limits the number and frequency of calls to the API. If a request is blocked, subsequent requests for that thermostat will be blocked for 15 minutes. It only takes a 5-6 calls within a few minutes to trigger a BLOCKED error.

The device has no predicate providers. However, you can use the attribute of a device predicate provider to react to changes in ambient_temperature and humidity.

The device provides a number of actions than can be called via the REST api. See the devices/nest-thermostat-actions.coffee to see available actions.

There are also two action providers for this device, that allow to decrement, increment or set the target_temperature of a thermostat. Another allows for the changing of the hvac_mode.

There is no device available for the mobile-front-end, however, with action providers coupled with a ButtonsDevice would allow controlling a thermostat from the gui.

NestHomeAwayPresence

This is the Home/Away status of your nest location (also known as a structure), and is and extension of the native pimatic PresenceDevice, so the device is present/absent predicate provider can be used.

NestHomeAwayToggle

This device allows the user to toggle the Home/Away state using the mobile-front-end. However, NestHomeAwayToggle is not an extension of the SwitchActuator device, therefore, none of the switch device predicate or action providers or action providers.

This device has one predicate provider: nest home/away, which is triggered when the device changes to that state.

There are no action providers. The only way to change the Home/Away state is via the mobile-front-end, and confirmation of the action is forced.

For a particular location, only one of the NestHomeAwayPresence or NestHomeAwayToggle is allowed. You cannot create both devices for one location.