Climate Group not returning from 'Unavailable' state

[Elarion245]

Hello,

I am using the climate_group add-on to define one climate-group in my living room:

I am experiencing that for some reason the one of the underlying thermostats (they are Fritz!DECT 301) randomly disconnect but then reconnect. This is reported as:

ValueError: Sensor sensor.thermostat_esstisch_eco_temp_filtered has device class 'None', state class 'None' unit '°C' and suggested precision 'None' thus indicating it has a numeric value; however, it has the non-numeric value: 'unavailable' (<class 'str'>)
2023-08-13 16:13:33.319 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.helpers.event] Error while dispatching event for sensor.thermostat_esstisch_nachste_geplante_temperatur to <Job track state_changed event {'sensor.thermostat_esstisch_nachste_geplante_temperatur'} HassJobType.Callback <bound method TrackTemplateResultInfo._refresh of <TrackTemplateResultInfo {Template<template=({% if is_state("sensor.thermostat_esstisch_nachste_geplante_temperatur", "126.5") %}

Quite logically, the climate_group also becomes unavailable:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/event.py", line 289, in _async_dispatch_entity_id_event
    hass.async_run_hass_job(job, event)
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/core.py", line 625, in async_run_hass_job
    hassjob.target(*args)
  File "/config/custom_components/climate_group/climate.py", line 175, in async_state_changed_listener
    self.async_defer_or_update_ha_state()
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/group/__init__.py", line 493, in async_defer_or_update_ha_state
    self.async_write_ha_state()
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/entity.py", line 746, in async_write_ha_state
    self._async_write_ha_state()
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/entity.py", line 808, in _async_write_ha_state
    state = self._stringify_state(available)
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/entity.py", line 752, in _stringify_state
    if (state := self.state) is None:
                 ^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/climate/__init__.py", line 246, in state
    return HVACMode(hvac_mode).value
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/enum.py", line 711, in __call__
    return cls.__new__(cls, value)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/enum.py", line 1128, in __new__
    raise ve_exc
ValueError: 'unavailable' is not a valid HVACMode

My issue now is that the thermostats quickly return to a connection state, whereas the climate group remains unavailable:

I do not know how to fix this. The only thing which actually helps is a HomeAssistant reboot, which I want to avoid.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[Elarion245]

Is this integration still actively maintained? Doesn't seem so... Above issue renders the addon useless to me, as I see a short interruption of the link to the thermostats around once per day...

[snigehere]

I was previously using version 0.6 and it was fine - I upgraded to 1.0.0-rc6 to sort out using a unique ID ... After this upgrade I started getting the same issue as you are reporting .. I have downgraded back to 0.6 and, after deleting the group entity via developer tools and restarting, its now working correctly again. I guess the 0.6 code had an issue with the group entity as I have given it a unique ID when I moved to rc6. Having moved back to 0.6 the entity unique id was no longer supported and when I looked at it it said it was no longer being updated by climate group. I deleted the entity and restarted allowing climate group to re-create it and all was then OK.

[Elarion245]

So you say that after deleting the entity, v0.6 can still be used?
Currently I have added an automation to reboot when the group becomes unavailable, but this is rather annoying...

[snigehere]

For me, yes.. I downgraded to 0.6 in hacs (the last non beta release) and then restarted.. checking developer tools i noticed no change but also saw that the group entity showed as no longer being updated by the group code so I deleted that entity and restarted again. The climate group config recreated the entity and it worked correctly.. I have two trvs in the group (two radiators in the same room) and was able to control them via the group entity and the group entity updated when I chanced the individual trv.

The reason I installed the beta was to be able to give it a unique I'd so I could share via nabu with alexa. I assumed that adding the unique I'd meant the group entity was messed up so delete / recreated.. there may have been another reason but I didn't look to see why.

[daenny]

Sorry guys, I just updated the readme. Due to personal reasons, I cannot actively maintain this at the moment.
I had made a PR in the ha-core repo. But there were some issues.
You can try to use:
https://github.com/KartoffelToby/better_thermostat

[Elarion245]

Sad to hear this, but it is clear that there are more important things than HA ;)

Better thermostat seems to aim at providing a bit more than the simple Climate Group. Can anyone provide an inside into what the minimum configuration would be to obtain only a climate group and nothing more?

@daenny: Can you comment on which version to use for the time being? 0.6 or 1.0.0rc6?