Thermostat not coming on

The thermostat would not turn on. It would not even say heat.

The thermostat is set to heat but no heat was coming on. No button presses could convince it to come on.

Hmmm. Pretty colored wires. The red one. No the red one!... does???

I had to stop the project to deal with the refrigerator and the next day the heat magically started working. Apparently this thermostat works when and only when it it ready to work regardless of user input.