Airtouch4 with Home Assistant - Automation and Monitoring

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timmmay

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#295645 12-Apr-2022 10:16

I've gotten myself a Raspberry Pi 4 to run Home Assistant, Pi Hole, and Syncthing. So far so good, it's all up and running and has replaced the older Pi2 I've had running for years. The Pi4 seems very fast especially given the price. I benchmarked it in Python as being 1/4 the speed of my Ryzen 5600X and 1/2 the speed of my EC2 server, impressive given it cost a lot less than both. The temp is around 40 degrees usually, in an aluminum case currently sitting in a room that's about 25 degrees.

I've set up this Airtouch4 Integration as recommended by @Psilan. It's all working ok. Two issues / questions.

Update Lag
When I update the Airtouch settings using the native Airtouch app the HA dashboard app doesn't always seem to update what's on, what's off, temperatures, etc. Sometimes it does quite quickly, sometimes it takes hours. Is there any way to force a refresh, or have it do more regular refreshes?

Automation
I can automate simple devices easily, like turning a fan heater on or off. With the Airtouch it's one device and then two entities per zone, fan and climate control. I can automate changing the Airtouch mode easily (see screenshot below), but I can't work out how to do slightly more complex things such as turning the Airtouch on and off, turning zones on and off, setting temperatures, or setting damper percentages. Has anyone worked out how do that? Documentation like this shows that you can automate entities, but I'd like to do it within the HA interface so that I can at least do basics like changing set temperatures or modes while I'm out using my phone. Writing YAML on a phone is a bit annoying.

Any suggestions how to include entities in the HA automations using the GUI?

Tagging people who may be interested: @Psilan @K123 @Paul1977 @Dono

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#2900227 12-Apr-2022 10:29

Use call service instead of device.

e.g.

alias: SCHEDULE / Aircon / Turn On for Free Power
description: ''
trigger:
- platform: time
at: input_datetime.free_power_start
condition: []
action:
- service: climate.set_hvac_mode
data:
hvac_mode: '{{ states(''input_select.air_conditioner'') }}'
target:
entity_id: climate.daikin
- service: fan.turn_on
data:
percentage: 100
target:
entity_id:
- fan.bedroom
- fan.kitchen
- fan.lounge
- fan.office
- fan.gym
- service: climate.set_fan_mode
data:
fan_mode: high
target:
entity_id: climate.daikin
- service: climate.set_temperature
data:
temperature: '{{ states(''input_select.air_conditioner_temperature'') }}'
target:
entity_id: climate.daikin
mode: single

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Psilan

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#2900228 12-Apr-2022 10:35

alias: SCHEDULE / Aircon / Turn OFF after Free Power
description: ''
trigger:
- platform: time
at: input_datetime.free_power_end
condition: []
action:
- service: climate.turn_off
data: {}
target:
device_id:
- 9ff44ee931274e610e9f645f711686e1
- 9ff44ee931274e610e9f645f711686e1
mode: single

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timmmay

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#2900295 12-Apr-2022 11:08

Interesting, thanks Psilan, I wouldn't have thought to look in service. I'll have a read of the docs and a bit of a play, but at least I know which direction to go now :)

Psilan

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#2900312 12-Apr-2022 11:36

It'll get easier :).

I think maybe when you switch the device from ITC mode to DAMPER you get the right entity. I never use ITC now.

Helpers are really good. I use them to configure start/end times.

- platform: time
at: input_datetime.free_power_start

This is the damper %. I always 100% them anyway, but I like to open them all to dry the house out sometimes.

action:
- service: fan.turn_on
data:
percentage: 100
target:
entity_id:
- fan.bedroom
- fan.kitchen
- fan.lounge
- fan.office
- fan.gym

I also use some drop downs for my dashboard and then pull these settings into the automation;

hvac_mode: '{{ states(''input_select.air_conditioner'') }}'

- service: climate.set_temperature
data:
temperature: '{{ states(''input_select.air_conditioner_temperature'') }}'

I will end up using my aqara temp sensors eventually for full automation, but I want to see if this drop down is used.

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timmmay

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#2900334 12-Apr-2022 12:17

I use ITC / In Room Temperature control extensively. It's handy to set it and leave it alone. I do sometimes use % settings mostly when I'm doing fan mode to ventilate the house, or when ITC has decided it will put a bed damper on 5% for half an hour overheating the lounge rather than doing 25% and shutting it off in 5 minutes. I'm almost at the point I want to write my own software to monitor temperature and set dampers as the built in control doesn't always work for me. I've found though it's best to set the temp you want and then leave it alone, it settles down after a while and keeps temps steady.

I'd be happy to start with a nice dashboard like that and a few basic on / off / temperature automations. My dashboard is automatically generated and doesn't have the individual fan buttons, temperature tracking or drop downs yours does - I didn't even know it was possible, let alone how to do it! I'm still at the "is this worth bothering with" phase of investigations. How do you learn it, other than asking questions on forums? I will read the documentation as this is looking like a fairly complex system, but are there good tutorials or anything else I should read?

Any thoughts about my first question? Using the Airtouch app with the HA app, and HA not updating.

Dono

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#2902048 13-Apr-2022 17:08

Have got it setup with the other built in integration and haven't had an issue with any delays interacting with the AT4.

I have had a couple of instances where the ITC have reported an astronomically high temperature, but other than that it's been pretty solid.

timmmay

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#2902110 13-Apr-2022 19:32

Dono:

Have got it setup with the other built in integration and haven't had an issue with any delays interacting with the AT4.

I have had a couple of instances where the ITC have reported an astronomically high temperature, but other than that it's been pretty solid.

Hmmm, interesting. The second custom integration seems to generally work better, but not keeping the dashboard up to date makes it fairly useless for ah-hoc stuff. It did the same when it was on Pi4 and a VM. On Android I don't let it run in the background though, I save battery. Maybe I'll let it use more battery to see if it works better. It should really update when you run the app anyway.

@Psilan what do you find? If you change the temp with the Airtouch app does the HA dashboard / app update?

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Psilan

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#2902121 13-Apr-2022 20:00

Yes. I have no issues.
But I run my HA vm on a nuc11i7 so I guess it's faster in general?

Generally I use voice or the AirTouch4 app. I don't use HA unless it's a schedule or automation. But it updates very quick.

Just now standing in front of the tablet. Turn on heat on mobile HA app: 1.5 seconds.
Turn off. Instantly updated.

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timmmay

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#2902142 13-Apr-2022 20:43

Thanks, interesting. I'll have a bit of a play and see what I find.

The R.Pi4 is a pretty quick little computer given what it costs. I benchmarked it at 1/2 the speed of my EC2 server and 1/4 the speed of my Ryzen 5600X in single thread performance calculating Pi in Python.

Psilan

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#2902143 13-Apr-2022 20:46

Check latency and bandwidth between pi and AirWatch maybe. Probably less about single thread perf.

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timmmay

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#2902146 13-Apr-2022 21:04

Ping typically about 3ms because Airtouch is on WiFi, though it varies a bit. I think it's more likely to be either power savings settings on my phone or something weird in my setup... I'll have a play, thanks :)

timmmay

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#2902159 13-Apr-2022 21:52

I turned off battery optimisation, things seem to work better. I wonder if it's event based rather than polling, so if the phone is off it misses update events.

K123

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#2902218 14-Apr-2022 09:04

do it within the HA interface so that I can at least do basics like changing set temperatures or modes while I'm out using my phone. Writing YAML on a phone is a bit annoying.

You have probably since discovered this. Use the UI, choose edit the raw YAML (minus the first line naming the automation). It is great to toggle between the visual and text editors to get the syntax right

I have been trying to work out why I get stale dashboards occasionally on Google cast (nest display) but I will need to see if I also get this on Android phone/tablets. I think you are right about missed events, I find triggering a new change often refreshes the dashboard

timmmay

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#2902591 15-Apr-2022 11:32

@Psilan I'm learning and getting there with automations. Haven't looked at dashboards much yet, but it's staying in sync better now. I have automations to change fan speeds, change modes, that kind of thing. Easy enoug just takes time to learn and poke around.

Question: how do you turn on the fans with each room a different speed (eg lounge 50%, bedroom1 100%) when the system is currently in ITC mode? If I look in the Airtouch app and it's showing percentages, I run the HA action, I can see my damper percentages change. If it's showing temperatures when the action runs the damper position doesn't change - even after I tap the temperature to show percentage it hasn't changed. Do I need to set a mode or something in HA so percentages can be applied?

I had a weird thing this morning where the Airtouch integration was saying "Failed to set up" / check logs. Disabling and re-enabling seemed to fix it.

Psilan

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#2902594 15-Apr-2022 11:41

Use an automation (or script) service to switch to Damper from ITC then change the fan speed? (it's called Preset mode: Preset mode setting = ITC or Damper)

ITC doesn't support fan % changes.

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