Automate "Dumb" Heatpump

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Amanzi
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#2127590 15-Nov-2018 22:25

@happyfunball @Blanch @davidcole Thanks for the info, this is great! If I can get rid of needing the Mi Home app as well as the Xiaomi gateway then I'll be happy.

networkn

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#2176101 10-Feb-2019 21:20

ajobbins:
timmmay:
irongarment:
ronw:

Why not use Pebble Air which works off your wifi and you can use an app on cellphone to do whatever you want to heatpump

Because it's US$239.

My suggested ESP8266 solution (above) costs about NZ$20, is platform agnostic, and is Open Source.

Most people don't have the time or skills to do that.

I've just built some more of these for myself and for someone else on here. If there is enough demand, I'd consider building some more for a reasonable price - probably about $50/unit.

The advantage of these is you get two way control, so you can read the current state (including current room temp) off the device as well. I use Home Assistant but also can then control it via Google Assistant and HomeKit (Or Alexa of that's your thing).

@ajobbins

Is this still something you'd consider doing. My existing Mitsubishi heatpumps both use an old mitsubishi controller that a) require 2.4ghz, but more importantly only support WEP security, so I have WAP in the house just for that! I'd like to replace thoset two and get 1 for a panasonic heatpump and the new Daikin.

Couple of questions:

1) How are they powered?

2) Are they basically IR Emmitors so I need to have it sitting somewhere near the IR Reciever of each pump? The models I have now connect to the control board.

3) What app controls it and will it do things like control the position of the fins as well as heat/cool/speed of fan?

Thanks in advance,

hairy1

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#2176119 10-Feb-2019 22:24

I am running an RM Mini and just found the broadlink climate component for Home Assistant. I've already had an ESP8266 set up as a house temp sensor so am now all sorted. What a great add on!

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/broadlink-ir-climate-component/27406

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#2176143 11-Feb-2019 07:19

hairy1: I am running an RM Mini and just found the broadlink climate component for Home Assistant. I've already had an ESP8266 set up as a house temp sensor so am now all sorted. What a great add on!

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/broadlink-ir-climate-component/27406

I use that with my home assistant setup too and it works great! Cheap as chips and fill control of the heat pumps.

I use WirelessTag for Temperature sensors in every room. With home assistant all these things can work together.

sdavisnz

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#2176144 11-Feb-2019 07:40

i cant believe no one has mentioned the sensibo sky. cheap and does everything you need, and has GA/Alexa intergration.

Voice gives context

davidcole

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#2176145 11-Feb-2019 07:44

happyfunball:
hairy1: I am running an RM Mini and just found the broadlink climate component for Home Assistant. I've already had an ESP8266 set up as a house temp sensor so am now all sorted. What a great add on!

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/broadlink-ir-climate-component/27406

I use that with my home assistant setup too and it works great! Cheap as chips and fill control of the heat pumps.

I use WirelessTag for Temperature sensors in every room. With home assistant all these things can work together.

The only problem with an infrared solution like this is that it doesn't receive feedback on is the device on etc. Ie I have rm pros on a stereo and a tv, but the only way I can tell the home automation system the device is on, is ping a network device that I attach, ie I have a usb powered chromecast attached to the tv....if the chromecast is on the network, obviously the tv is on.

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#2176159 11-Feb-2019 08:50

sdavisnz:

i cant believe no one has mentioned the sensibo sky. cheap and does everything you need, and has GA/Alexa intergration.

It's US$120 on their website, whereas the Broadlink RM mini is $24 on Amazon. I find the Broadlink hardware good, but the app is abysmal. It works well some of the time, but periodically it just goes completely random, changing times of timers, getting everything wrong.

networkn

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#2176160 11-Feb-2019 09:01

@timmay

We don't use timers in our home for the units that have Wifi, but we have 2 that are and 2 that aren't. I want all 4 to be Wifi, and essentially what I need is the ability to control:

1) Heat/Cool

2) Temperature

3) Fan direction

4) Fan Speed

Anything beyond that, I am happy to find the original remote which is usually beside or wall anyway.

What I don't want is an app that won't start, won't connect randomly, or won't send commands.

Would the RM pro work for this?

timmmay

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#2176164 11-Feb-2019 09:14

@networkn you can choose mode and temperature easily for most heat pumps. Fan speed you can select, but for example our Fujitsu it doesn't know about the lowest fan speed, so it can't reach that. You can custom define any IR command, but heat pumps tend to send full state rather than change from the remote to the heat pump. So it wouldn't say "turn the heat up one degree", it would say "state to be heat, 20 degrees, low fan speed, fan direction left". That means you'd have to define an awful lot of presets if you wanted full control. The app is pretty terrible for that too, you define the present then you select a preset from a list, it's not like you can use up / down controls if you define your own presets.

If you're ok with just mode, temp, and fan speed they work ok much of the time. When daylight savings starts or stops they're usually screwy for a few days, not just getting the time wrong but really weird. But they're cheap, and mostly work, so I put up with them.

ajobbins

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#2176256 11-Feb-2019 11:22

networkn:

@ajobbins

Is this still something you'd consider doing. My existing Mitsubishi heatpumps both use an old mitsubishi controller that a) require 2.4ghz, but more importantly only support WEP security, so I have WAP in the house just for that! I'd like to replace thoset two and get 1 for a panasonic heatpump and the new Daikin.

Couple of questions:

1) How are they powered?

2) Are they basically IR Emmitors so I need to have it sitting somewhere near the IR Reciever of each pump? The models I have now connect to the control board.

3) What app controls it and will it do things like control the position of the fins as well as heat/cool/speed of fan?

Thanks in advance,

Yeah, could still do this. Haven't had much time lately, but did do some early research into some changes I could make to make them easier to program. They have WiFi and MQTT detailed written to the boards, so if they need to be changed (or configured by someone other than the person programming the board), it's pretty hard.

To answer the questions:

1) They are powered by the heat pump unit itself. The port it connects to outputs 5V.

2) No, there is no IR involved. Like your current setup, they connect to the control board - probably the same port your existing thing connects to. You'd have to replace that.

3) The board connects to a MQTT server where it publishes status and reads commands. I then have mine connected into Home Assistant, but there are other things you could use. In my case, I have a secure connection into my (local) Home Assistant instance, so I can see status and control them remotely, but if you don't use something for Home Automation, you might have to write something to control it via MQTT. The board can control everything the remote can. Mode, temp, fan speed, vane position. It also reports back everything (including current room temp), so if you change the settings with the remote, whatever you have connected to MQTT sees those changes.

Home assistant screen to control settings:

Pic of unit installed in one of my heat pumps. It gets tucked away in the space inside the unit so it's invisible unless you take the plastic shell off the HP.

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hairy1

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#2176262 11-Feb-2019 11:36

OK. I officially want what Adam has... I might need to book a Melbourne trip to pick up..

Did you sort it out yourself or find instructions on the internet?

Cheers, Matt

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networkn

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#2176269 11-Feb-2019 11:41

@hairy1 when you are over there, feel free to grab mine lol.

I don't use home assistant, but I do use Alexa, would it work with that?

Is the port you connect to inside the heatpump universal? We have a Panasonic, 2 Mitsubishi and potentially a Daikin.

hairy1

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#2176270 11-Feb-2019 11:42

I won't let him leave the house until he has made two then! ;-)

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networkn

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#2176272 11-Feb-2019 11:43

hairy1:

I won't let him leave the house until he has made two then! ;-)

Heh, I need 4 :)

ajobbins

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#2176283 11-Feb-2019 12:00

I certainly can't take any credit. A lot of the work was done by Hadley at nicegear.co.nz (figuring out the protocols etc.) - but with a Raspberry Pi. Others have adapted for Arduino, and what I have built is basically just what's here.

If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can build your own for about $30 in parts. I chose to use the Feather Hazzar board, which is more expensive than others, because I can wire it straight into 5v rather than voltage convert down to 3.3v that some boards want. Also it has a microUSB for easy programming and some boards need a harness.

Easy enough to ship them to NZ if you want me to make one up. Will be a few weeks lead time however. I've run out of the CN105 pigtales so will need to order more from the US.

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