I want to know if there are any tricks in finding out the current state of an Air Conditioning connected to something like Broadlink RM Pro which in turns is connected to Home Assistant via a RM Bridge. The RM Pro can control the AC with scheduled turn on and off or if temperature is getting too cold to turn it on, or using proximity settings to turn if off when leaving home or turn it on when leaving work, etc. This works fine when nobody touches the original remote that comes with the AC system. I have a family of 4, so somebody will decide at some point to turn on the AC using the original remote (instead of the Broadlink App or Home Assistant web page) despite the fact that it may be scheduled to be turned on within the next 30 minutes for examples (in this case it will actually turn it off instead if it is already turned on my someone using the remote as the same button is used on the remote so I assume same IR code, need to check). Since the RM Pro does not know the state of the AC, it just assumes it is turn off when it is time to turn it on and the AC does not communicate back its state (one way IR). But as soon as someone touches the original remote to turn it off or on for example, then the whole automated system becomes useless.
So is the only solution to hide all the remotes and force everybody to use the provided App or Web page to control the AC? Or is there a way to detect the state of the AC by sending some special IR code for example.
I do not have the RM Pro yet so can’t test it, but planning to buy it if I can configure it properly within Home Assistant using a RM Bridge, I currently use Home Assistant for proximity monitoring and alarm triggering and notification if motion is detected on IP camera when nobody is home.
I have a ducted unit in one half of my house, a split air con in the living half of the house and a split in my study/den/man cave. All are reverse (heat/cool - two with swing modes)
I have already prototyped an ESP8266 with an Infrared LED and a receiver. I have learnt most of the IR codes to control my air cons (they all use the same code - amen!). I have also placed a DHT22 sensor on the board to detect temp and humidity.
What I will do is use an LDR. I have an light dependant resistor (LDR) that is currently checking the ambient room light level. I will build my tiny controller to be able to place the IR LED and the LDR on the front of the split units and under the house on the control panel of the ducted unit. The LDR will be placed facing the operation status lights (or physically against them) of the different units. I will constantly check for the light level and set the state to ON in HASS when the light crosses a threshold for each unit.
The other way to do it would be to detect constant vibration levels over a certain threshold. That might be version 2.
I’m currently stuck figuring out what HASS component fits the bill for “Act like an Air Con Control, but let me set the MQTT control” - issues!
As far as I know - most AC IR controllers communicate one-way, the unit doesn’t tell the remote of it’s state.
So far I have used the Broadlink Mini 3 to control the AC from Home Assistant. I also have a ESP8266 to monitor the air temperature with a DHT22 and use it to turn on the AC when the temperature goes below a certain threshold. The good thing after getting the IR codes, the on code is different than the off code, even if there is only one button on the remote. So if I send the on code, and it is already on, nothing happens and it stays on. So it works out for me.
is there a way to use the broadlink in receiving and sending mode at the same time? or is receiving blocking the sending? If broadlink is watching for ir signals all the time, it could detect if the original remote control was used and change the state in HA accordingly.
Of course this would not be a failsafe solution as it could happen that broadlink catches a signal that was not received by the controlled device or the other way round. But I think at least for my setup this should work pretty well.
Even if the device can not be in receiving and sending mode at the same time I think it should be possible to do something like:
“be in receiving mode all time”
if HA wants to send signal (because of automation triggering, or triggered manually): turn off receiving mode, send signal, turn on receiving mode
Anyway, I don’t know how I would achieve this with HA. found nothing about receiving mode except the “learning” where i can trigger “switch.broadlink_learn_command” service in HA web interface to watch for a signal once:
Hi christw,
did you solve the issue? I’m thinking to use broadlink RM mini3 to control my AC as well I will monitor the power consumption to know whether the AC is on or off, but I’d like to also knw the status of the AC when on 8e.g. cool or heat or dry and the temp set). If I use only HA of course I have all the info but if anyone will use other remote, I can only know if the AC is on or off, but not the state.
I recorded (almost) all the IR codes of the AC so if it is possible to conitnuously record/monitor the IR received from broadlink, I can “lookup” the code and know the status of AC, but I do not know how to keep broadlink in “listening” mode all the time.