Brink Flair 325 Heat recovery unit ESPhome modbus integration (~$5)

Hello Fonske, I would like to buy one of your modbus units, but I’m blocked from creating an account on Tweakers. How can I purchase one?

Almost the same here. The plus module has never worked… I plan to replace it with modbus/HA

I had planned to swap to Modbus recently but have had to delay as I’ve hurt my back and crawling around in the roof space to make the minor physical changes seems a bad idea. However, while I’m waiting I’ve been going through the 325 installation manual. Double checking what I need to do. In doing so I found the following statements.
Note: When ModBus is active, the ventilation mode cannot be changed using the display or, if applicable, the connected multiple switch! Also any connected humidity sensor will not function.
(my highlighting).

I have the humidity sensor connected to X07 on the base PCB and in response to high humidity in the shower room I can hear the fans accelerate. What do other people do? Looking at the dashboard yaml I can see a humidity sensor defined in it, is that the same humidity sensor?

Send me an email on alphonsuijtdehaag at gmail dot com
(if not too late)

I have a naive question; how are the possible settings/readings pulled or identified from the brink unit?

I’ve noticed a few people here and in other threads mention that it’s not possible to set individual fan speeds, but the manual states that it’s possible to set supply and exhaust at completely independent settings with switch contacts on the plus module (which most people here probably don’t have/use).

Since I have a plus module which I’m hooked up through with an s3-lite, I’d like to see if there’s additional settings available to me to play with e.g. to bring in additional tempered makeup air for bathroom ventilation.

If I’m able to adjust these settings with the plus board, it’s totally worth having imo (in the US you can get it for 100 USD if you buy a filter package, but I wouldn’t pay the list price for the board itself).

@oldboyredw FYI, the setup you were trying to do can work, where you’re connected to the plus PCB on X06 to your s3-lite by connecting the ground, A, and B to the respective terminals on both boards (my system came with a cable that had 2 prong and 3 prong connectors attached in a separate ESD-safe bag). I supply power through the USB port on the brink unit. You can then control the system in internal bus mode by home assistant (Brink portal will stop being able to adjust settings, but who cares, honestly)

Success. If finally got around to setting up the modbus interface and changing the 325 to Modbus. Worked first go. Thank you to all that have put effort into making this work.

At the moment I set up a dashboard with just the code @Fonske supplied and most of the entities seem to exist. I have a few that are unknown. Can somebody help by confirming this is correct before I head off making changes:
sensor_power_14
sensor.brink_humidity_sensor_external
switch.brink_rht_sensor_active
number.brink_modbus_preset_switch Wrong - button-card missing, now working.

I switched my filters when I was up at the machine and forgot to reset the filter days. How nice to reset it sitting in my chair without another trip into the roof.

I detached the Expansion board and connected to the base, taking power off the USB (couldnt get the 24V on X16 - 2 to work.)

@oldboyredw
sensor_power_14 = my own smart plug measuring the power of the brink
sensor.brink_humidity_sensor_external = Brink own RH sensor (too expensive, just use m5stack ENV IV)
switch.brink_rht_sensor_active = same, its Brink RH sensor

So its correct you dont have these entities.

Thanks for confirming that. I’ve removed those entities now along with a CO2 entity. I must be missing something, wtw-icons2.png that I just found a reference to in the code. I must have missed references to it. Where do I find that please? I found I’ve stored it in /www/images, clearly not the right subdirectory as it is not found. Where should it be?

Note: I found a picture element mentioned in a Zehdair related thread and saved it but not sure where it should be in my hass directory structure as I dont seem to have a local/images subdirectory.

@oldboyredw
should be correct.

  • type: picture-elements
    image: local/images/wtw_icons2.png

Have you restarted home assistant?

I have:
cards:

  • type: picture-elements
    image: local/images/wtw_icons2.png

Looking at the directory structure from Studio Code Server
/config/www/images/wtw_icons2.png

Yes, rebooted a few times. Clearly, I’m missing something obvious but I cant see what. I found a discussion on the forum ‘Picture-elements card, where to store my picture?’ which also seems to say I have it right, yet I cant see why it’s not working. I’m starting to wonder if I corrupted the png.

On a positive front, although there is a note in the Brink instructions that says RH indicators dont work with Modbus I think that is not quite correct. I think really it is that RH data isnt externalised via modbus. I tested it earlier and the unit increases speed when I had a shower then dropped back a little while later. That can only be triggered by an RH indicator I think. Will test again tomorrow. All coming really good.