I just received an RFXtrx433XL USB transceiver for my Home Assistant setup. I installed the integration, and set it to auto-detect. It succesfully detected the “Klik-Aan-Klik-Uit” switches (which are even bi-directional, which I didn’t expect.
However, I also have an electric roll-down projection screen (Projecta), which came with a radio remote control. And those signals are not detected in Home Assistant.
So I installed RFXmgr for Windows, connected the RFXtrx to my laptop and started “sniffing”. The light switches I was controlling earlier are detected fine. However the remote control signals for the projection screen do not show up in RFXmgr either.
The projection screen is a Projecta Elpro RF motorized screen, and the remote control says:
“433 MHz Transmitter Model: DC90 Single channel wireless transmitter”
Further googling turns up that this remote is useable for Brel and Faher motors, which admittedly are not in the list of supported brands in the info panel of RFXmgr. But it also says “and many more”.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I’m missing here?
After using RFXcom tranceiver for a couple of years with Domoticz I found it not very useful anymore when I moved to HA. Using a ESP32 or ESP8266 device with a good 433 MHz receiver (and transmitter) can give a more flexible solution compared to a “closed source” Windows shifted RFXcom product. There are many nice ideas how to create a 433 MHZ to MQTT bridge to support all protocols you need for your home automation project. In this case no “integration” except for existing MQTT is needed. If you are after an off-the-shelf solution, you will depend on whether your device ever supported, or need to buy only supported devices. I found it not difficult with a setup mentioned here to build a protocol sniffer and add your exotic protocol to the list of supported protocols.
Thanks, I’ll see if I can get some info from Brel - who seem to be the maker of the motor. If that doesn’t lead anywhere, I’ll investigate the ESP32 route.
For anyone ending up here: it turned out that by default, support for ‘Blinds’ was disabled in the RFXcom device. Apparently (makes sense) the projection screen uses the same Brel motor as many blinds.
Once I checked the checkbox for Blinds in RFXmgr (on Windows) and saved the settings - I could ‘sniff’ the signals of the DC90 remote in RFXmgr. But better still - once I connected the RFXcom to my Home Assistant box - the projection screen showed up in the devices and entities and can now be controlled from Home Assistant.