Can't find hardware for Rheem Eco Net

Hardware
1

I’m new to Home Assistant, so… I just bought a Rheem heat pump water heater, which has an RJ11 port for Eco-Net. I looked here for the connection hardware, but nobody seems to have the RS-485 base part of it in stock.

Does anyone know where to find it, or, an alternative to use? Thanks

2

Google “TTL-RS485 converter”. This was my first hit:

This will work in conjunction with a generic ESP32 if you are comfortable doing the appropriate connections. You will need to source external power.

3

Thanks. I was kinda hoping for something that was more of a finished product with a case, connectors, etc. But, if this is how it’s done, I guess I can figure it out.

5

Well these guys have it in stock - maybe email them and see what the express postage would be:

https://www.tinytronics.nl/en/communication-and-signals/serial/rs-485/m5stack-atomic-rs485-base

6

Maybe try the “ATOM Tail485”… and pair it with an Atom S3 Lite? You would not be able to power from the USB-C port, but would have to power from RS485 at ~ 12VDC.

Hope the price is low enough to give it a try…?

7

Thanks for the advice, but I don’t really have enough experience to know what to pick yet, I spent some time yesterday researching. By the way, I found this on Aliexpress, it’s a little pricey, should I consider trying it?

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808323887737.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.0.0.70afHHmLHHmLv8&mp=1&pdp_npi=6%40dis!USD!USD+13.90!USD+13.90!!USD+13.90!!!%4021032e4e17838916143027397e1105!12000045485811050!ct!US!-1!!1!0!&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

8

I decided to buy some hardware from Mouser and experiment. Trying to mount the Atom Lite onto an RS-232 base and then add an 232 to 485 converter.

https://www.mouser.com/en/ProductDetail/170-A136
https://www.mouser.com/en/ProductDetail/170-C008

I’ve installed ESPHome, done the configuration, and installed the firmware onto the Atom, but it doesn’t do anything. It looks like it created a base config, but none of the actual control code.

Looking at “esphome-econet/econet_heatpump_water_heater.yaml” on github, none of this code is in the yaml it created. There’s also an include that it’s looking for:

packages:
econet: !include econet_electric_water_heater_common.yaml

, but none of those packages have been installed. What am I missing?

9

By the way, it looks like the RS-485 base has been discontinued, or, is being replaced with something new, but nobody has it.

10

If you do this do you see a much bigger yaml in the validation screen?

image
image614×297 10 KB

… bigger than what you see when you click Edit, that is.

If so, that’s because of the !include you saw. And it’s expected.

11

Yes, much larger, 117 rows. Does that mean it’s correct?

12

With a fair amount of research, I got this working yesterday (not sure if it’s right, but I’m getting data). Today I received notification that the latest RS-485 parts are in stock. Here’s some pictures and the rheem-hpwh.yaml configuration I used.