Control Actron air conditioner

1

Hi

New here.

Setting up home assistant. Got it working well with some Tuya and Google stuff.

Have an Actron Air conditioner and want to get it going through home assistant.

Controller is non IR that I am aware of.

Amz-8z-1 is the wall controller.

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Any ideas where to start to get it on home assistant?

Thanks
Rod

2

I am unsure on the older Actron units but I am currently getting a new unit and I am getting a modbus card installed. Once you have a modbus card then integrate locally.

3

Can you get the model number for the Actron unit? This should be on the name plate on the outdoor unit.
Without this it is hard to provide any specific device.

4

Hi @tinglis1 - did you get this installed? How do you connect the modbus to your HA?
I’m looking at getting this installed and trying to work out what the process is.

5

Check out the other thread for Actron modbus
Link

6

These are what you

  • Firstly, check the model of your A/C. Actron has 2 types of modbus. ICAMIB-MOD and ICUNO-MOD. Make sure you buy the correct type that is compatible with your A/C model. Mine is ICAMIB-MOD which is installed in the indoor unit. I believe the other type is installed in the outdoor unit.
  • These are RS485 interfaces, so you need a converter to Ethernet. I used NB114
  • Install the MODBUS card (again depends on the model, read the manual for that model)
  • Connect the MODBUS interface to the converter using twisted pair wire ( I simply used a pair out of CAT-6 cable) - I am surprised they don’t have a proper twisted pair cable at Jaycar!!
  • Connect the converter to your router’s port. If you cannot run an ethernet cable from the converter to your router then you may need to find a converter that has wireless capability. I don’t know if there is one.
  • Configure the converter (ie: Network Settings) and depending on the device, you need to set up the correct protocol in the converter
  • Configure modbus integration in the configuration.yaml file
  • Create your dashboard.

I posted example configuration in ACTRON MODBUS

FYI. You cannot buy from Actron directly, unless you have an account with them. Fortunately, I know an A/C tech in my area (who serviced my aircon) and asked him to buy it for me. I paid him $400 for the modbus, I did all the installation.

Hope this helps!!

3 Likes
7

The OP appears to have the older style wall controller that I also have from the pre-modbus models.

I have reverse engineered the interface and created a small ESP32 based board to implement two way comms between HA and the AC.

See the following doc for some notes: Actron Buttons - Google Sheets

So far I’ve got a basic YAML file that allows me to virtually press wall controller buttons from within HA, as well as use the IR component to capture the bit stream for LED / 7 segment displays. To this level, things are working well.

The next step is to make a custom platform for the climate component to provide a proper integration to HA. Getting my head around the ESP Home build system is taking me longer than I’d like to admit, but I’ll get there eventually…

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8

Hey mate, that’s a pretty tidy board!

I’m assuming you’ve seen - Actron Aircon / ESP32 Controller Help

I’m about to put something similar together for my Accent Air system (Same wall controller).

9

No, I somehow completely missed that!

Great to see someone has already worked out which of the LED bits map to what. That’ll save some mucking around.

I was considering throwing my schematics / PCB / code up on GitHub once complete and offering assembled boards for those that find it to be too much effort / are otherwise unable to assemble their own.

10

I’ve half-built a PCB on EasyEDA based on the design in the link.

If you decide to go down that path let me know, I’d glady get a ready-made PCB instead of my perf-board mockup stuck to my wall currently.

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to power it so I can stuff it into the wall.