Helios KWL RS485

ESPHome
1

Hi all,

If you own an older Helios KWL EC (maybe others) with only RS485, you might find this interesting:

It has been working great with my KWL EC 500 Pro R for a few weeks now.

2

Hi, @Lostcontrol very impressed and interested !
any chance you have a wiring diagram ?

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3

I don’t but I could draw one if you like. There is nothing special in the wiring tough.

4

Hi
I have an older Helios too. Maybe you can share me an shopping list with the modules you bought?
I am really new in the Home Assistant Community, but very interested in making my old Helios digital!

Is it possibly to integrate this as a normal person?

5

If a “normal person” knows how to use a soldering iron, a screwdriver, has basic knowledge of electricity, and knows a bit about how to use ESPHome, then yes, no problem :wink:

I can make a shopping list (you need 3 components) and a wiring diagram.

I have only tested it with my Helios KWL EC 500 R but if you have a similar model, it should work.

6

That would be very nice, if you can make me a shopping list and a wiring diagram. i would buy you a coffee for this service :slight_smile:

I have a Helios KWL EC 300 R with the same remote control as you have in the photos.
I think thats gonna work :slightly_smiling_face:

Thank you very much!

1 Like
7

Yep, should work with your 300 also.

I made a wiring diagram and a shopping list. Both are in the README. Have fun :wink:

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8

Hi, I’m new here and i’m a absolute beginner. I would also like to bring my Helios 200 into Home Assist. I have bought the boards soldered and submitted the ESPHome APP in the Home Asstastant.
How do I get the helios-kwl.h and helios-kwl.yaml files to run?

Thank you!

9

Would be nice to have a few more details on what you achieved up to now. What is your KWL model exactly? Did you wire everything already?

I’m not using ESPHome from Home Assistant so I don’t know how and if you can upload the header file directly. I guess it should be possible.

10

The KWL model is KWL EC 200 PRO.
The wireing is soldered, I want frist flash the ESP before I connect the parts to the KWL.

It is no Problem that you doesn’t use the ESPHome.
If you can tell me our way, it is also fine. I want use this but the information at GitHub are not enough for my technical understanding.

Must I install helios-kwl.yaml and helios-kwl.h to the ESP or must I copy the fils to home assistant?

I don’t know how I can copy the files to the ESP.

11

This is how I initially flashed my ESP32:

docker run --rm --net=host -v "$PWD":/config -it --device /dev/ttyUSB0 esphome/esphome run --device /dev/ttyUSB0 helios-kwl.yaml

I fear this won’t help you much if you never used Docker or run Windows. I propose that you first try to flash another YAML to your ESP. Once you have flashed it once, it is way easier to reflash it over WiFi. But you will have to do it once using a USB cable. Every thing is explained in the ESPHome documentation and you will find plenty of YouTube videos explaining how to do it.

After you understand a bit about how ESPHome works, try compiling and flashing helios-kwl.yaml. If you look at this file, you will see that it requires helios-kwl.h. Both files must be in the same directory in order for ESPHome to compile the application. Don’t forget to edit your wifi_ssid, wifi_password and api_key before compiling.

Maybe start with Getting Started with ESPHome and Home Assistant — ESPHome. I just see in this guide that:

The configuration files for ESPHome can be found and edited under <HOME_ASSISTANT_CONFIG>/esphome/.

If you manage to copy both YAML and header files in this directory, you should be able to compile and flash the application. Good luck.