Not currently, but that thermostat is tons better than the stock version - it’s worth it even if HA doesn’t talk to it.
I just got a pop up this year but still have a lot of stuff in the back of my gladiator as we’re moving away from fake overlanding. I am going on a long (time) trip with no shore power. I wish the pop up had easy to find conduit I could run usb through. Of course it’s all 120. I have a closed off EcoFlow small battery. Cloud only yolink to monitor the fridge. It’s all a mess lol.
I set this up a few weeks ago to pull data from my Renogy batteries and solar charge controller (GitHub - cyrils/renogy-bt: Python library to read Renogy compatible BT-1 or BT-2 bluetooth modules using Raspberry Pi.) using BT-2 units (one for my daisy-chained batteries and another for the solar stuff.)
I have a cron job running every few minutes to pull the values and push them over MQTT to my HA instance. It’s not 100% successful by any means, but it keeps up within 15 minutes or so.
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I made myself an integration for this, it uses “a server” inside the RV which has access to Bluetooth and it can then read the settings and also change them etc.
Its not great, but it has basic usage.
Enjoying this thread as I am wrapping up making my camper smart. A couple of notes on a couple of the above concepts.
Dynamic Weather/Location:
Our camper stays connected over a Verizon MiFi X Pro 5G. This device happens to have a built in GPS NMEA stream that can be enabled. I was able to write a simple curl shell command that pulls the latitude, longitude and altitude. This runs every 30 minutes when the camper is away from home and updates the HA location accordingly.
Smart Switches:
I replaced most of the existing dumb toggle switches with dumb momentary switches. I have these wired either directly to tasmotized Shelly 1’s and RGBW’s with their own loads or to tasmotized D1 mini’s. This allows for single tap to turn on either the Shelly load or a remote load, press and hold to dim up, press and hold again to dim down, and then 2-5 taps to control other stuff. Works so well that my 8 year old daughter doesn’t notice the difference between these momentary switches and a typical wall dimmer. The one in her bunk directly dims/controls her wall light and double taps to control the ceiling light.
NOW THE PART THAT I NEED HELP WITH:
My AC unit is dumb - no thermostat - just two knobs directly on the unit. The knob that turns on the AC actually controls the line voltage - so it’s not a simple low voltage switch I can tie into. So I’m thinking I’ll have to switch the 20A feed going to the unit. The unit is a Furrion 13.5Kbtuh. I have no detailed specs on the unit. I was considering feeding it through the 20a relay on a zen16, but the zen16 has no published horsepower rating - the specs just say HP, but no actual number. I’m guessing my unit is in the range of around 1.5hp, but have no real basis for this - just searching similar sized compressors. The zen17 does have an HP rating listed significantly lower, but the 20A relay on the 16 is definitely more stout.
Another option I am considering is a contactor, but I’m worried that the latching and unlatching will be noisy while we sleep.
Any thoughts/suggestions? Any idea if a zen16 can actually handle this?
Edited to clarify that I use Shelly rgbw’s for dimming. Shelly 1’s and D1’s are used just for switching and multi-taps.
Dumb rockers to Shelly’s is what I’m doing as well. The hard part is the ground wire, most RV switches these days just have the hot and is hard wired to ground, fortunately I can fish it from the light itself but it’s slow going and painful.
For the thermostat I was, before getting a smart thermostat, going to build a 24 relay system and put a smart home thermostat in there. Have you looked at the EasyTouch?
As I mentioned I have no thermostat. The controls are at the unit and are 120v controls. Per the wiring diagram, the knob actually switches the entire unit and its load. When the unit is switched off, everything switches off immediately - the compressor, the fan, everything.
Sooo, my only option is some sort of 120V 20A control that can handle the fan/compressor load (and inrush). Not sure if the zen16 can handle it on the 3rd relay.
Edit: I do have an EasyTouch_RV in my other camper - that has a Dometic heat pump in it. That just won’t work on this camper. Nowhere to tie in a thermostat.
Ohh, sorry, I missed that part! You could probably get a high load switch for that, it’s what I would do. It depends if you are looking for a particular protocol or not - I would probably get a 30A device because you want some wiggle room, and it needs to support a fan load, otherwise you could fry the motor and burn down your camper.
I considered the aeotec heavy duty. Price and availability not the best… but I may have to resort to it.
Edit: just remembered my other concern was the aeotec docs state to locate it in a cool well ventilated location. Unfortunately, even if I find a coolish location, well ventilated is going to be hard to find. Not sure how serious they are about that requirement. Didn’t want to spend all that money on eBay just to find out how hot it runs.
That would be the one I would probably get too. I would certainly try to give it as much air as possible, I’m sure it needs it. Were you thinking of putting it in the wall or something? You might be able to put it in the area of the water heater, there’s usually a lot of access back there, where it can be dry and have plenty of ventilation.
It’ll have to go under the drawers behind the power converter. It’s not a large camper - 17’ travel trailer. There’s some room back there… just no real ventilation. My camper is sealed up pretty tight. The other option - with some effort - would be behind the fridge where it’s well ventilated but that’s definitely not cool.
And any idea if the aeotec is a relay or a contractor? If the latter, I’d also be curious about how loud it is when latching/unlatching. Maybe I’ll do some googling on that one.
Edit: Amazon review does say it is a bit loud when closing/opening. I may have to live with it. I’ll keep an eye on eBay. I may test a zen16 in the meantime - and watch how it performs and how hot it gets.
Given the noise of a standard RV A/C, a click shouldn’t bug you.
I’m imagining more of a contactor thunk rather than relay click. At 40A 5hp rating, I’m figuring it’s a contactor. But we’ll find out. I just made an offer on eBay. we’ll see if they bite.
Looks like they accepted. Heavy duty switch is on the way.
On a different note……
I put in a Xiaomi E-ink Temperature Humidity Clock which paired really nicely with HA. It runs off (2) 2032 batteries with a smaller back up battery. I am not a big fan of battery powered sensors, so I sought out to hardwire this device as well as the smaller temp/humidity sensor in the bathroom.
I found https://a.co/d/g6NTnzY which are about the same thickness as a coin battery. I was able to remove the battery holders and cut out a small piece of the internal plastic to place one inside the case. Soldered the 3.3v side to one battery holders pad and extended 2 wires out the back to connect to the house battery +/-. It closed back up cleanly - mounted on the wall with 3M automotive adhesive tape. The idea is this will be the sensor for my virtual thermostat.
It worked out so well I’m now going through and converting my other battery powered sensors.
I’m not following this part. How did you get the Shelly 1 relay to dim/brighten lights? I did something similar with Tazmotized Sonoff SV modules poked behind the walls, but as they’re also only relays, they’re just on/off.
TIA
Terry
Sorry - I used RGBW’s at the dimming locations - left that part out. But…
First, as you pointed out, your tasmotized device needs to be a dimmer. Second, you’ll need a momentary button rather than a rocker/toggle switch. Third, the dimmed load has to be connected directly to the tasmotized device - network connected or HA connected loads won’t dim. The rest is handled with rules and setting options (1, 11, 13, 32, 73, speed, fade). Once properly set up, the rules will handle the single tap to toggle the load as well as the hold and release for dim/stop. A simple variable helps toggle between dim up and down on sequential press/holds.
With the other multi-taps, I handle switching network connected Shelly’s/tasmotas using rules as well as HA connected zwave devices using automations.
I can post my rules when I get some time later. But there are quite a few options you have to set as well - I’ll try to dig those all up as well. It took me a bit of trial and error to get it to work smoothly. Give me a few hours to get these posted.
Edit:
Here are my rules:
Rule1 ON BUTTON1#STATE=10 DO POWER 2 ENDON ON BUTTON1#STATE=11 DO webquery http://192.168.1.192/relay/0?turn=toggle ENDON
Rule2 ON button1#state=3 DO IF (var1==1) dimmer < ELSE dimmer > ENDIF ENDON ON button1#state=15 DO backlog; dimmer !; var1=1-var1 ENDON ON power1#state=0 do var1 0 ENDON
Rule3 ON system#boot DO var1 0 ENDON
Notes: Rule1 handles a simple toggle on single press as well as a toggle of a network connected Shelly on double press. Rule2 starts the dimming on a hold and then stops the dimming on release. The second half of the rule changes a variable that the first half will evaluate on the next run to determine if it should dim up or down. IMPORTANT - IF conditions don’t work on all tasmota compilations - I compiled my own base version that includes ping and conditions. Alternatively, you could probably have Rule3 re-write Rule2 on release to change whether the next run will dim up or down. OR, I’d be happy to share the bin file I compiled. Rule3 just sets var1 on boot.
The options I had to set (I believe this is all of them):
SO1 On
SO11 Off
SO13 Off
SO32 8
SO73 On
Speed 4
Fade On
You can tweak SO32 and Speed to your liking. Good luck!
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@CO_4X4, I apologize if I’m hijacking your topic, but I wanted to share one other addition on my camper - because I hadn’t seen it mentioned here. Not sure if you or others have considered or implemented.
I cut in a zen53 between my awning and the switch to allow for homekit control of the awning. A couple of things I learned in the process - first and foremost, immediately upgrade the firmware on the zen53 before putting it into production. This opens up a couple of new parameters that allow for discreet open and close durations. I believe most awnings open faster than they close - working with vs against the gas struts. Setting these parameters prevents overextending and ensures full closure.
Additionally, I wanted to make sure that the awning never opens accidentally while in tow or when we’re not present. So, I installed a tilt sensor on the stairs and already had an espresense base set up. The zen53 has a parameter 13 which can be used to disable zwave or zwave and local control. So, I set up a couple of automations that only enable zwave/local control when my wife or I are near the camper -and- the stairs are flipped down. I did also have to add another automation that refreshes the awning state if we try to open with zwave while control is disabled.
For me, awnings will only ever close on automation and slides will never be controlled - too many safety issues with both. Convenience is nice, but I can’t count how many times something has been in the way of a slide and either got crushed or messed up something (i.e., the grab handle a little too far over, bent in half with a slide).
I initially felt the same way about the awning… and I avoid slides altogether - I’d love the extra space, but I just don’t need it.
That said, with a parameter based disable mechanism, and plenty of bench testing, I feel much more comfortable with it. I do have notifications set up when the steps are flipped down and controls reenabled - and one if the controls are re-enabled somehow while the stairs are up.
But I totally get where you’re coming from. When I first installed it, I didn’t even let it go a full cycle, killed the power and removed it. I was just so worried it would overextend. Then it went back on the bench for extensive testing.