Is the IR LED working on an M5Stack AtomS3 Lite?

ESPHome
1

New to ESPHome and wondering if anyone got the built in infrared LED of an M5Stack AtomS3 Lite to work?

I am trying to use the midea_ir Remote Climate component, and it appears that the infrared LED is not firing. — Here is what I believe to be the relevant part of my YAML config:

esphome:
  name: testdevice
  friendly_name: TestDevice

esp32:
  board: esp32-s3-devkitc-1
  framework:
    type: arduino

# Enable logging
logger:

remote_transmitter:
  pin: GPIO4
  carrier_duty_percent: 50%
  on_transmit:
    then:
      - logger.log:
          format: “TRANSMITTED SOMETHING”

I can see the “TRANSMITTED SOMETHING” message in the logs when I change the set point or the AC state. I’ve tried to use my phone’s camera and see if I can spot the IR flashing, but no luck. (Also my AC is not reacting.)

I also double-checked the documentation, confirming that GPIO4 is correct and tried two different AtomS3 controllers, to rule out defective hardware.

What am I missing?

2

In case someone else runs into this:

  • Yes, the IR LED on the M5Stack Atom S3 Lite works, however
  • The LED is extremely weak.

It works for remote-controlling my TV from ~6ft away if I aim it directly at the sensor. I could not get it to work with my AC even as close a 3" from the sensor. There are posts on the M5Stack community forums where folks state that the IR range can be as short as <1cm.

If anybody has any recommendations for either an all in one solution for an ESPHome powered IR transmitter, please let me know…

3

You need transistor circuit for ir-led.
Like this:
image
or some ready made module with transistor driver

4

Thanks! — I was kinda hoping to find an all in one device that doesn‘t require figuring out an enclosure for the entire setup. Looks like https://devices.esphome.io/ lists a few IR blasters that can be coerced into running ESPHome.

5

I spent a lot of time working on an IR blaster with ESPHome for controlling a bunch of candles spread across a few rooms but ended up getting a couple of Broadlink RM4 Minis. For me, they ‘just worked’, were pretty inexpensive (especially when you get them on-sale) and also looked better (seeing as it’s something that’s going to have to sit in a visible location).

While I always prefer something that can run ESPHome so I’m in total control, I don’t regret my decision at all in this case. :slight_smile:

6

The Broadlink RM4 Mini has been on my radar screen.

One thing I would like to be able to do is use the „Follow Me“ feature of my AC, where you can send the current room temperature to the unit. Unfortunately this means that just learning a code from the IR remote of the device doesn‘t work, because the code changes with the temperature.

It appears that midea_ir has a solution for this problem, but not sure I could make this work with the Broadlink.

I have a KinCony-KC868-AG on order. A little on the pricey side but supposed to support ESPHome right out of the box.

7

What had the outcome of this been?

8

If you are struggling with too little IR power there is also this:

There is some enclosure in the pictures but the 3D design does not seem to be part of the repository, unfortunately.

9

Apologies for this really late reply, but I tried a few things and it took a while to get this all set up:

The IR transmitter runs a climate instance of ir_midea flavor. I also defined an internal temperature sensor platform: homeassistant that is linked to the value of a Bluetooth thermometer that is also monitored by Home Assistant.

There is a custom IR code that gets computed based on that temperature value and sent to the mini split head periodically.

I started by testing this with the KinCony-KC868-AG and it works fine.

I am in the process of rolling this out into multiple rooms. Decided to use the Athom AR01 because it is smaller and only costs about a third of the KinCony.

The Athom works fine also, but I observed two oddities:

  • I cannot get it to power on using a USB-C to USB-C cable. USB A to USB-C works fine.

  • Tried various power supplies, but when I plug it into a GFCI outlet its WiFi connection becomes extremely spotty. I presume there’s some kind of RF interference and maybe a ferrite core on the USB cable might help (or a new GFCI)…

There is also the excellent Midea USB Module, that works great, but you cannot send Follow Me updates via USB and I didn’t want to solder wires to my mini split head…

If there are any more questions, let me know. I try to be more responsive… :slight_smile: