I have several fans and AC units that I currently happily manage through HA and a Broadlink RM4 pro. However, when the other users in the house neglect to use the dashboard to control these devices, instead utilising the original remotes, obviously HA states get out of sync and things get a bit funky, especially when trying to automate.
I’m just wondering if there’s any simple piece of hardware I can acquire that will allow me to catch signals sent by the original remotes, so that I can keep HA states up-to-date, no matter where signals are sent from
What I’ve done to solve that for my amp, is built an ESPHome device with both an IR receiver and transmitter and taped the transmitter over the IR receiver for the amp. All commands then go through my device and the state in HA remains correct. Luckily, I’m just tracking on/off and the volume level, so it’s pretty simple. Admittedly, IR stuff with ESPHome can be a bit of a pain at times.
I’m not aware of any off-the-shelf devices that do this.
If it is RF devices then you have a somewhat good chance of keeping it in sync, bumy catching the RF signals from remotes.
This works with RF signals because they are omnidirectional, which is not the case with IR. IR Signals are therefore much harder to handle.
Ah ok, interesting - would you mind sharing the hardware you used for it? I don’t mind if I have to tinker to get it to work, I was just struggling to even google for what I wanted, everything just came up suggesting the RM4 pro to control stuff and effectively throwing the old remotes in the bin
I use a Sonoff RF Bridge flashed with ESPHome.
It also work with Tasmota flashed to it.
It is only a RF Bridge, so no IR.
It can receive and send RF 433MHz Signals and it you can easily store the signal codes for later transmitting or comparison.
Those guys usually send /receive all parameters on every button press. Codes are often hundreds of bits long. To keep your setup in synch you need to decode the received signal and then send it to AC while preventing the original signal being directly received by it.
Sounds pretty complicated.
What’s your ac brand/model? Depending on the model you can connect esp to the ac for direct control and feedback instead of relying on ir.
I used faikin for my daikin ac
Just some generic IR receiver and transmitter modules along with an ESP of your choice. I wouldn’t recommend it as a first ESPHome project though, as I said, IR with ESPHome tends to be a pain with a lot of finesse.
I have a daikin model from 10 years ago and it does have a port (CNWIR) for optional wifi dongle (which I wasn’t even aware of) so there’s a chance yours have it too.
What’s your daikin model number?
Oh I’m certain they’re wifi capable, the oldest ones are only ~4-5 years old. I just didn’t get the modules at the time because I thought you had to get a subscription to use them - can you get them into HA without the subscription?
Oh wow, that looks fantastic! Would it possible to source a plug that you could wire the ESP board to instead of going directly to the pins on the AC motherboard? Just so it’s easily removable for maintenance, etc.
It needs to be connected directly to the motherboard just like with the daikin wifi dongle. You still need to check which port is available on your daikin (CNWIR or S21) easiest is googling the manual for the model number without opening it up yet or check the diagram when you open the ac lid
