Midea U AC unit

I got this Midea U window AC unit. I have no issue setting it up onto my wifi network using Midea’s app. I followed this guide to get the unit into HA but no luck: GitHub - mac-zhou/midea-ac-py: This is a custom component for Home Assistant to integrate the Midea Air Conditioners via the Local area network.
in my config, i have:

  - platform: midea_ac
    host: 192.168.1.222
    id: 34084860xxxxxx

in my card, i have this but off couse it’s not controllable, any idea how i can get it working?
image

I’m remembering something about this only being possible with the older Midea dongle and that it doesn’t work on the OSK103 dongles the newer units (like the U-shaped one) come with. I personally am using an ESP32 instead of the dongle and it works great but it’s little bit of a project to get working.

i opened the AC unit and see the OSK103. yikes.
just for fun, I plugged in a wifi usb adapter and that did not work. so the OSK103 does more than just a wifi adapter. is there a model number of the older adapter that you know works?
also, how did you get the ESP32 to work? could you please share a link? i found this link n it looks like a lot of work. Support for Midea A/C

i see OSK102 should work with HA.
im curious, do you think this will work even though it is not Midea?

It’s not actually USB, it just uses a USB connector but it’s a UART serial connection. So other USB devices aren’t going to work. As far as whether it’s a lot of work or not, that depends on how comfortable you are doing electronics work. It can get a little tricky if you’re unfamiliar and there are easier and harder ways to go about it.

I made these using off the shelf components and just have them underneath my a/c units.

Doesn’t look very professional but it’s really stable and works great.

As far as OSK102, it is made by Midea even though the branding may be different. The only thing I’m unsure of is if there’s a difference in the firmware between an older OSK dongle and a newer A/C that might not allow it to work.

it all depends on how you define ‘a lot of work’

The cable i purchased was pre-made (also used it to flash the esp01)


All i had to do is cut the cable and solder it to the connector (which i salvaged from some old pcb).
image
And this i managed to snug under the hood.

I have also seen some people managed to get a USB plug with screw connector(which eliminates the soldering part completely)


The electronics itself did not require any work