Trying to integrate a monoprice amp using the monorpice integration, however it would appear I have bought the wrong model. It is very similar to the supported model, but without keypads and it isn’t stackable (can’t have multiple amps)
As such, the functionality of the RS232/serial interface is the same, but the sytax is slightly different. In the serial commands, the zone numbers are “1,2,3,4,5,6” instead of “11,12,13,14,15,16” and the < symbol to denote a query is replaced with ?
Is anyone able to help me modify this integration to alter the syntax? I have a little python and C# development experience, and I am keen to get into integration development, but am struggling to work it out, and given I need to make this amp work, I thought this was a good place to start!
I have had a look at it and managed to modify the PyMonoprice and the integration itself. I have uploaded the integration but can’t make the integration utilise the updated PyMonoprice module… I am not sure I am even on the right track with this…
I’m in pretty much the same exact predicament you were in a few months ago. I was curious if you made any headway modifying the existing integration, or if you decided to go another route.
I’m stubborn enough that I figure I could probably work my way through modifying the existing integration, but the practical side of me thinks I should probably just get something with built in support.
It was actually for my father’s place and it turns out he purchased this model because it was cheaper. It turns out it is not actually a zone amp, it can effectively be treated as 6 seperate amps in one box. While it is possible to create an integration for this with home assistant, it didn’t provide the functionality we needed, and we decided to purchased the correct model.
With the (incorrect) model we bought, you can have one unique input per output (imagine 6 seperate amps) and I think you can also have one “master” input that plays through every output. So effectively what this means is you cannot have multiple inputs and select which one you would like to hear from each output.
Assuming you bought the same amp he did, your choices are to either get one Chromecast audio for each output (pretty good solution, we thought about it), which, unless you really wanted to, wouldn’t require the creation of an integration. The other option is to create an integration and be stuck with the same audio played on each output, or a combination of both.
This is all just from what I recall, let me know if I can help any other way…
I ended up just swapping it out for the supported amplifier as well. I originally bought the cheaper one because I had planned to use it for a set of 6 outdoor speakers, and didn’t have any need for multiple input sources. I figured if Home Assistant supports Monoprice 6 zone amplifiers, than it should work with this one as well. Just wish I saw your post sooner.
I toyed with the idea of modifying the existing monoprice integration, but given that I’ve only started using Home Assistant 5 days ago, I figured I would probably be biting off more than I wanted to chew.
I’m extremely pleased with how the integration works with the correct amplifier though. After thinking that I was going to need to spend days modifying that integration, it was a relief to have everything working 5 minutes after plugging it in!
FYI to anyone interested, I too bought the other 6-zone amp from monoprice, the 31028…frankly Monoprice makes it way to easy to mistake this for the other (product id 10761) virtually identical looking product.
But, I bought it for a price 10761 will probably never hit, so I intend to keep it.
Anyway, I’ve started reverse engineering the core component by @etsinko and it doesn’t seem like it will be too difficult, it’s very cleanly written to begin with so I can paw at it until I get it right. I’ll update here when I have something~
Yes, the integration is excellent, it provided almost everything I needed. With this amp there is also a command over serial to pan the speakers (left/right). Unfortunately honeassistant doesn’t support it. Only thing missing from my point of view.
Hopefully jpez comes up with something and you may be able to repurpose the old one for something else, if you still have it.
I do have a proof of concept working. It has a couple of minor issues but is already working for my purposes. Like a lot of things getting the last 10% done (mainly getting testing set up) to make it a candidate to add to Home Assistant Core will probably be as much work as getting the POC working. I think I’ll have a chance to take another look at it next weekend and I’ll likely post what I have done with some instructions, I don’t know yet if/when I’ll have time to get it to 100% so it could be added to HA, but familiarizing myself with travis ci would be a good learning experience anyway so I’d like to get there.
Unfortunately honeassistant doesn’t support it. Only thing missing from my point of view.
I did notice this as well. I don’t think there’s an easy solution without HA support.
There are a few embarrassing bugs left in the config flow that I couldn’t figure out in the 20 minutes I applied to them, I think probably all stemming from the same issue that someone might spot in 30 seconds. Namely, blank form labels, a component label not formatting correctly, and configured zone labels not sticking from the config flow.
But, I think it’s working. It’s only tested lightly, and I’m not actually going to wire it into my home until next weekend when a new AC Infinity aircom arrives allowing me to confidently install it in my rack, so when I say tested lightly I mean it. But, here we go, follow the install instructions—shouldn’t be hard—and let me know how it goes for you! https://github.com/johnpez/monoprice_6zone_31028