Hi everyone,
Like many of you, I'm not a big fan of cloud-dependent appliances, especially when it comes to home heating. My RIKA pellet stove required their proprietary "Firenet 2.0" USB dongle to connect to their servers, with no official local API available.
To get around this, I spent some time reverse-engineering the official firmware and the USB communication. I've developed an open-source alternative called open-firenet.
It’s a custom firmware designed for an ESP32-S3 board. You just plug the ESP32 directly into the stove's USB port using a standard USB-A cable. The board emulates the original CDC device, tricks the stove into thinking it's the official dongle, and takes over the communication.
What it does:
- 100% Local: No cloud account, no internet connection required. It works entirely on your LAN.
- REST API: Exposes endpoints to get sensors (room temperature, etc.) and send controls (turn on/off, change operating modes, adjust target temperature or heating power).
- Web Interface: Includes a lightweight web UI for manual testing and OTA firmware updates.
- Native Provisioning: You can still use the stove's built-in screen to set up your WiFi credentials; the ESP32 catches them over the USB link.
How to integrate with Home Assistant:
For now, it works out of the box using standard rest sensors and rest_command in your configuration. Here is a quick example:
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: http://open-firenet.local/api/sensors
name: Stove room temperature
value_template: "{{ (value_json.f0 | int / 10) | round(1) }}"
unit_of_measurement: "°C"
rest_command:
rika_start:
url: "http://open-firenet.local/api/controls?cmd=onOff%3D1%3B+operatingMode%3D1%3B+heatingPower%3D50%3B+tempRoomTarget%3D210%3B"
Hardware requirements:
You need a specific ESP32-S3 development board that exposes the native USB OTG pins on a USB-A socket (non-S3 variants won't work as they lack native USB device mode support).
The project is fully open-source, licensed under AGPL-3.0, and I've also documented the wire protocol in a PROTOCOL.md file inside the repository for those interested in the technical details.
You can find the code, hardware details, and flashing instructions here: Open Firenet
Feedback, pull requests, or questions from other RIKA owners are welcome!