Rinnai water heater control panel integration

Recently I completed a project where I connected my Rinnai water heater to home assistant. This project uses some custom electronics, an ESP32 and some software to connect to the control panel. It can then read status, change temperature, turn the unit on and off, etc.

The main article is at: https://blog.yavilevich.com/2020/08/changing-a-dumb-rinnai-water-heater-to-a-smart-one/
The source code for the firmware is at: https://github.com/ayavilevich/rinnai-wifi

The article also discusses the protocol that Rinnai uses to exchange information on the bus.

If you are into DIY electronics and want to automate your Rinnai heater it would be nice to exchange information and improve the project.

Arik.

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I want to add that this doesn’t use the Rinnai Control-R Wi-Fi module. This is a different way to implement an integration.

Take a look at Rinnai Heating/Cooling Wifi Module to see if using a Control-R module is a better fit for you.

Dude. This is so cool! I’m adding this to the list of things to do. Thank you so much for sharing.

This is a great project! FYI, if anyone comes looking here and already has the Control-R module (as I did, the heater with the module came with my house), here is a HACS integration that can connect to your Control-R module:

Is this repository still available through HACS? I can see the github project seems active (update last month), but my HACS Integrations search does not show it? I certainly could be doing something incorrectly in HACS. I’ll try again shortly.

EDIT: FIXED after some more trying but posting here to help others. Not sure if this is a HACS change since instructions were written, but this repository needs to be added as a CUSTOM Repository first (full path to GitHub - explosivo22/rinnaicontrolr-ha: Rinnai Control-R integration for Home Assistant ). This is in the overflow menu on the upper right of the main HACS page… Once the custom repository is added, THEN a search for Rinnai will show the HACS integration add in…

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Hi Gents
Can either of this solutions read error codes, I’m trying to find out when the Gas runs out so I can switch the valve over to the second bottle.
Thanks

If the error code is displayed on the panel’s LCD then an integration with the panel (even a read only one) should allow for detection of the error.
Don’t know about doing the same with the Control-R module.

Hi Arik
Thanks for your reply, Not sure what you mean ‘then an integration with the panel’ is this your project your referring to.
thanks

Correct. An integration with the panel as opposed to an integration with Control-R module.

Hey Arik
I have Rinnai Infinty 17e with controller MC-91-2A
Do you think the process will be the same?

I didn’t try this model but I think it will be the same or similar. There might be some difference in the protocol but overall, all Rinnai devices use the same technology.