Well I’m a proud owner of a 4 ton A/C unit, with three indoor units. They all came with some sort of USB key to connect to Alexa. Upon configuring, they show up on my network as “espressif” does this mean it’s a esp32 ?
A port scan reveals nothing. :-/
I wish I could reprogram…
Or an esp8266 I guess.
Is just the usb ‘stick’ part?
Got a photo?
Are you willing to take one apart?
I could try taking one apart.
Was easier than I thought
It is an ESP32-Pico-V3-Zero
https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/2AC7Z-ESP32PICOZERO
Can those be reprogrammed ?
Probably, but what then ? Presumably there is a presently unknown protocol between the esp32 and the mini-split. Won’t you want to crack that first?
Is there any way to dump the code from the key ?
There are copper contact points on the side of the PCB.
Esptool should be able to do that, but you’ll have to de-compile it after downloading it.
Senville is Midea by the way. Cursory search on the internet reveals some folks hacked this long ago.
But not this specific key
I would try to see if there was serial (UART) communication between the ESP32 and IC3 MCU that could be intercepted while it is plugged into the mini-split. If so, capture both sides of the traffic and use that to decode how the ESP sends commands to the MCU and how the MCU sends status information back to the ESP. If the protocol can be figured out, then it can be implemented in ESPhome for local control.
Cursory search on this forum finds many midea threads.
It is, sadly, more complicated than this I think.
I’m going to keep searching, but I believe than Senville has updated their wifi kit from the standard midea kit to a “Works with Alexa” only device. The older NetHome and Senville apps no longer interface with the wifi kit, and using the various python tools to scan your network for midea devices does not reveal these units.
This is a challenging issue to resolve, but it might be easiest to purchase new wifi keys from ebay or amazon, with the older version. I’m trying to dig into it now.
If you open up the box that this unit plugs into, you’ll see the board the remote talks to (at least on my senville unit). It appears to talk via some UART protocol to the unit itself. I’ve got a logic analyzer connected to mine now and I’m starting to look at the data on the wire. Pretty busy though so it might be a while.
I also have a USB protocol analyzer, but the port itself has extra pins that prevents me from plugging in anything but the provided USB dongle.
I just realized that I have both midea window units and senville mini splits in my house. I just threw the usb wireless device from my midea box and it properly controls my senville mini split.
Can this dongle be connected to a pc via usb and have esphome installed?
I Was lucky and was able to stumble onto some old kits which worked with NetHome Plus…
Else, would have gotten with sensibo…
Are you talking about the SEN20-ACK1T USB that came with the units? I am trying to figure out if these will work with HA or I need to go custom.
Sorry for the long delay !
The Alexa kit doesn’t work. But the key is an ESP32 AFAIK. It could probably be flashed.
The older kit works, butt it sorta sucks. Will go with the fancy ESP keys soon. They are referenced here: Midea Air Conditioner — ESPHome
