Vent Axia Sentinel Kinetic MVHR External Component

ESPHome
1

I have created an external component and hardware to intergrate the Vent Axia Sentinel Kinetic MVHR into HomeAssistant through ESPHome

All devices that work with the “Sentinel Kinetic Wired Remote Controller” should be compatible

The project so far is able to interact with the device through 4 Buttons, read the display into Home Assistant, fetch temperature and humidity values, get metrics and diagnostics from the unit.

output

Repo for the external component can be found here

Edit 2:
Unit should be good to go to fab this week. it gives us a 0-10v (PWM Signal) that the MVHR should be able to work with. This should give proportional control over the fan 1-100%, will need software calibration as its analogue.
A volt free optocoupler contact for whatever we want it for
A RJ9 socket that will take a standard telephone handset cable (crossover pin1 to pin4 etc) or a 4 pin screw terminal
Unit can take a ESP8266 or ESP32

Programming UART separated from UART used for MVHR (Needs testing to confirm that ESPHome can use alternate pins on the ESP8266)

I will likeley have a couple spare, so anyone who wants one assembled for £10+shipping give me a DM (helps towards hardware development costs)

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Edit 3:

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Getting closer to sending to fabrication. The board is mostly complete, gives near rail to rail 10V PWM, that should be good enought for the 0-10V proportional input of the MVHR.
4x 5V buffered outputs to allow setting Low, Normal, High and Off through Mode 2 control if desired.

Proportional control will allow setting the fans speed between the value of “Normal” and “High”
On the MVHR if “Low” is set to 1%, “Normal” is set to 1% and “High” set to 100%, it will allow control of the speed between 1-100% speed.

As for the software development side, I could really do with some assistance with development, im not a coder, and ESPHome’s sensor intergration is driving me up the wall.

4 Likes
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Hi @Alextrical, i might be interested in assembled PCB once you have them manufactured and verified.
Would it be possible to also add I2C bus to connect external sensors? I like the idea of connecting BME680 sensors to monitor air quality.

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Hi @setrin

Yeah I don’t see why not, most likely you would need a ESP32 version for the extra pins, and some breakout cables to expose a header for I2C.

I will get a unit built up once the boards arrive in a week or two, and let you know if I can get an external I2C sensor working

1 Like
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I might also be interested in a board. i2c would be a great addition - I’ve been meaning to sort out adding temperature probes to all the incoming/outgoing ducts for a while now. I have a bunch of DS18S20 probes ready, and some vague plans to link a ESP32/8266 board to a Dallas DS2482-800 ( I2C 1-Wire click — board with DS2482 8-channel I2C to 1-Wire protocol converter ). (Plus PM2.5 if I can find a source of duct-mountable sensors…)

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I’m still waiting on the boards to arrive I’m the UK.

Just to confirm the integration and board exposes the following sensors from the unit:
2x return air temperature sensors
1x inlet air temperature
1x return humidity sensor
2x RPM sensor
Filter hours remaining
More that slip my mind at the moment

And should be able to control the fan speed between 1-100% depending on how you want to configure the MVHR’a settings. (Along with control to trigger Low, Normal, Boost, fan off, if using Mode2 of the MVHR)

Do you still need I2C with these sensors?

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@setrin @JamesNoble What would be your preffered I2C connector for the board then? (unpopulated) 2.54mm PMOD header, JST XH, QUIIC, STEMMA QT.

Sould the remaining pins (likeley need to use a ESP32 instead) also be broken out to 2.54mm pads?

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It would still be useful to have the I2C, although it wouldn’t be an issue if it didn’t - more of a convenience. If your boards are good and work for the original purpose I wouldn’t bother changing it just for that.

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Some GPIO could be useful I guess. Beyond the MVHR Unit itself, and the metrics it captures, I’d like to be able to monitor air quality in more detail. Ours is supplied by a (passive) ground/air heat exchanger with its own air filters - they’re a pain to fit and hard to get hold of so having some quantifiable data on the incoming air quality would be good to be able to judge when to change the filters.
Just being able to integrate the MVHR itself will be a significant benefit though :raised_hands:
Not fussed about pins/terminals. Anything readily available is fine.

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I can likley patch on a JST XH connector onto the board, with some flying leads and glue the port somewhere on the PCB. Wont be the prettyest, but i should have thought of adding a GPIO breakout. (Live and learn)

For the sensor, I guess you would be looking for something like a PMS7003 or a PMS9103M

I can likeley mock you up a design for one of those sensors that can be 3d printed. Though i would need a suitable schematic for dimensions or one of them in my hands to model from.

Ive also been working on a Inline HEPA H13 filter for my unit, to take a Xiaomi 3H Pro filter that seem to be rather cheap and hopefully large enough for my MVHR

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The latest set of 5 PCB’s arrived today. Got to get the ESP32 modules fitted and tested that it’s all working. I should know within the week of everything is working (and I can send a couple out) or if a fix is required.

So far I see I missed some silkscreen markings (for Diagnostic LED’s and the 4x 5v Buffered

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outputs for Mode 2 control)

2 Likes
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Some issues with the code (UART in a ISR) for the ESP32 triggering the WatchDog Timer to restart the unit have now been fixed.

Still have an issue with the scanning the terminal hammering the Home Assistant Logs. Not sure how best to stop the logs for certain parts of the system being recorded

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I’m working on the next verision of the PCB now to expose available GPIO for I2C, 1Wire etc.

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Hi there, I’m watching with anticipation as I had my MVHR commissioned last week. Can I help with designing a case for this? Can you send me a STEP file to work around?

I set up an account to engage with this thread. Is there no DM on here? Or am I in probation?

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Hi,

The V1.1 boards are in fabrication and should arive in around 3 weeks for me to post to anyone interested in a fully assembled and programmed unit.

The project is open source, so the hardware can be found here, and the ESPHome configuration and external component to run on it can be found here.

Appologies for the documentation being rather lacking, i need to muster the energy and time to write that up.

DM’s are available on the forum, but I dont know what rules are in place for new users.

Yes, any help desinging an 3d printable enclosure would be greatly appreciated, the requested step file can be found here

As for the PCB, I’m ideally looking for £30 + postage to cover the cost of hardware and go towards some of the development time spent on the unit.