Z-wave IR air con extender: hass.io or hassbian?

Hi all, I’ve been trying for a while to set up the ZXT-120, which is the Z-Wave IR extender for air conditioning units. After cycling through a dozen different codes, I’ve had no luck with the Fujitsus. There’s some evidence of activity from the IR blaster, but I’m not sure just how well it’s working. I’m using Hass.io on a RPi3 with the Aotec gen 5 USB.

One thought is this. Given that there are some other problems (setting parameters is excruciating as they almost always revert back when you try to apply them), would it be better to run this with Hassbian instead of Hass.io?

I would be especially grateful for any advice from others who have successfully set up a ZXT-120!

@stefanlod did you ever get the ZXT-120 working in HA? I have a hassbian build that I want to add ZXT-120 devices to but I can’t seem to find if they work. They are currently working on my SmartThings hub so I am reluctant to move until I am pretty sure they will work.

Hi there @smart, I gave it a good go but it was unsuccessful with hass.io. Luckily for me, the people who I bought from have a 14-day returns policy so I wrapped it back up and sent it over to them. Check that you can do the same, and take note of how it’s packaged in case you have similar difficulties.

It’s a shame, really. But if you’re using hassbian you might actually have better luck than me with hass.io. Another possibility is to see if you can borrow one for evaluation from a shop around you, if that’s an option.

@stefanlod That’s a shame, thanks for the info. I have 6 of them running on my SmartThings network already. I am just trying to decide if I can transition them over to HA. I wrote the DH for them on SmartThings and it works great as long as you have it in Always Listening mode and attached to a usb power supply. They don’t work well when in FLIRS mode so I wonder if that was your issue.

I guess I just have to take one off SmartThings and move it over to find out.

I also bought an IR hat for my pi and it works well. So I may just buy more of them along with some pi zeros to replace the zxt-120’s if i can’t get this working. I was just hoping to find someone that has these working on HA so I know if the effort is worth it.