Broadlink binding for RMx, A1, SPx and MP. Any interest?

mheloy · April 6, 2023, 4:29am

Hi,

What’s the firmware version of your RM4 PRO?
mine is 62093

mjeshurun · April 6, 2023, 7:33am

Unfortunately, I don’t know.
I bought my RM4 Pro about two years ago and haven’t connected it to the official Broadlink app since then.

mjeshurun · June 11, 2023, 5:52pm

Hi friends,
I’ve been using the RM4 Pro with OpenHAB for the past two years to send commands to several RF controlled ceiling fans and it’s been running great.
However, due to several reasons I’m thinking of migrating away from OpenHAB to Home Assistant.
Before I go through the migration process that will require recreating the whole system, can anyone tell me if there is a similar way to send RF commands with the RM4 Pro on Home Assistant?
So far, I’ve been using this binding to control them in OpenHAB, and I’m wondering if there’s a similar or better way to achieve the same control on Home Assistant.
Hope someone can help

hmerk · June 11, 2023, 6:03pm

As commented in the Samsung topic, we are not the HA community, please ask there.

ciscomike · July 25, 2023, 4:11pm

Hi everyone,
Does someone using the binding in OpenHab 4 M5 with RM4 Pro? And if so, with what binding version?
Thank you.

fmeili1 · August 4, 2023, 2:11pm

I have some general questions about Broadlink device integration and the available options to integrate RF capable Broadlink devices.

I’ve started about 3 years ago with OH 2.x and now I’m running on OH 3.4.4. Since then, I’m using a “none-official” OH binding from the millinghousegroup with two Broadlink RM2 (aka RMPro+) devices with both IR and RF (433MHz) codes without any issues.

In the meantime the official OH Broadlink (thermostat?) binding has been published, but it states that only the Floureon Thermostat and RM Mini 3 devices has been tested (others may be working also, but not yet tested). The OH binding documentation pointed out, that it’s based on the broadlink-java-api. This library does mention RM2Devices in the READ.me file. It looks like that themillinghousegroup binding does NOT use this broadlink-java-api but instead using it’s own implementation?!

Does anyone know if these two bindings are related? Is the current official OH Broadlink binding the successor of the (older and non-official) themillinghousegroup binding? If yes, the chance to get the RM2 (RMPro+) supported (also with RF) by the official binding is high.

Does anyone of you use an RM2 (RMPro+) with the official Broadlink binding - maybe also with RF codes?

I’m concerned, that after migrating to OH 4.x (which I plan to do in the next few weeks) the binding of themillinghouse group may no longer work with OH 4.x because the last version (3.2 BETA 1) is 2 years old and no more updates are available.

This is the device:

cwi · August 4, 2023, 2:23pm

I am in planning to move from OH3.4.5 to OH4 soon as well, with RM4Mini (+HTS2 sensors) in my collection. A test setup of OH4.0.1 shows that the RM4mini is recognized by broadlinkthermostat binding, allows learning, saving, recalling IR commands. HTS2 sensors are not available (feature request posted).

This thread shows a recompile of original broadlink binding for 3.4.x: Broadlink binding for RMx, A1, SPx and MP. Any interest? - #1542 by ricardol
Anyways, it can be assumed that there is no broadlink binding version available for OH4 (yet?)

fmeili1 · August 4, 2023, 4:13pm

Thanks for clarification! I’ve totally missed that this broadlink-binding 3.4.x - ALPHA 0 binding is to continue the work of the mentioned themillinghousegroup binding which I currently use. That’s good to know that the work on this binding will keep going.

I wonder why the 2 year old binding from themillinghouse group, which I still use (3.2 BETA 1) with my OH 3.4.4, is working at all. I never installed these newer build even if it states that “This Release has minimum code modifications in order to prepare a PR to Openhab-addons 3.4.x”.

Looking forward to try this new build of the binding with OH 4.x.

Btw.: I’ve googled a bit about how Home Assistant may support Broadlink devices and found that they support nearly all current devices including the RF capable ones (e.g. RMPro+ and RM4 pro) (see description). Just learned that Home Assistant is using Python and found its Broadlink code on github. I’m not familiar with Python and Home Assistant at all, but maybe it can help someone while enhancing the implementing this OH binding in Java.
As I understand, even the “code learning” is implemented in the Home Assistant binding (do they also call this binding?) which would make things easier if this would also be possible with the OH binding. Until now, I need to grep the IR/RF codes via other tools and/or old smartphone Apps which I remember was really a pain and a very ugly process - that’s the reason why I keep my already learned IR/RF codes in a safe place like a treasure to not need to re-learn them again.

cwi · August 4, 2023, 7:36pm

The themillinghousegroup broadlink binding allows learning commands (through “Remote Learning Control” channel, using MainUI), as well as the broadlinkthermostat does (“Learning Mode” channel).
I gave the 3.4.x-alpha0 release a try and … it seems to work, on oh4.0.1. My RM4mini is recognized online, items are linked to channels, values are read.

fmeili1 · August 4, 2023, 10:37pm

I’ve just double checked that. I’ve never recognized this learning channel?! Maybe, because I’ve started with a very early version of themillinghousegroup plugin 3 years ago, it’s possible that this remote learning channel was not available at the beginning or I’ve just missed this channel from the beginning?

Usually, I configure OH completely via config files and don’t use the config GUI after hat. Maybe I missed the appearance of this channel at a later time. When I first use a complete new binding, I usually use the OH GUI just for an initial test and copy the generated code for things and channels to transfer the config data to the config files and delete the GUI created things/items after it.

Now, I’ve learned that I should check from time to time to see, if new channels may be available with newer versions of OH and their bindings.

Thanks for the feedback and good to know that this binding does also work with your OH 4.0.1 with an RM4 mini. So I will do a test with the RMPro+ with my current OH 3.4.4 and also after updating to HO 4.0.1.

bebetin · August 20, 2023, 8:36am

RM4PRO does not get discovered on OH4, I have tried both with the “marketplace” binding (broadlinkthermostat) as well as with the Openhab addon binding 3.4.3.

broadlinkthermostat: After scan will not find the device. If device gets added manually through IP and MAC, it goes online but when activating learning mode, it will not authenticate against RM4PRO.
addon binding 3.4.3: after uninstalling the broadlinkthermostat and installing this one, the binding will not show on the “Add things” menu to be selected.
Has anyone been able to get the binding to properly work on OH4 for a RM4PRO?
Thanks!

hschulze86 · September 6, 2023, 6:16pm

Hi guys,

not sure if I understand right but did someone so far test with Openhab 4 the RM Mini 3 and with the broadlink native binding?

When you look at the documentation it should work no?
My RM3 Mini gets recognized and is online in OH4. I still have the old map file with all commands from OH3 but I am not sure how to implement them? I saw someone used the habpanel interface to activate the learning mode and save with a name, I believe this is at least what the page says: Broadlink - Bindings | openHAB

Any thoughts on this or ways how this works are appreciated So far I did not find something and the only idea I see is that the old broadlink custom binding from millhouse get ported?

Cheers,
Henning

rpwong · September 6, 2023, 7:24pm

The documentation shows three channels.

I haven’t done this, but I assume the steps are:

Make an item for each channel
Toggle the learningmode switch to ON to teach a code to the RM Mini
Copy the IR code from the savelearned string item in your log
Use the IR code to the sendlearned string item to trigger the command

Since you already have the IR codes, you should be able to skip steps 2 and 3. I’m just including them here to cover the whole process.

If this works, please confirm for the benefit of other users.

hschulze86 · September 9, 2023, 6:01pm

Here is an update:

I have included the following in my items config:


Switch RMini_LearningMode "RMini_LearningMode" { channel="broadlinkthermostat:rmuniversaldevice:RMMINI-5a-c0-78:learningmode" , homekit="Switchable" } 
String RMini_Learned "RMini_Learned" { channel="broadlinkthermostat:rmuniversaldevice:RMMINI-5a-c0-78:savelearned" } 
String RMini_SendLearned "RMini_SendLearned" { channel="broadlinkthermostat:rmuniversaldevice:RMMINI-5a-c0-78:sendlearned" }

I also have the old broadlink.map in the transform folder with IR codes and names.

So the RM Mini goes to learningmode ON at least:

2023-09-09 19:51:31.100 [INFO ] [openhab.event.ItemCommandEvent      ] - Item 'RMini_LearningMode' received command ON
2023-09-09 19:51:31.101 [INFO ] [penhab.event.ItemStatePredictedEvent] - Item 'RMini_LearningMode' predicted to become ON
2023-09-09 19:51:31.103 [INFO ] [openhab.event.ItemStateUpdatedEvent ] - Item 'RMini_LearningMode' updated to ON
2023-09-09 19:51:31.104 [INFO ] [openhab.event.ItemStateChangedEvent ] - Item 'RMini_LearningMode' changed from OFF to ON
2023-09-09 19:51:31.135 [INFO ] [openhab.event.ItemStateUpdatedEvent ] - Item 'RMini_LearningMode' updated to ON

But when I send a press a button on my remote it does not show the resulting filled string in the log which I would expect to be savelearned at least.

I don’t understand what they mean in the documentation with “saves the learned keys with the provided name” No idea what is meant here how to provide that name in the config before. Anyone has a best guess?

Thanks,
Henning

rpwong · September 9, 2023, 6:34pm

Here’s the answer. I’d forgotten about this conversation, but found it when I searched for “learningmode”.

hschulze86 · September 9, 2023, 6:45pm

Great thanks but does this imply that I actually click on the website in habpanel and create a site to press select the correct name? Is there no way to get around that? Or do I get it wrong?

hschulze86 · September 9, 2023, 6:53pm

Anyway I quickly created it, let me check if it works

rpwong · September 9, 2023, 7:21pm

You’ve already learned the code, so as I understand it you would now send a command to the saveLearned item with the name you want to give the code, and the binding will store it.

Then you would send commands to sendLearned using the name.

Seems a little more complicated, but that could just be due to my lack of familiarity with it. At the very least, this method doesn’t require users to read the IR codes or use map transformations.

hschulze86 · September 9, 2023, 7:37pm

Okay indeed it is working as expected above. I have now tested it and is actually creating files for each command and supplied name in the sitemap. So thats great. Unfortunetely my TV works but my receiver IR does not work now.
Man it was so much easier with the millhouse OH3.X binding
I guess I will have to wait for a port to properly use the RM mini. Before my receiver was working with the IR code but here it doesn’t work now.

rpwong · September 9, 2023, 8:19pm

I’m not so sure about that. It was very confusing figuring out how to get the IR codes in the first place, and I only managed it due to some instructions buried somewhere in this 1500+ thread.

Now that you’ve got it figured out, I’d suggest you write a tutorial for others. That’ll help you streamline the process and benefit others.