“Gentlemen, I am now about to send a signal from this laptop through our local ISP, racing down fiber-optic cable at the speed of light to San Francisco, bouncing off a satellite in geosynchronous orbit to Lisbon, Portugal, where the data packets will be handed off to submerged transatlantic cables terminating in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and transferred across the continent via microwave relays back to our ISP and the X10 receiver attached to this (clicks mouse, lamp switches on) lamp.” – Howard Wolowitz.
As mentioned in a previous post (here), I was able to integrate an Actron air conditioner using the ActronConnect Wi-Fi module with my home automation software. Recently however, I decided to create an add-on for Home Assistant so that it could interface with that unit.
The add-on needs an MQTT broker to handle messaging to Home Assistant. The default configuration assumes you’re using the Mosquitto MQTT broker that comes with Home Assistant, but you could use any other product if you preferred.
The add-on has been compiled for amd64, armhf, armv7, and i386, and tested on a Linux 64bit virtual machine, and a Raspberry Pi using a 32-bit Home Assistant image.
Installation
Add a new add-on repository to your Home Assistant deployment, and you should be able to access the compiled add-on.
The repository for the add-on is here: https://github.com/MikeJMcGuire/HASSAddons. It should install fairly quickly, the add-on is about 200mb.
You need only configure a couple of settings to use it. If you leave the default MQTTBroker of ‘core-mosquitto,’ it will use the Mosquitto add-on of Home Assistant (core-mosquitto is the internal name of the Mosquitto add-on (when hosted by Home Assistant). You could also put the IP address/host name of your broker if you host it elsewhere.
The logging is a little intense at the moment, but I’ll back that off once its had a bit more testing.
Once the add-on is installed, you’ll need to configure your home DNS (whether its on your router or otherwise), to make the the add-on look like the cloud service used by the Actron Connect module.
You will need to create DNS entries for these hosts, and resolve them to the IP address of your Home Assistant. Once you’ve done that, a reboot of the air conditioner will force the ActronConnect to lookup those IP addresses again, and then connect to your Home Assistant. Entries:
- actron.ninja.is
- actron-connect.actronair.com.au
- que.actronair.com.au
Enjoy!
Edit: I’ve released a couple of updates since the original release. The add-on can now create per-zone temperature sensors if your Actron has a per-zone temperature readout, and can support multiple Actron Connect units.
Update: I’ve created an add-on for Actron Que and Neo – here.
~ Mike
Hopefully Helpful Hints // Mike J McGuire 
Excited to get this working with our new Actron Neo but I’m a bit confused how to implement with my container install HA. Assume I can just use docker-compose and my container mqtt by specifying ip:port but what config files do I need to include? Do I just mount the config.json into the /data volume or do I also need options.json and build.json?
I’ve got this integration working in my HA okay, for the light switches in my house I have KNX based Theben switches with integrated temperature sensors with which I can import the recorded value into HA. Is it possible to use this as the individual zone temperatures for the AC via this interface?
Howdy, the AC object itself in HA can only show one temperature. You can simply create additional entities in HA to represent the temperatures coming from your individual sensors, and then use that information for general viewing, or driving automations etc.
Thanks Mike, I may not have explained myself properly, The temp sensors are currently not part of the AC system, am looking to see if I can assign through your integration into the Actron unit for the room sensor values the AC can use
Not Mike answering but my guess is if you can get those sensors into Home Assistant you can use them in automations to control the aircon.
The sensors will need to be supported by their own adding/integration.
Howdy – yep understood that. You can’t change how the AC works, but you can use automations in HA to change AC settings – and you can do that based on those entities for the per room sensors.
Edit: Yep – what Shane said.
Hi Mike I am new users and having difficulty configuring this addon is it possible you can send me step by step guidance, specially how to configure mqtt and DNS on router?
Hi Mike, loaded your addon yesterday and it’s magnificent!!
One small touch up: the mqtt payload for “actronque/compressorpower” seems to have a comma “,” which HASS is using as a decimal place… as you might expect the history graph shows power going from 999w to 1w.
Thanks again mate, brilliant addon.
Hi Nick, thanks heaps. Appreciate the feedback, will get that corrected asap.
Thanks for the update Mike, it got pushed to my machine this morning: works like a charm!
Hi Mike, is this add-on able to support multiple units?
I have two ActronConnect units in my house, upstairs and downstairs. Wanting to add both to be managed by HA as the ActronConnect app is to basic to support controlling both units without split accounts.
Thank you
Hi Tim, not at the moment, but shouldn’t be too hard to do. I might need your help with the testing though.
Hi Mike,
More then happy to test and help if I can.
Thank you
Should have a version for you to experiment with in the next day or so.
Brilliant,
Thanks
Hi Mike,
Just wondering if it’s possible to control the temperature of an individual zone remotely? As if pressing the button on the normal on wall sensor?
Cheers,
Simon
Howdy – can you do that now with the wall panels? Do you have a separate panel per room?
Does the actron provided app let you do it?
Thx
Hi Mike. Yes it’s possible per zone with the zone controllers. Also available in the app – tap on the zone and set the temp. Can set different temps per room but I think the global “auto” “cool” or “heat” setting controls the overall heat/cool mode.
Thanks – the Actron Connect yeah?
Oh. Mines the Que. Did I comment in the wrong one again? 😉
😀
Hi Mike,
Each zone controller allows individual control with up & down buttons, but it is not available on the Actron Connect App.
Cheers,
Simon
Thanks Simon – I imagine its not possible if their app can’t do it. However, I’ve emailed you anyway to get some info from your AC – you never know.
Hi Mike,
Great work on this add-on, it’s been helpful in addressing zoning climates in which the Actron ESP is limited. Can you provide any documentation on how to connect two units? I noticed in the configuration the ability to add another unit however, I cannot figure out how to assign the air conditioner to the named additional unit and then assign zones to each unit.
Howdy – the add-on documentation shows how to manage multiple units. There’s an example config available. It’s on the main page of the add-on in Home Assistant. Let me know how you go.
as im a simpleton with this stuff, lol. how do i get the host names to resolve through HA? (you have a manual for dummies?
How did you go with resolving the host name.
Do you still need help, I know it’s a back late
Sorry mate thought I replied to this, I did get it sorted thank you. I send those hosts through adguard in HA to rewrite the dns. However whats the preferred way? I have my whole network pointing towards HA as primary DNS because of adguard but if my HA goes down I lose internet. There’s got to be a better way surely?
It depends on what you have available at home. My AC is on a different subnet/vlan to the rest of my devices, so it was easy to give it a different DNS server to that of the other devices. Your DHCP server though might let you provide a different DNS IP to your AC than it does to the rest of your network.
If anyone is having issues with the Actron connecting to the WiFi, I think the ActronConnect module is using WPA1.
If anyone uses Unifi gear with newer firmware versions, try setting WPA Mode to both WPA1 and WPA2.
This is found under
– Settings -> Wireless Networks -> SSID -> WPA Mode (in the legacy interface).
– Settings -> Wifi -> Security -> Security Protocol (in the new interface)
Hi Mike, is it possible to change the Thermostat Card, to show text instead of the icons for auto heat cool fan etc. If so can you point me in the right direction ??
Howdy, I haven’t tried, but you could probably just use the entities card to show various attributes of the climate control. I also did a quick google and found this: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/lovelace-simple-thermostat-card/82659
Hi there
Looks like something is a miss with the 0.9.2022 update.
“Can’t install mikejmcguire/hass-actron-aarch64:2022.9.0: 404 Client Error for http+docker://localhost/v1.41/images/create?tag=2022.9.0&fromImage=mikejmcguire%2Fhass-actron-aarch64&platform=linux%2Farm64: Not Found (“manifest for mikejmcguire/hass-actron-aarch64:2022.9.0 not found: manifest unknown: manifest unknown”)”
Thanks Nick – strange, will push the images again this afternoon/evening.
Hi Nick – let me know how that goes – should be fixed now.
All good now.
Thanks you the continued support for this add-on
Nick
hi Mike,
i revisit my config that was not working for almost a year now because of my actron module wifi is not able to connect to my Wifi router, now it is working..(gosh it needs to be on specific channel 1, 6 and 12 as per advice from support).. now im using the latest HA running on windows virtualbox.. but still not able to work..
Actron Air conditioner logs:
username mqttuser/pass: mqttuser
10-10-2022 17:41:54.57 AirConditioner.CheckLastUpdate() No communication with Actron unit (Default) for at least 5 minutes. Check Actron Connect unit can connect to the network and locate the add-on.
10-10-2022 17:42:04.46 MQTT.SendMessage() hass-actron/status
Mosquitto broker:
username: mqttuser/pass mquttuser
disabled certificate:
s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner: starting
s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner successfully started
s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs: starting
s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs successfully started
s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init: starting
cont-init: info: running /etc/cont-init.d/mosquitto.sh
[16:47:13] INFO: Setting up user mqttuser
[16:47:13] INFO: Certificates found: SSL is available
cont-init: info: /etc/cont-init.d/mosquitto.sh exited 0
cont-init: info: running /etc/cont-init.d/nginx.sh
cont-init: info: /etc/cont-init.d/nginx.sh exited 0
s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init successfully started
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services: starting
services-up: info: copying legacy longrun mosquitto (no readiness notification)
services-up: info: copying legacy longrun nginx (no readiness notification)
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services successfully started
[16:47:14] INFO: Starting NGINX for authentication handling…
[16:47:14] INFO: Starting mosquitto MQTT broker…
2022-10-10 16:47:14: Warning: Mosquitto should not be run as root/administrator.
[16:47:15] INFO: Successfully send discovery information to Home Assistant.
[16:47:15] INFO: Successfully send service information to the Supervisor.
Intergaration: added the mqtt but still not able to see the actron..
DNS re-write working fine with my Adguard.
anything missing?
works now.. after rebooting the wifi module i should have done that first before asking this question. really love your work!!
Brilliant – yep, an AC reboot works wonders when you’re getting it setup.
Hiya matey
I have 2 neo systems. In my house.
Both connected to the same account
Addon finds the 1st one and adds all the sensors.
But won’t add anything for the second.
Is there anything we need to do
Howdy – have a look at the Que/Neo add-on, it should handle multiple units now.
Sorry for the noob question, I’m new to HA – when you say “Add a new add-on repository to your Home Assistant deployment”, where exactly do I do that?
Settings – Add-Ons – Add-On Store -> Top Right 3 Dots -> Repositories.
Interesting – I don’t have Add-Ons in Settings.
Paste this into the add part
https://github.com/MikeJMcGuire/HASSAddons
Click Add and then you’ll find all Mike’s cool add-on’s in the repository list.
Are you using Home Assistant supervised deployment (or with Home Assistant OS), or are you running a stand-alone container? You could also check your user account in HA – maybe it needs advanced settings/view turned on.
I have Advanced Settings turned on. I’m running HA in a Docker container.
Ah ok, that will do it – HA standalone in docker is the least functional way you can deploy HA. You’re much better off using HA supervised if you want to run your own docker. Then it lets you use add-ons.
That would explain my confusion! Thanks for your help.
Hey Mike! Thanks for putting your addon together it’s been a great help in running my AC unit more efficiently!
I have an Actron ESP unit and was wondering if there was any way to gain more control over the fan speeds.
The addon provides “Low Med and high”, which all work correctly but my AC unit also allows for “Low Cont, Med Cont, High Cont”, and “ESP mode”. Is there a way for me to access these modes through the addon?
I would also love to be able to do that
Can’t be done with the WiFi module. But it can be done via the Modbus module which can be adapted to be used with Home Assistant.
Im slowly writing code for the ESP32 to do so. I slowed down as I have been using this integration and has been working flawlessly.
Another thing I’m working on is replacing the individual zone wall controllers with a custom solution to be able to remotely control temperatures for each zone. I’ve already reverse engineered the protocol with the intention of ESP32 e paper touch screen to replace them and add additional functionality.
I’d also like to see this.
Yep, sadly limited by the ActronConnect wifi module.
Hi All, any progress on getting the ESP fan speed option to work for this integration. Would be a great addition if possible. Haven’t seen much action here so I’d thought I’d raise a prompt.
Hello All
I have the AirCon unit on the network, App is working, I have the IP addresses added to local DNS (and can ping them by name) and no errors for MQTT in the log, however I receive the below.
AirConditioner.CheckLastUpdate() No communication with Actron unit (Default) for at least 5 minutes. Check Actron Connect unit can connect to the network and locate the add-on.
ANy ideas would be appreciated.
Cheers
Howdy, you mean you’ve added the actronair hosts/domains to your local DNS, that your air conditioner also uses, and that they point to the HA server? Is the HA server’s port 80 accessible – this is the port that the add-on uses.
Hello Matt
Yes, port 80 is accessible. I also am using the Que/Neo plugon for my other aircon unit and this works perfect.
I receive teh below
20-06-2023 21:24:08.82 MQTT.SendMessage() hass-actron/status
20-06-2023 21:24:28.86 AirConditioner.CheckLastUpdate() No communication with Actron unit (Default) for at least 5 minutes. Check Actron Connect unit can connect to the network and locate the add-on.
20-06-2023 21:24:38.82 MQTT.SendMessage() hass-actron/status
20-06-2023 21:25:08.82 MQTT.SendMessage() hass-actron/status
When I connect to the network and ping the host names they all resolve to the HA server as suggested, this all works normally.
The Neo/Que system works great, no issues at all. I just cant get this stand alone system to work. I cannot see anything in the MQQT logs with the IP address of teh Aircon unit.
If you could help that would be great.
Cheers
I also have the same issue. I had it working however I had a recent power outage and now I cannot get it to communicate with the my two Actron units either.
@Cameron Sometimes when i have a power blockout i have to cycle the power on my aircon, that is after Home Assistant has booted back up.
Found the issue in the end and unfortunately it was due to my DNS. For some reason my DNS was not resolving my IP address to the home assistant. Once I corrected this, everything started working again. Just thought I’d update in case others were seeing similar log issues.
Hi Mike,
I have added your neo addin to HA and have the default mosquito installed. I can see the following error in the mosquito logs
2024-01-09 21:37:49: Client hass-actronque disconnected, not authorised.
2024-01-09 21:37:54: New connection from 172.30.33.2:33032 on port 1883.
error: received null username or password for unpwd check
2024-01-09 21:37:54: Client hass-actronque disconnected, not authorised.
I have added my email address and PW to your addin and then logged into the neo website where I can see the haas addin as authorised device?
Howdy, the issue is your MQTT server needs to be configured with a user name and password that the actron add-on can use. The Actron add-on can not log into your MQTT server – which is why your MQTT log is indicating that.
So this is great, I have the AC controls mostly working but it seems the Zones dont work, home assistant sees them on whether they are off or not and when clicking them they turn off then back on in the app but nothing on the wall panel. Is there anything additional that needs doing for zones? I can see the MQTT explorer saying to set state to OFF but they stay on..
AC power and temprature is working aces however.
Issue was my DNS server, had to swap primary which was my OpenDNS server with the secondary which was my Local DNS, all is well thanks!
A bit late to this party, but so glad I found this. For the most part I’ve got this working and I’m stoked to be able to control my aircon via Home Assistant.
I use home assistant container and decided to add hass-actron as a container too, along with MQTT.
I have one request (or need help with one thing).
My wall controller has a temperature sensor (not every room) is there a way to create a sensor in home assistant to gather the temperature sensor data from the on board temp sense?
Any assistance would be greatly appreicated! And thanks again for creating such an awesome tool!
Hi supermotojerry, there is an option in the configuration of the add-on to “RegisterZoneTemperatures”. Is that what you’re looking for?
Hi @Shagaroo,
No, not quite. As you can see from my screenshot with the “RegisterZoneTemperatures” turned on it gives 0 degrees. (Bedrooms, Living and Master Bed are all 0)
I dont have individual zone temperature sensing.
I figured it out, i just created a sensor using one of the MQTT messages that was already sending the temperature.
Howdy – the latest versions of the add-ons now register a separate sensor just for the temperature. Shouldn’t really be needed though, as you’ve always been able to extract the temperature state from the climate entity.
Hi supermotojerry
I added a sensor template in the configuration yaml, this creates a new temp entity that you can use for automations and or temp history.
if this sounds like what your after I can seen you link to the forum where I found the info
sensor:
-platform: template
sensors:
actron_temperature:
friendly_name: “Actron Air Temp”
unit_of_measurement: ‘degrees’
value_template: “{{ state_attr(‘climate.air_conditioner’, ‘current_temperature’) }}”
Try this it will create a new entity called “Actron Air Temp” or whatever you’d like to call it.
p.s careful with the indentations i tried to type it as it looks in the code. theres no gap inbetween sensor: and -platform:template
Hi Mike, I am having issue in configuring this addon, I have managed to install repository, but unable to configure MQTT and DNS settings on my router, any help will be great. Also is there a way I can keep using my mobile app and HA together to connect actron connect module. Thanks Heaps. Nik
amazing integration, its been rock solid for me for over 2 years! One quick question, i live in a 2 story house with my only AC temp sensor being the one in the controller on the second floor, is there any way i can use another mqtt temp sensor to report its data to this integration as if its an official actron zone temp module to allow the AC to know what the temp is downstairs and control the AC accordingly?
Howdy – yep there’s quite a few people using HA automation coupled with other sensors to better control their AC.
don’t suppose you happen to have any links mike? if there was a way to do this natively in the add-on, that would be an absolute game changer!
Actron sell a remote temp sensor that with average the two temperatures and reports it back to the controller
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/262744196903?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-154756-20017-0&ssspo=Cz2nisDGQpS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=UQicRc3MRda&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
make sure you get the right one for your model
yeah im assuming those need to be wired back to the main unit, unfortunately its easier said than done on my 2 story place 😦
If, like me, you came here 6+ years after the original post tying to get your new Actron split system to integrate with Home Assistant and this method isn’t working because the AC units are not using the DHCP provided DNS server:
I suggest you try the HACS integration “Midea Smart AC”. I came across it after doing a port-scan on my air conditioners and finding the only open TCP port was 6444. That led me to a python project msmart-ng which eventually led me to the HACS integration. Works like a charm! I suppose these new Actron splits are just rebranded Midea units for the Australian market.
Hi, any assistance please. For some reason it’s my actron integration is unavailable, it was working and now it’s not. I don’t believe I’ve touched anything that is to do with that, all my other mqtt things work. I don’t even know where to start looking for this.
Sometimes I have to cycle the power at the switch board.
Find the A/C breaker and turn it off wait and turn it back on.
Agree, I do that occasionally also.
I did a cycle already and and it hasn’t worked for me. Ive never had it like this though, it will eventually come good if I restart HA and my mqtt server is down or something. I’ll try again though
Well good news but also annoying as I already did it, lol, but I flipped the Breaker and restarted the actron add on and it came good. Thanks guys.
Glad its working.
Hi Mike,
I have to confess I am a noob to HA but the option to control my Actron A/C was too tempting….hence I am ways out of my depth.
I got you addon and the Mosquitto broker installed and have all this beautiful option to control the AC on the dashborad but….it doesnt do anything to the AC.
Sorry for the stupid question but I assume that somewhere I need to enter the logon details to connect via Actron to the AC?
I can login and manage the AC via Actron webinterface and phone app without any issues but would expect that I need to enter the Actron login credential somewhere in HA as well. I created already an HA additional user with the Actron login details and used that as MQTTUser in the configuration tab but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
So the question is now where do get it wrong?
Cheers
Michael
Have you done this part is the most important.
You will need to ensure (through a local DNS configuration on your router or home DNS service), that the following host names resolve to the IP address of your Home Assistant server.
actron-connect.actronair.com.au (usage reporting)
actron.ninja.is (older firmware versions – data/command traffic)
que.actronair.com.au (more recent firmware versions – data/command traffic)
updates.lx-cloud.com (more recent firmware versions – firmware updates)
Thanks for your reply.
If I am doing a nslookup I can resolve all of the DNS entries to an IP address except actron.ninja.is.
It comes back with Non existing domain. Ping doesn’t work either nor can I find it on who.is.
It looks to me that the DNS gets resolved except for actron.ninja.is, which seems not to exist
I am lost, what do I miss?
Cheers
Michael
Not quite – as you can see in the add-on instructions, you need to create DNS entries for those names on your local DNS so that the air conditioner finds the add-on, instead of the original cloud service.
I use pi-hole running on my NAS.
Thanks for all that advice.
DNS with four hostname are now as static DNS hostname entries on my router (Edgerouter) and pointing to the homeassitant IP (and hence the web interface doesn’t work any more)
Still no fun. 😦
I am running homeassitant on a VM and the actron wifi unit is on a different VLAN but the HTTP connection and the ping works (and showing me the actual settings of the A/C).
Do I have to identify the Actron wifi unit somehow in the add-on?
Cheers
Michael
Looks like actron have release their own HA addon, search the store
No it will just work once the add-on hears from the AC.
If the Host entries are now pointing to HA IP – you may need to cycle the mains power to the AC to reboot the Actron connect card. Also double check that port 80 on the HA server is shows the add-on responding. Just do a http://ha-ip/ in the browser to confirm.
Thanks.
The power cycling I need to test later but the http request to the HA IP gives me a simple “ok”
I assume that’s a positive response
Yep. So that should be it. If you leave it long enough it may start working without a reboot once the Actron connect cache expires.
Bingo, it works now!
Thanks heaps for your help
Awesome.
Hi Mike,
This has been working flawlessly, and it is one of the “coolest” integrations I show people all the time.
I wonder if you know the answer to this question:
– My wall unit has the ability to set a timer. So you can turn off the aircon automatically some time after it was turned on. Does this timer just run on the wall unit? Or is the timer something that can be extracted via MQTT so mimic that functionality in home assistant?
Of all the information I could find, I suspect the time is running locally on the wall display, which means if i build this into home assistant, I cant see this information on the wall display, or if the timer is set on the wall display, I cant see it in home assistant.
HI Mike,
They released “Yourzone” on the Neo last month, which finally would allow zone controll by % power to each room. This is on the app too! making it a dream for automations. Any plans to to intergrate this into your addon soon?