Anyone Using Mitsubishi WiFi Controllers / Apps (MELCloud) in Europe

🌎 Around the World 🇪🇺 Europe
61

Ok, some more details:

Dashboard control

  • When changing from On to Off, it takes around 45 seconds until the unit reacts and closes, while the dashboard tile is greyed out immediately
  • When changing from Off to On, it takes around 45 seconds until the unit reacts and opens, while the dashboard tile is activated immediately

MEL app control:

  • When changing from On to Off, it takes around 45 seconds until the unit reacts and closes, while the dashboard tile reflects running state and is NOT greyed out automatically, but a page refresh fixes this.
  • When changing from Off to Om, it takes around 45 seconds until the unit reacts and closes, the dashboard tile reflects running state

At the bottom of the MEL app, there is a text "Your changes will take effect at approximately: HH:MM:SS" and is consequently pushing events a bit into "the future" (staggered command priority to prevent congestion?)

Suggested/expected behaviour:
That the dashboard tile has some kind of mirrored information reflecting the text string "Your changes will take effect at approximately: HH:MM:SS", and thereafter changes the tile state to indicate on/off mode.

1 Like
62

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions @mario.fuchs.

I had been grappling with this kind of thing for a while now... I am generally familiar with what you are describing, there can be delays in requests from the mobile app for my own air conditioner, though turning it on this morning appeared to show it as "on" in the app straight away, but that may behave differently to a web interface... (I'll explain a bit later).

I like your idea of the text string indicating a command is still pending and when it will be applied. I'm 99% sure I have seen this in the response that comes back. I think the best I can do / think of, is to introduce an attribute with this information in it and you, as the user, will need to add this as a separate tile to any dashboard that includes the thermostat tile. I might also look at including a similar attribute with a yes/no value in case anyone wants to use it in rules, etc.

In terms of the timing of status updates, I'd just want to clarify what you were requesting, by:

Do you mean you want the change in state reflected on HE to be delayed until it has at least taken effect on the unit itself? Even if this isn't what you were after, I'll explain the logic of what I have done so far and see what you think.

This was the bit I grappled with some time ago... What I decided to do comes in two parts:

  1. When a user changes the state (mode, temperature, etc) the change is reflected on the HE interface straight away, but only for the setting the user changed. I felt this was a better user experience, rather than being left unsure about whether what you just asked to be changed had actually happened. This would be the same situation for changes made anywhere in HE, not just a dashboard, so RM rules, etc.

  2. When the driver receives a response from MELCloud, whether it be a response after sending a command or simply a periodic refresh of the device state, I don't apply any status updates to the HE device whenever a "HasPendingCommand" flag in the response is true. I am expecting this would be the case whenever changes are requested from outside of HE as well. One reason I went this way was that I was seeing some odd details come back such as the unit showing as being off when changing modes, though this may be a different problem...

So when you change the mode on the dashboard tile in HE the driver updates the mode for the HE device straight away and sends the request to MELCloud. Once the change has been applied by MELCloud and a HE device refresh is called, changes to any other details such as room temperature, etc will be applied to the HE device.

So I think the inclusion of a flag and the text you requested would compliment this nicely. Happy to consider any more thoughts / ideas on this.

Almost forgot... The Aus/NZ API includes an option to run commands on the local LAN, i.e. not needing to go through the cloud service. Hopefully this is an option for MELCloud, but I haven't investigated it yet. This was what I was thinking may have been the case for the behaviour I was seeing on my phone compared to your use of the web interface, perhaps the app on my phone was communicating across my wifi rather than out across the internet....? Hopefully I can include this in the European version.

Thanks,
Simon

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63

Hi @mikkomattip,

I think I have finished the Fan Control setup. I have updated the AC Unit driver. It now includes a setting in the Preferences section of the device setup page, allowing you to switch between text-based and number-based fan modes. If you want to use the Fan tile, you will need to switch this to text-based, as the list is fixed by HE. After you change this setting, click the Save Preferences button, wait for the page to reload, run click the Refresh button (command) for the device to have the current fan mode reflect the correct mode.

You should then be able to use the Fan tile. I have read of some issues people have faced with other thermostat drivers, so please keep an eye out for any anomalies in behaviour.

@zimba - In this update I have also added the power setting to the set fan speed command. I will look at including the other settings soon.

Thanks,
Simon

64

I did upload a few more adjustments to the fan mode setup in the last few hours in case anyone had downloaded it earlier. Thanks to @mikkomattip for your assistance in testing. Just a note, the fan mode / speed options of on and off will appear in the list to choose, but they have not currently been setup in the driver, I will need to complete these over the next week.

@mikkomattip mentioned the language in the MELCloud app keeps getting changed to Swedish when the air conditioner is refreshed in HE. Has anyone else seen this behaviour who have the language normally configured to a language other than Swedish? I have a couple of theories (well, one to be honest), but I just wanted to see if it was an isolated issue or the same for everyone.

Thanks,
Simon

65

Thank you Simon, is it by design you have added on / off to fan mode ? as we have the option to turn off/on the heat pump under thermstat mode

I havent played with the latest version yet.

Thank you again.

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66

I was just taking the list essentially from the developer documentation for the Fan Control capability because, unlike Thermostats, you can't provide a custom list of supported modes for Fans, so if you use the fan template for a tile that is linked to the thermostat device, you still see the fixed list defined by HE. The fixed list for fans doesn't match their list for the Thermostat capability, but I decided to go with the list for fans so that people could use either template for tiles on a dashboard. I may review it at a later point....

67

Ahh, then I understand.

Love the option to be able to select name or number under fan modes. I prefer nr :slight_smile: I see there are a small cosmetic thingie :slight_smile: forgot a "n" Famode Modes:

Great work

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68

Good Evening / Morning :slight_smile: I hope everyone is well.

Just wanted to let people know, the links to the drivers has changed from my earlier post. I have edited the post to point to the new location and also provided the same links below. For those more technically inclined, I simply merged the branch I was working on in Git back into the master branch.

I'd like to try and do some more on this in the next few days, so would be keen to reconnect with anyone using the drivers to find out any current issues, which I expect there are still some. I'll look back through this thread as well, but may need to confirm with people if they are still experiencing any issues listed. I expect the "units turning off when issuing commands" will still be a problem, so am keen to resolve that if I can, but may need some assistance.

Beyond and fixes, I would like to focus on getting the code into Package Manager, updating installation instructions to make it an easier entry for new users, and I think I will take the plunge and setup a "RELEASE / BETA" style post, perhaps changing this one to be more support related....

Additional features I would like to introduce, which are 50/50 for being worked on in the next few days, would be things like child switches for vane direction, swing, ducted zones, etc, and pre-sets, as has been requested already. I'm also keen to capture when the A/C compressor is on, for those interested in analysing their power usage. Any other requests are welcome, and apologies if I'd missed anything someone has already asked for. I'll look at options for capturing these bugs/requests in Git so I can manage them better.

New Links to the Code:


Simon

1 Like
69

@sburke781 Count me in! Swamped at work but will try to prioritise.
HPM: yes, please!

  • Power usage sounds nice.
  • really interested in accessing presets!. Ultimately I'd like to have a rule that turns the unit on/off based on presence, schedule & open doors/windows.
70

Thanks for your enthusiasm @mario.fuchs. Like you, I have also been busy with work, so not spending as much time on this as I would like.

71

Thank you for these! I tried to get this working with my Kumo Cloud account by changing the URL in the driver but I couldn’t get it to work. I understood it was a long shot :slight_smile: Any chance you’d be willing to try to get these to work with Kumo for us in the states, please? I’m happy to be a guinea pig / beta tester if needed.

Thank you again for your contribution to the community!

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72

I did take another look at the Kumo API in the last week or two. Looking at an example online (not related to HE) I still feel confident I can incorporate Kumo into these drivers, though like you noticed, the calls to the Kumo Cloud will be different to MELCloud in Europe and MELView here in Aus/NZ.

If I was at work I'd say let me see what I can rustle up between now and New Year's Eve, based on my planned holidays. In reality I'll see what I can do in the next couple of days, but I can't promise anything.... I'll post back on the Kumo thread with any updates.

Simon

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73

My expectations are appropriately set. Work has been bananas for me the past few weeks, so I totally understand. I’d be grateful to you whenever this happens, even months and months from now. Kumo is one of the last things keeping me tied to an IFTTT subscription. But that’s only $2/mo - not the end of the world by any means. Thank you so much for even considering this!

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74

I have always planned on combining the code for my MEL A/C here in Aus with the European version I have developed over the last 5-6 months, so working through the process of including Kumo will be just as useful for me as it will for you (and others in the US), so I am more than happy to start that piece of work.

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75

Thank you for the update, updated the new URL. :slight_smile:

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76

I have started a list of issues / enhancements in Git as a way to keep track of requests and bugs as they happen. I'll keep adding to it as I think of things or as people request enhancements that I agree should be included. Note, this will be a list for all my code in this repository, so over time the list may branch beyond MEL related changes.

77

Hi, good to hear from you again!

I've found some bugs that you might want to check up. I haven't try the new version I you have already fixed those.

  1. When I change the temperature the physical device goes off.

  2. When I change the mode (I have only tried from heat to cool), it changes the temperature to 10 celsius on MelCloud app and I believe that is the exact temperature.

I found those bugs only few days ago because O haven't had reason to change anything.
If you want logs I can send those to you after 10 hours.

78

One more thing, about the energy report.

You can see the energy usage from the MelCloud app. The number was so low that I didn't trust it. I gpt a smart plug that also calculates the energy usage.

After the first day the number on both devices is almost the same. But day after day the smart plig number is getting much bigger what MelCloud app is showing.

Now after to weeks the smart plug shows three times more usage than MelCloud app.

Here you can see that I'm not alone with this one: GitHub - vilppuvuorinen/pymelcloud: A MELCloud Client Library

79

Thanks for your response @mikkomattip and the details of the bugs. I suspect I hadn't solved these, I'll log them on the list I have compiled so far and take a look

And thanks for the tip on the power usage, I'll keep that in mind when I take a look at it.

Thanks,
Simon

1 Like
80

Hi @mikkomattip - I have a fair idea what may be happening here, but just wanted to confirm... Are you saying the set temperature is being adjusted to match the current room temperature of 10 degrees? I'll keep working on my assumption that this is the case, and the change I want to make is probably worthwhile anyway, it may be being caused by a name conflict in the code.

@zimba - Not sure if you may be able to confirm this as well?

Thanks again,
Simon