Advanced.md

Advanced operation

There are a number of settings and commands that are available via MQTT. To use these you must have set up the device to connect to an MQTT server. You then need a means to send messages to the MQTT server for the device.

The hostname you picked is used for these messages. The format for commands and settings is defined in RevK library. But is basically quite simple. We'll use GuestAC as the example hostname.

Type	Format	Meaning
Command	command/GuestAC/command	This issues commands to the device to do something now.
Setting	setting/GuestAC	This allows settings to be set. The payload is JSON, with one or more settings. e.g. setting/GuestAC {"fanstep":2,"reporting":60}. With no payload the existing settings are returned in the same format.
Setting (direct)	setting/GuestAC/thing	This allows a single setting to be set, the payload is the value, e.g. setting/GuestAC/debug 1
State	state/GuestAC/whatever	Status messages - these are normally retained and relate to specific aspects of the operation. With no paramater, e.g. state/GuestAC this is the state of the device itself, with false meaning it is now off line.
Event	event/GuestAC/whatever	Event messages are one of things that have happened and are not retained.
Info	info/GuestAC/whatever	Info messages are informational, and don't relate to a specific event happening.
Error	error/GuestAC/whatever	Errors are reported using this.

Settings

There are a number of standard settings as per the RevK library, including things like hostname, mqtthost, wifissid, etc. Settings specific to the Faikin module are as follows.

The web pages provide settings for the basic WiFi/MQTT, the Faikin specific settings, and an Advanced settings page listing a lot of more detailed settings.

Note that web settings can be disabled with websettings, and the web based control pages can be disabled with webcontrol. It is also possible to apply a password for the web settings 9this is not sent security, so use with care on a local network which you control).

Automatic on/off

Every tsample seconds the relationship of the adjusted min, max and current are assessed to consider how much time was approaching the target band, in the target band, or beyond the target band. Two whole samples in a row are considered. Sampling is reset on change of power or mode.

If auto1 is set, the power on at start of that minute. If auto0 is set, the power off at start of that minute.

If autop is set, and the last sample period is entirely outside the target band, and the current temperature is more than autoptemp degrees above or below the target band, then automatic power on.

If autop is set, and the last two sample periods are entirely inside the target band, then automatic power off.

Remote

The system is designed to work with an external remote Environmental monitor. This sends a command control periodically containing JSON with env being current temperature, and target being an array of min and max target temperature. When remote working autop is assumed if autoptemp is not 0.

Special settings

Some more advances settings which you are unlikely to need to ever change.

Setting	Meaning
debug	true means output lots of debug - notable for S21 this is one line with a set of poll responses. This also causes more fields to be polled than normal, so slower response times.
dump	true means output raw serial communications

|uart|Which internal UART to use| |tx|Which GPIO for tx, prefix - to invert the port| |rx|Which GPIO for rx, prefix - to invert the port|

Commands

Command	Meaning
on off	Power on/off
heat cool auto fan dry	Change mode
low medium high	Change fan speed
temp	Set target temp (argument is temp)
status	Force a status report to be sent
control	JSON payload with aircon controls, see below
send	Force sending S21 message, e.g. D62000

Status

Regular status messages are sent.

• state/ topic indicate current state, and are reported periodically and on some state changes.
• Faikin/ topic are sent, typically every minute, and intended for the faikinlog command to store in a database.
• *MAC*/ topic are sent for HomeAssistant if enabled, and are reported periodically and on some state changes.

The setting livestatus causes the state/ topic on any change.

Attribute	Meaning
online	Boolean, if the aircon is connected and online
heat	Boolean, if in heating mode
slave	Boolean, set if we are not master for heat/cool and hence cannot do requested mode
antifreeze	Boolean, set if in antifreeze mode and hence not operating as normal
model	Model name, if known
home	Temperature at remote / measured
outside	Outside temperature, if known
inlet	Inlet temperature, if known
liquid	Liquid coolant feed temperature, if known
control	Boolean, if we are under external/automatic control

The faikinglog reports the last periods for values. For each value, if it is the same for the whole period it is reported as is. If not, then for numeric is reported as an array of min, ave, max. For an enumerated type it is the current value. For a Boolean, it is a value 0.0 to 1.0 indicating how much it was true in the period.

The fixstatus setting forces the format as if the value had changed during the period, i.e. min/ave/max array or 0.0-1.0 for Boolean.

Aircon control

The controls are things you can change. These can be sent in a JSON payload in an MQTT command (with no suffix), and are reported in the status MQTT JSON.

Attribute	Meaning
power	Boolean, if aircon powered on
mode	One of H (Heat), C (Cool), A (Auto), D (Dry), F (Fan)
temp	Temperature, in Celcius
fan	One of A (Auto) and 1 to 5 for manual fan levels
swingh	Boolean - horizontal louvre swing
swingv	Boolean - vertical louvre swing
powerful	Boolean
econo	Boolean
autor	Range for automation, 0.0 means off - this sets the autor setting to 10 times this value
autot	Target temp for automation, This sets the autot setting to 10 times this value
autob	The name of the BLE device. This sets the autob setting
auto0	Time to turn off HH:MM, 00:00 is don't turn off. This sets the auto0 setting
auto1	Time to turn off HH:MM, 00:00 is don't turn on. This sets the auto1 setting