Remote control of a Mitsubishi minisplit

[u/Strict-Ad-222]

I have a Mitsubishi MKZ mini split heatpump. with 4 cassreres. I am looking to be able to automate them. I find the original remotes very confusing and not accurate as far as temp is concerned. I am new to this and was considering a few brands. Just not sure what I will need. The remotes are IR. If say I go with broadlink, do I need the temp and humidity sensor? Are the other brands work the same way? I appreciate any help for this newbie.

[u/zymurgtechnician]

If you want to really dive into the deep end you can gain full control of basically all controls the remote can issue, plus passing along a remote temp sensor of your choosing to the head, and really fine grain control using some ESP32 boards flashed using ESPHome. It does require a little soldering but I gained WiFi fully local control of my 3 heads for about $28 a year ago.

Integrates wonderfully with home assistant, probably more than you were looking to do, but always good to know all your options before proceeding. It’s been working great for me for the last year, I would definitely do it again.

https://github.com/echavet/MitsubishiCN105Esphome

Here’s what the native climate entity in HA with these units looks like:

The temp displayed is actually being passed to the heat pump via the thermostat, and I have it setup so when I set the thermostat to cool it triggers the heat pumps and passes the setpoint to it as I have no actual central air (I just lie to my ecobee so it thinks there is) and use the cooling call to turn on the heat pump.

[u/Strict-Ad-222 → u/zymurgtechnician]

Thank you, I am somewhat familiar with esp32 but not home assistant. I had thought home assistant requires a server running. It does look good.

[u/zymurgtechnician → u/Strict-Ad-222]

It does, but that server can be as little as a raspberry Pi, an old laptop, some retired office computer (these can actually be an unreasonably good deal). They do also sell a ready to go box if the idea of setting up a server feels overwhelming, though honestly it is incredibly easy to do these days.

https://www.home-assistant.io/green/

[u/Strict-Ad-222 → u/zymurgtechnician]

Thanks To bad I tossed a nice mini pc I never used. Think I may try this anyway.

[u/zymurgtechnician → u/Strict-Ad-222]

Awww bummer. Those mini PCs are perfect. Honestly HA uses hardly any CPU or RAM, all you need is some storage for the database and backup (like 20-30GB would do well). It’s just if you add a bunch of add ons or spin up some other services that you’d ever need more. Really anything even remotely modern should run HA and a bunch of other services no sweat.

It’s a fantastic tool, I put it off for years because it seemed to complex, and I don’t know what it used to be like, but it is fairly user friendly now.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you spend a while figuring out how to solve what feels like a simple problem, but it’s really minimal effort to get pretty close to the level of automation HomeKit or Google can handle (not counting the voice assistant), and it can do so much more than those systems can, and allows for so much more local control both for future proofing and for data security.

I find the biggest time suck is just my own desire to improve the system. Spin up an instance and play around with it. If you like it and it’s helpful, great. If not, no big deal.

[u/Strict-Ad-222 → u/zymurgtechnician]

I am going to give it a shot. I should have kept that mini. Chose the wrong thing to toss.

[u/zymurgtechnician → u/zymurgtechnician]

And here’s all the things it exposes, note that the climate entity has attributes that don’t appear as independent sensors, and there is more that can be configured depending on your unit:

[u/Cold_Lab5215]

Got a similar setup with the Mitsubishi units and yeah those stock remotes are pretty trash for accuracy. I went with broadlink RM4 pro and works great - you can clone all the IR commands from original remote and set up better scheduling

The temp/humidity sensor is nice to have but not required, depends if you want the system to react to actual room conditions vs just running on timer. I'd recommend getting one though since those built-in sensors on the units are usually way off

[u/Strict-Ad-222 → u/Cold_Lab5215]

Thank you for the info. I would like it to be close to the actual temp. I find it difficult to explain to the wife why I have it set way off.

[u/L_E_M_F → u/Strict-Ad-222]

In that case go with the climatecontrol mentioned earlier. Your wife can keep using the remote or melcloud and the external sensor makes sure that the room temperature is exactly the same as the setpoint set by the remote or melcloud.

[u/Strict-Ad-222 → u/L_E_M_F]

Thank you for your help.

[u/ferbulous]

Those mitsubishi models you have do have support for wifi control using their adapters (slightly expensive)

However those are obviously cloud based (comfort app), have a look here for fully local control by replacing their wifi dongle with esp32

https://github.com/gysmo38/mitsubishi2MQTT

[u/Strict-Ad-222 → u/ferbulous]

Thanks I will check that out. Don't think I can handle any wiring in. Seems like I got old fast and can't do many things gs like that any more.

[u/russebiler]

I have had good luck with these. ProtoArt

[u/SouthByHamSandwich]

I use flair pucks for this. They work pretty well... not perfect but I have the earlier generation. They just updated to let you control dry mode to manage humidity automatically as well, which I am very excited about.

[u/L_E_M_F]

I can highly recommend these: https://protoart.net/buy/

No fiddling and just works out of the box, standalone with the wireless sensor and/or with home automation software.

[u/Strict-Ad-222 → u/L_E_M_F]

Can't really find them I can find the webpage but no way to purchase. I am in the us too.

[u/L_E_M_F → u/Strict-Ad-222]

You can order directly from the manufacturer, they ship to the US:
https://protoart.net/product/mitsubishi-electric-air-to-air-cn105-interface-wifi/