IMPORTANT NOTE
This app requires that your Daikin air conditioner is equipped with a WiFi adapter (either model BRP069A-- or BRP069B–). This app does NOT support “Sky Air” ducted/ceiling models, models that are/can only be controlled by Daikin’s Residential Controller app (which was introduced in January of 2021) and/or models equipped with a C type (i.e. BRP069C4x) WiFi adapter. This app does not function on Homey Bridge.
The good news is that Athom teamed up with another developer to develop an ‘official’ Homey app to support Daikin equipment that uses the Daikin Cloud through WiFi adapters like the BRP069C4x, available here https://homey.app/en-us/app/climate.onecta.daikin/Daikin-ONECTA/.
Features
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supports most Daikin airconditioners that belonging to Daikin’s “Air-to-air heat pumps” group of products through a single driver.
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the user interface shows target temperature, operating mode, inside temperature, outside temperature, fan speed and fan swing mode.
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HomeKit support (see note) for every WiFi capable Daikin Airconditioner thru the “Air-to-air Heatpump (HomeKit)”. The AC control functionality is however limited to: airco’s mode setting, target temperature setting and inside temperature measurement.
Note: requires either Homey’s experimental Apple Homekit feature enabled or one of the following apps: “HomeKit by Sprut”, “HomeyKit by Bas Jansen”.
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special modes, POWERFUL, ECONO and STREAMER, are supported for some models/model variants although still experimental.
Note: having these functions on you airco’s IR remote control does not mean that these special modes can be controlled via WiFi.
Action flow cards, and data polling
When designing flows and you add multiple Daikin AI action flowcards to a flow, or several flows but with the same trigger condition, it might be necessary to spread these actions over several seconds to give the airco time to process all the commands as the interface handles all the commands separately (one at a time). The nature (asynchronous polling) of the Daikin interface still makes it possible that commands collide and as a result commands are not executed correctly which is something to keep in mind when building flows. The more airco units are controlled the more prominent this behaviour will become. It is also good to understand that i.e. after a Homey reboot and drivers are restarting within seconds this polling of the connected airco’s will also be within seconds of each other.
Refresh interval
Daikin designed an interface that is based on polling which means the airconditioner must be interrogated once in a while to know its current status. The polling interval of the official Daikin Online Controller app is between 30 and 60 seconds. With the refresh interval setting in the Daikin AI app it is possible to set its polling interval between 5 and 30 seconds which is up to 6 times faster. A higher refresh interval means that your Homey has more work to do. When your setup involves more than one airconditioner a polling interval of less than 10 seconds is not recommended. As a result of the polling mechanism a change made with the app, either the official Daikin Online Controller app or the Homey Daikin AI app, may not show immediately in either app. It should be noted that the refresh interval (setting) has no influence for sending commands to the airconditioner, a mode, target temperature etc. change is always executed immediately.
Demo mode
Demo mode can be enabled in the device its settings menu. Demo mode can be very useful when you are designing new flows as demo mode prevents the airco to be switched on so you can safely experiment and test your new flows.
Note: after initial pairing demo mode is by default turned OFF !!
Special Modes
Special modes are not supported by all models, model variants and/or the WiFi adapter its firmware version, in addition it might be that not all 3 special modes are supported. Check the Daikin Online Controller app which special modes are supported (over WiFi) by your airco, (preferably) during paring enable the supported Special Mode(s) by checking the applicable checkbox(es) or leave them all unchecked (disabled).
Note 1: It’s possible to set STREAMER mode for a turned off device (the airco is turned off automatically upon selecting the streamer mode). POWERFUL/ECONOMY modes will only work when the device is turned on.
Note 2: special modes are “experimental”, as a developer I am unable to test these modes as my own airco does not support special modes over WiFi but only from the IR remote.
WiFi adapter models
In the settings menu for your airconditioner device you can switch between the old (WiFi adapter model A) and the new (WiFi adapter model B) communication protocol.
IP-address
To prevent unreliable behaviour of the application the use of a fixed (static) IP-address is required. When DHCP changes your airconditioners IP-address the application will not be aware of this change and as a result the application can no longer controle the airconditioner till you manually update the IP-address in the devices its settings menu.
Notes:
- the use of a static IP-address is recommended.
- your airconditioner its current IP-address can be found in the Daikin Online Controller app (select your airco > click on the gear symbol > the IP-address shows under “Adapter information”).
Installation and/or updating the software
It is advised to turn your airconditioner OFF before and keep it switched OFF during Daikin AI software installation/upgrade/restart or when rebooting your Homey as the software will initialise itself immediately after software installation/upgrade/app restart/Homey reboot and because of that some of the airconditioner settings might change i.e. the target temperature might be set to a lower or higher temperature.
Known limitations
- Not all Daikin airconditioner models / model series / combinations of indoor and outdoor units are supported. Due to the fact that Daikin does not disclose their interface specification reverse engineering of the interface is extremely difficult.
- HomeKit support only applies for the ‘Air-to-air Heatpump (HomeKit)’ driver.
- DHCP is not supported.
- The use of a WiFi Mesh network might cause problems.
- The use of a different subnet for the airco compared to Homey is not supported (meaning that the airco and Homey (app) should be in the same subnet).
- Homey speech is not supported (note: “Air-to-air Heatpump (HomeKit)” driver users have speech support through Siri and can set airconditioner mode and the target temperature).
- No trigger flow card available for special modes.
- Special mode flow cards shown even when special modes are not enabled.
Credits
This Homey App is based on the great work of the unofficial Daikin API documentation project ( GitHub - ael-code/daikin-control: Unofficial api documentation and web interface to control "Daikin Emura" air conditioner ) as well as the Apollon77 Daikin Controller library ( GitHub - Apollon77/daikin-controller: Control Daikin Air Conditioner devices using nodejs ).
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.