AC simulator

[MariuszWoszczynski]

Hello. I made this device for a friend, but I don't have air conditioning and I don't have a way to test it. My friend lives far away, and before I send him the dongle, I would like to test it 100%. I came up with the idea of making a “simulator” on another esp32 device. Could you please provide me with some data from a real air conditioner that I could use as output from the simulator?

[GrKoR]

Hi! That sounds interesting. I’d be happy to provide the data you need to help you test the device.
I am willing to support this if the simulator project remains open-source and well-documented so the community can benefit from it too. To get started, could you please tell me more about your setup? Specifically, what kind of data do you need and in what format should I provide it to make it useful for your simulator?
Looking forward to hearing more about your project!

[MariuszWoszczynski]

Hello. Thanks for your response.
When it comes to the data format, I should be asking you about that. It has to be data that the aux_ac component can understand. I would like the simulator to simply simulate some kind of air conditioning.
The problem is that I'm not a programmer and I'm trying out different AI solutions. So far, without success. The AI says that your component needs a 13-byte frame, but when I generate such a frame on another device, the component only responds with this log:

[01:03:32][E][AirCon:1347]: Parser: packet CRC fail![01:03:33][E][AirCon:1348]: 0000006478: [<=] [BB 00 01 04 21 17 00 17] [19 00] [01:03:39][D][AirCon:1255]: Start byte received but there are some unparsed bytes in the buffer:[01:03:39][D][AirCon:1256]: 0000000000: [<=] 00 00 6D [01:03:39][E][AirCon:1347]: Parser: packet CRC fail![01:03:39][E][AirCon:1348]: 0000013478: [<=] [BB 00 01 04 21 17 00 17] [19 00] [01:03:46][D][AirCon:1255]: Start byte received but there are some unparsed bytes in the buffer:[01:03:46][D][AirCon:1256]: 0000000000: [<=] 00 00 6D [01:03:47][E][AirCon:1347]: Parser: packet CRC fail![01:03:47][E][AirCon:1348]: 0000020495: [<=] [BB 00 01 04 21 17 00 17] [19 00] 

First, I need information about what basic frame to send and how to send it so that aux_ac understands it.
My simulator is simply a second esp32 (nodemcu-32s) connected via UART to a dongle aux ac (esp32-c3 supermini).

[MariuszWoszczynski]

I have a solution :)
A simulator that replicates the operation of air conditioning and communicates with your code.
If you can, please share it in your repository.

esphome:
  name: aux-ac-simulator
  friendly_name: "AUX AC Simulator"

esp32:
  board: nodemcu-32s
  framework:
    type: arduino 

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

logger:
  level: DEBUG

api:
ota:
  platform: esphome

globals:
  - id: st_power
    type: int
    initial_value: '0x20' 
  - id: st_mode
    type: int
    initial_value: '0x20'
  - id: st_fan
    type: int
    initial_value: '0x60'
  - id: st_temp_code
    type: int
    initial_value: '0x68'
  - id: st_v_louver
    type: int
    initial_value: '0x00'

uart:
  id: ac_uart
  tx_pin: GPIO17
  rx_pin: GPIO16
  baud_rate: 4800
  data_bits: 8
  parity: EVEN
  stop_bits: 1

script:
  # 1. SMALL STATUS (0x11) - Basic AC settings response
  - id: send_small_status
    then:
      - lambda: |-
          std::vector<uint8_t> frame = {0xBB, 0x00, 0x07, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x0F, 0x00};
          frame.push_back(0x01); frame.push_back(0x11); 
          uint8_t byte10 = (id(st_temp_code) & 0xF8) | (id(st_v_louver) & 0x07);
          frame.push_back(byte10); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back((uint8_t)id(st_fan)); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back((uint8_t)id(st_mode)); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back((uint8_t)id(st_power)); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00); 

          uint32_t s = 0; std::vector<uint8_t> cbuf = frame; if (cbuf.size()%2) cbuf.push_back(0);
          for (size_t i = 0; i < cbuf.size(); i += 2) s += (cbuf[i] << 8) + cbuf[i+1];
          uint16_t c = (~((s >> 16) + (s & 0xFFFF))) & 0xFFFF;
          frame.push_back(c >> 8); frame.push_back(c & 0xFF); 
          id(ac_uart).write_array(frame.data(), frame.size());
          ESP_LOGD("sim", "<<< TX: SMALL STATUS");

  # 2. BIG STATUS (0x21) - Sensory data response (T + 32 offset)
  - id: send_big_status
    then:
      - lambda: |-
          std::vector<uint8_t> frame = {0xBB, 0x00, 0x07, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x18, 0x00};
          frame.push_back(0x01); frame.push_back(0x21); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x20); frame.push_back(0x00); 
          frame.push_back(0x02); frame.push_back(0x00); 
          frame.push_back(24 + 32); frame.push_back(0x00); 
          frame.push_back(20 + 32); frame.push_back(0x00); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(15 + 32); 
          frame.push_back(40 + 32); frame.push_back(50 + 32); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(50); 
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00);
          frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00); frame.push_back(0x00);
          frame.push_back(0x05); 

          uint32_t s = 0; std::vector<uint8_t> cbuf = frame; if (cbuf.size()%2) cbuf.push_back(0);
          for (size_t i = 0; i < cbuf.size(); i += 2) s += (cbuf[i] << 8) + cbuf[i+1];
          uint16_t c = (~((s >> 16) + (s & 0xFFFF))) & 0xFFFF;
          frame.push_back(c >> 8); frame.push_back(c & 0xFF); 
          id(ac_uart).write_array(frame.data(), frame.size());
          ESP_LOGD("sim", "<<< TX: BIG STATUS");

  # 3. COMMAND ACK (0x04) - Mandatory confirmation for the gateway
  - id: send_command_ack
    parameters:
      crc_high: uint8_t
      crc_low: uint8_t
    then:
      - lambda: |-
          std::vector<uint8_t> frame = {0xBB, 0x00, 0x07, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00};
          frame.push_back(0x01); frame.push_back(0x01); 
          frame.push_back(crc_high); frame.push_back(crc_low);
          
          uint32_t s = 0; std::vector<uint8_t> cbuf = frame; if (cbuf.size()%2) cbuf.push_back(0);
          for (size_t i = 0; i < cbuf.size(); i += 2) s += (cbuf[i] << 8) + cbuf[i+1];
          uint16_t c = (~((s >> 16) + (s & 0xFFFF))) & 0xFFFF;
          frame.push_back(c >> 8); frame.push_back(c & 0xFF);
          id(ac_uart).write_array(frame.data(), frame.size());
          ESP_LOGI("sim", "<<< TX: ACK [%02X%02X]", crc_high, crc_low);

interval:
  # Heartbeat Ping
  - interval: 5s
    then:
      - lambda: |-
          std::vector<uint8_t> frame = {0xBB, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x43, 0xFF};
          id(ac_uart).write_array(frame.data(), frame.size());

  # Smart RX Logic
  - interval: 20ms
    then:
      - lambda: |-
          static std::vector<uint8_t> buffer;
          while (id(ac_uart).available()) {
            uint8_t c; if(id(ac_uart).read_byte(&c)) buffer.push_back(c);
          }
          if (buffer.size() > 128) buffer.clear(); 

          if (buffer.size() >= 10) {
             for (size_t i = 0; i < buffer.size() - 8; i++) {
                if (buffer[i] == 0xBB && buffer[i+2] == 0x06) {
                   uint8_t body_len = buffer[i+6];
                   if (i + 8 + body_len + 2 > buffer.size()) return;

                   // Handle Query (11 or 21)
                   if (body_len == 0x02) {
                       uint8_t q_type = buffer[i+8];
                       if (q_type == 0x11) id(send_small_status).execute();
                       else if (q_type == 0x21) id(send_big_status).execute();
                       buffer.clear(); return;
                   }

                   // Handle Command Write (0x0F)
                   else if (body_len == 0x0F) {
                       ESP_LOGW("sim", ">>> RX: WRITE COMMAND");
                       
                       if ((buffer[i+10] & 0xF8) != 0xF8) {
                          id(st_temp_code) = buffer[i+10] & 0xF8;
                          ESP_LOGI("sim", "-> New TEMP Code: %02X", id(st_temp_code));
                       }
                       if (buffer[i+13] != 0xFF) id(st_fan) = buffer[i+13] & 0xE0;
                       if (buffer[i+15] != 0xFF) id(st_mode) = buffer[i+15] & 0xE0;
                       if (buffer[i+18] != 0xFF) id(st_power) = (buffer[i+18] & 0x20) ? 0x20 : 0x00;

                       // Extract incoming command CRC for ACK
                       uint8_t cH = buffer[i+8+body_len];
                       uint8_t cL = buffer[i+8+body_len+1];
                       id(send_command_ack).execute(cH, cL);
                       
                       buffer.clear(); return;
                   }
                }
             }
          }

[GrKoR]

the component only responds with this log

Well, the log shows that your device is working properly.
In case you need the simulator just for the test of small amounts of devices, you don't need do anything else.

Your simulator is nice and simple 👍🏼
Unfortunately it can't be used for real troubleshooting because it needs a lot of tests for that purpose for corner cases and incorrect data. The other side of that is the code becomes much more complicated when such tests are implemented...

Anyway, congratulations on solving this task and on successful test of your hardware! Good job! 👍🏼

[MariuszWoszczynski]

I just wanted to simulate communication with the air conditioning to check if the device with your code works. If anyone needs more complex tests, this code can of course be used as a basis and you are welcome to use it :)