Trying to find the right cable

[danielbenjamins]

I ordered everything exactly as explained, the FeatherS3 option. I successfully put all items together and was able to install the firmware. My units have a CN-REMO socket, a green female one, and I located it. I'm just breaking my head how to connect the ESP32 board to the unit...

The Adafruit cable (4873) came as a pair. One female connector with bare wires and one male connector with bare wires. The female cable that came with it seems useless to me? The male fits the ESP32 board. But then I have bare wires on the other end.

Any advice? I thought getting the 4873 cable was a plug and play solution, based on what I read in this repo ("so I only had to open up the bottom part of the unit to connect my controller", etc.)

Edit: should I try to get these cables instead? https://www.ebay.ca/itm/283846824146?chn=ps&google_free_listing_action=view_item. I have 4 heat pumps and one of them is 14 ft up the wall. Would really need a plug and play option for that one. Would also like to keep the orginal green female socket intact in case one of the units needs servicing.

@cure

[danielbenjamins]

@JanM321 Is there any form of support or advice regarding the cable? The 4873 Adafruit cable has bare wires on one end so it will not connect to the green LG CN-REMO port without any altering. I tried merging two cables together, with multiple combinations, but I can't get the controller to power up. Can you please post a picture in here of the cable you are actually using?

[JanM321]

My original PCB had a screw terminal so the Adafruit cable just worked. I'm not sure what people with the newer PCBs have used; I vaguely remember someone taping two of these cables so both sides have a connector.

[danielbenjamins]

@JanM321 @cure I pigtailed two cables together and am able to get 12V all the way to the pins on the PCB. That's where I am stuck now since the FeatherS3 still doesn't power up. People tell me the FeatherS3 doesn't work with 12V so it has to be brought down to a lower voltage. That's probably where the 3.3V port comes to play, I just don't know how to proceed without breaking something

[Adam1986]

You need some JST-XH 3P 2.54mm doubled ended cables, I got mine 200mm length as gives some leeway where to sit your ESP32 boards.

I got mine from Aliexpress but you can get them from a lot of places, just make sure both ends are the same - female.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EwWa9es

[danielbenjamins]

@Adam1986 Thanks for your input! I got this far that I figured out the cable is not the issue. With a pigtailed DIY cable the 12V goes all the way to the pins of the PCB. But the FeatherS3 still doesn't power up and I am still looking into this. Once figured out, I will definitely get some new and well structured cables. And will get rid of the DIY cable that I am using for testing.

[cure]

@JanM321 @cure I pigtailed two cables together and am able to get 12V all the way to the pins on the PCB. That's where I am stuck now since the FeatherS3 still doesn't power up. People tell me the FeatherS3 doesn't work with 12V so it has to be brought down to a lower voltage. That's probably where the 3.3V port comes to play, I just don't know how to proceed without breaking something

@danielbenjamins The PCB regulates the 12V down to 3.3V. If you have 12V and ground going into the PCB, and assuming the PCB is functional, then plugging in a FeatherS3 should power it up. Just make sure you don't have the FeatherS3 connected to USB when you plug it into the PCB, the FeatherS3 does not support that.

How are you determining the FeatherS3 does not power up? In normal operation, none of the lights are on. It is expected that the red light does not turn on when the FeatherS3 is not fed from USB. If for whatever reason it is not connecting to your wifi, I suppose it would look like the FeatherS3 is not powered on.

You can add this snippet to your yaml to make the blue LED work. If the FeatherS3 is on but not (yet) connected to your HA, it would start blinking a few seconds after boot. If everything is working, it would be off.

# Use the blue LED as status indicator.
# Slow blink: warning
# Fast blink: error
# Off: all systems normal
status_led:
  pin: GPIO13