What is the better Midea (Porta Split) Home Assistant integration? The fork by wuwentao or mill1000? Maybe work together?

[rugk]

Hi @mill1000 and thanks a lot for your work!

I have tried out your integration and it works great. However, I also found https://github.com/wuwentao/midea_ac_lan – a fork by someone else – as far as I see both based on the same integration. Both seem to be maintained, too.

Testing

I installed them side-by-side and, as you can see, they basically work:

The only major difference I see is the setup process:

• In my case, with ill1000/midea-ac-py (Midea Smart AC), it could find and connect to the device directly and extract some token and key, somehow
• In case of wuwentao/midea_ac_lan (Midea AC LAN) I needed to enter my server credentials (SmartHome app in my case) and it could also extract tokens without any problems (despite the warnings in the Readme, BTW)
• FYI, interestingly, while the (device) ID is the same, the tokens (and key) are indeed different

Also, BTW, the SmartHome app shows and asks for me to set a password (for the device, I assume, my account obviously has one). I don't know, if I had done that, this might have changed the result.

Also:

• wuwentao/midea_ac_lan (Midea AC LAN) apparently seems to support much more devices/device types (I personally do not need that, though)
• wuwentao/midea_ac_lan (Midea AC LAN) is not that localized in German at least
• wuwentao/midea_ac_lan (Midea AC LAN) needs to be configured to show more sensors etc., but that is also not a big problem

Apart from that, I see no major differences.

Questions

So any suggestions for what is better? I assume running them side-by-side makes little sense?
Also, could not you maybe work together? Instead of each one maintaining their own fork? Especially, if this integration could at some point maybe get into HAOS core, instead of HACS?

References/Backlinks

• The same discussion/question to the other maintainer.
• German forum thread
• English discussion in official Home Assistant forum
• regarding the old/original implementation: Mark repository as unmaintained georgezhao2010/midea_ac_lan#670

[mill1000]

Hi. Thanks for trying the integration.

I have tried out your integration and it works great. However, I also found https://github.com/wuwentao/midea_ac_lan – a fork by someone else – as far as I see both based on the same integration. Both seem to be maintained, too.

My fork actually originates from mac-zhou/midea-ac-py, which I discovered when I installed a Toshiba-branded AC. I started maintaining my own fork in 2022 when mac-zhou stopped responding to PRs.

I can't remember if georgezhao2010's project was around at that time. I may have simply missed it or found mac-zhou's to be a better fit.

Most of these projects have NeoAcheron/midea-ac-py as a common ancestor.

So any suggestions for what is better? I assume running them side-by-side makes little sense?

Well naturally I'm a little biased. I like my project more :)

Jokes aside, you should use whichever is a better fit for yourself. I would not recommend running them side-by-side. Some users reported issues with the device availability when both integrations were trying to control it.

As you've noted wuwentao/midea_ac_lan supports more device types, maybe a few more device sensors/features and is actively maintained. It's a good project! They are very busy over there too. I take a peek every now and then.

My project is more limited in scope.

• I am not interested in supporting dozens of device types.
• I no longer have any Midea devices of my own.
• I still consider the project maintained, but development of new features will lag as I need the technical cooperation of my users to implement new functions.

That said, if you like the German localization, use my project, or contribute a translation to wuwentao/midea_ac_lan. Either is great.

If my project lacks some killer feature, use wuwentao/midea_ac_lan, or create a feature request issue and maybe we improve this project too.

Also, could not you maybe work together? Instead of each one maintaining their own fork? Especially, if this integration could at some point maybe get into HAOS core, instead of HACS?

I'm open to cooperation, but not really interested in co-development. I enjoy having my own little project and I'm happy to keep it going as-is.

Given its greater scope wuwentao/midea_ac_lan is likely a better candidate for an official HA integration.

FYI, interestingly, while the (device) ID is the same, the tokens (and key) are indeed different

Yes, the token & key aren't constant to a device. If you request a token multiple times for a device you get a different one each time. Someone with more cryptography knowledge could probably explain why.

[rugk]

Ah, and of course I found yet another integration homeassistant-midea-air-appliances-lan, also asked the same question there (though I could for now not make it work): nbogojevic/homeassistant-midea-air-appliances-lan#251