Support for FTXM-R (Perfera)

[njh]

Hi,

Thank you very much for creating this project @revk!
I am in a very similar situation - I bought 2x air conditioning units last year and chose Daikin because after a brief search, it looked like they had the best chance of controlling them from the local network. I was pretty disappointed to discover that they weren't like old Daikin units and talked directly to a Cloud based service.

Indoor Unit: FTXM20R2V1B (FTXM-R)
Outdoor Unit: 2MXM40A
Wifi Controller: BRP069C4x (not worked out what value X I actually have - it isn't on the PCB)

The Wifi Controller is an uncased PCB measuring 45x35mm that clips inside the main air conditioning housing.
It is connected via a 5-wire cable and connects to S801 on the main controller PCB.
There is also an unpopulated S21 header on the board.

Does anyone know what sort of connector the S21 header uses?
Or where to source a suitable cable from?
While it is the same number of pins, I don't think I can re-use the cable connected to S801 because it looks like a smaller connector.

nick.

[njh]

Oh and here is a photo of the wiring diagram, on the inside of the enclosure:

[njh]

Because it is so hard to measure in-situ, I took a plasticine mould of the S21 connector on my main control PCB.

The pin spacing on the S21 connector is 2.0mm and it looks like it is a locking connector.
So assuming it is an official JST connector, the very useful Wikipedia JST Connector page suggests it is a PA family connector - which looks about right.

So I have ordered the following from RS:

• JST PAP-05V-S Housing
• SPHD-001T-P0.5 Crimp Terminals

I am going to use a standard 5-pin Dupont header socket on the Faiken-end for now.
But may order a proper JST EHR-5 housing, if it works.

Then I just need to practice my crimping skills...

[revk]

Sounds good, do post pictures. Other people have managed it with just single wire header leads.

[njh]

Here is a photo of the circuit boards in my FTXM20R2V1B indoor unit:

[kroon040]

I Have the same internal. You can use this connector on the unpolpulated S21

https://www.daikin.nl/nl_nl/products/product.html/EKRS21.html

And that with dupont cables connecting to the faikin module

[trullock]

See this post, i have the wall mounted version too and its basically the same procedure bar the enclosure differences #291

[DragonQ]

So the cable from that link (female, 30cm, 5 pin) is sufficient for the Perfera, no additional cables/adapters required?

[trullock]

Yep make sure you get the female dupont end. The wire colors are meaningless, so dont confused red for +12 and black for Gnd, double check with a multimeter, but the pins are in "the same order" on the S21 and the faikin, just make sure you start counting for the correct end

[MaienM]

Also, when you say "you'll need to flip the one of the connectors as it's wired inverted from what the faikin module expects", I assume that means all of the wires are basically backwards on one end and need flipping round? i.e. instead of "brown, blue, red, grey, black", it needs to go "black, grey, red, blue, brown" on one end. Correct?

That is correct, yes. In the second picture you can see that the wires in the connector on the left-hand side are now in reverse order, brown -> black instead of black -> brown starting at the top. In this configuration the wire worked to connect the Faikin module.

[DragonQ]

OK, does what I've done here look correct?

[njh]

I am very pleased to report that I have successfully managed to crimp a cable and get the Faikin module working with my FTXM-R.

I had a buy a new crimp tool to crimp the connector but can highly recommend the Engineer PA-09 tool - more basic but higher quality and so much easier to use than the ratchet tool I had.

However the the Dupont header only just fits on to the Faikin module - I think because the pitch is 2.54mm vs 2.5mm. I had to push the connector on quite hard to get the LED to light up and it wasn't a very reliable connection. So I definitely want to source a proper JST EHR-5 housing.

I was quite nervous about connecting the Faikin module the wrong way round. I measured the voltages on the header first:

Pin 1 (GND) → Pin 2: 14.2 volts
Pin 1 (GND) → Pin 5: 5 volts

[revk]

The Faikin will handle 5V or 12V no problem. I might add polarity protection some time.

You snap off the extra bits of PCB by the way :-)

[revk]

Oh, and well done.

[njh]

I was delaying snapping off the extra bits of PCB because I was considering cutting it down to 45x35mm, so that it could be clipped into the location that the official Wifi module currently is.

But I don't have a PCB guillotine - so it might be a bit high-risk sawing it.
Maybe I should just glue it on to something cut to the right size instead.

[revk]

Ah, I see.

[revk]

Thanks for updating wiki list

[njh]

Finally got Faikin module installed properly today 🎉

I had some trouble sourcing a JST EHR-5 housing and pins.
Farnell and RS had really long lead times.
Digikey wanted me to way £20 postage and LCSC wanted me to buy 1000 headers!

So in the end I went for some fake/clone headers from eBay: EH 2.5mm Plug + Crimps

And here is the end result:

After double-checking the connection was the right way round, I installed the Faikin module just next to the official module - just below the shielding that encloses the main PCBs:

The insulation on the hookup wire I am using is a little bit too thick for the crimps. Will try and get some thiner wire, if I make another one for our other air conditioning unit.

Next step: configuring Homebridge

[davrodfer]

I'm interested in your homebridge configuration, please, publish an update.

I think I can't use this homebridge plugin because all communication goes with http and my module doesnt respond quickly to http.

$ time curl daikin.local/aircon/get_model_info
curl: (7) Failed to connect to daikin.local port 80: Connection timed out

real	2m13.173s
user	0m0.042s
sys	0m0.041s

$ ping -c 3 daikin.local
PING daikin.local (172.19.243.105) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 172.19.243.105 (172.19.243.105): icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=11.2 ms
64 bytes from 172.19.243.105 (172.19.243.105): icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=7.74 ms
64 bytes from 172.19.243.105 (172.19.243.105): icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=5.48 ms

--- daikin.local ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 5ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 5.475/8.126/11.162/2.337 ms

I have configured Faikin in homebridge with homebridge-mqttthing and nodered and it will be nice to configure the device with only one piece of software.
This is my config in homebridge.

 {
            "type": "thermostat",
            "name": "Faikin_termostat",
            "url": "mqtt://mqtt.local:1883",
            "logMqtt": true,
            "topics": {
                "getOnline": "Faikin/daikin/online",
                "getCurrentHeatingCoolingState": "nodered/Faikin/daikin/modo",
                "getCurrentTemperature": "Faikin/daikin/home",
                "getTargetHeatingCoolingState": "nodered/Faikin/daikin/modo",
                "setTargetHeatingCoolingState": "nodered/Faikin/daikin/setTargetHeatingCoolinState",
                "getTargetTemperature": "Faikin/daikin/temp",
                "setTargetTemperature": "command/daikin/temp"
            },
            "minTemperature": 23,
            "maxTemperature": 28,
            "accessory": "mqttthing"
        }

[davrodfer]

Sorry, my bad. I haven't configured the webcontrol. This command

mosquitto_pub -h mqtt.local -t 'setting/daikin/webcontrol' -m '2'

solved my issue.

[njh]

I was going to try homebridge-mqttthing but I wasn't sure about mapping the Daikin fan settings to an integer between 0 and 100.

So I am now successfully using homebridge-daikin-local.
But it required a small fix applied to Faikin - which was done in #68.

Fan settings aren't ideal. Main problem is lacking the mechanism to set the fan speed to 'Auto'.

[revk]

Fan auto usually works. It is the "quiet" mode I have had issues with.

But basically, if you find the S21 message, it is pretty easy to add anything.

[njh]

The Daikin/Faikin side of things is working fine for me, thanks!

It is Apple HomeKit bit that is is lacking.

[davidebeatrici]

FTXM35R owner here.

First of all, thank you very much for your research and experiments!

I see connecting to the S21 port requires making a custom cable, leading to the following question: can we eventually use the S801 port? What do we know about it?

[revk]

Indeed, that is what I was wondering. May make sense to do a Faikin with that connector if so.

[andreground]

@davidebeatrici can’t wait for your oscilloscope to arrive 😄🤞

[ThiefMaster]

Being able to use S801 (and thus literally replace the official wifi module with faiking) would be great. For example, this might¹ allow connecting the Daikin wired remote to S21 at the same time.

¹ I saw some mentions that stuff on S21 and the stock wifi cannot be used at the same time.

[revk]

If anyone works out the connector, and is compatible, it may simple be a matter of a suitable lead.

[davidebeatrici]

Sorry for the lack of updates on my side. I received the oscilloscope, but didn't take the cover off my split yet as the past few months have been very hot.

[andreas-bulling]

Hi, I have come across this issue when preparing the installation of a Perfera FTXM-R AC. It has been installed now and the Faikin modules as well as the HA integration worked wonderfully. One thing though -when I select "auto fan mode" it jumps back to "night" mode - is this a bug or a feature? If the former, shall I open a separate issue?

[revk]

Short answer, yes.

I need to come up with something better. We can't tell which it is, and clearly using fan speed is not a good clue. So may change the logic back to what it used to be. Thanks for the feedback though.

[ando2040]

I have 5x FTXM units - @njh installation is clearly brilliant but I'm not sure I'm up for gaining the cable-making skills. I'd prefer to just buy 5x EKRS21 pre-made cables, but they are clearly much shorter - has anyone tried this? Comment above about being inside the shielding is noted.

[klausj1]

revk wrote: "There are also S21 male to female extension leads you can buy, I have seen. Would these help?"

Do you mean the EKRS21 from Daikin? Or are there standard-cables as well (without the need to crimp on your own)? I have bought JST PH-connectors at amazon, but it seems that the S21 port is no standard JST PH-connector, the cables to not fit.

BTW, there is a good video showing how to open the Perfera here (start at 0:55)

[Schm1tz1]

Hi @klausj1,
I ran into the same issue with connectors from Amazon - it seems like the S21 is non-standard. Looking at the pictures and labels it seems that I have the same board and connectors as @njh (FTXM35R2V1B from 2023):

Did you by any chance find a suitable cable?
As a next try, I now ordered the parts from RS as mentioned above, JST EH 2.5mm Connectors can be purchased on eBay (e.g. https://www.ebay.de/itm/126095393420).

[klausj1]

Hi,
the only one I got to work are the (expensive) original EKRS21 from Daikin (only use the side for the Daikin, for the Faikin you can use a standard cable, and then I soldered), but there are some other answers as well. 2.5mm is too wide

[Schm1tz1]

Thanks! Will try those from AliExpress / RS Components that are mentioned below. So far I the S21 I found connectors did not fit.

[Schm1tz1]

Short update from my side: I found that most of the China/Aliexpress connectors don't fit on the S21 headers (at least not without some cutting). For comparison, here a picture of the cheap connectors and the JST connectors form RS components (4766798 JST PA):


I will now crimp them to the EH 2.5 Plugs I ordered from eBay for the Faikin side and should be fine.

PIN order was double-checked measuring the outermost pins. PIN 1 is marked with a triangle on the Daikin board so looking at the connector from the front (board) side you have PIN 1 (+5V) on the left and PIN 5 (GND) on the right:

[Y0Sam]

Hi,
In december 2023 I have had two Daikin airco's installed and want to share my adventure installing the Faikin.
The airco's are FVXM50A3V1B9 indoor units and RXM50R5V1B outdoor units.

Thanks to njh I traced the correct connectors. The S21 in my Daikin indoor unit is a JST PA female connector pitch 2mm.
The connector of the Faikin is a JST EH female connector pitch 2.5 mm.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JST_connector.
In the image below the S21 connector is indicated with the red circle (control electronics are located on the right hand side of the indoor unit).

I was able to order them at RS (you need a business account to be able to order, I was luck that I could order via my employer).
Of each of the connectors I needed to order 10 pieces and 100 crimp terminals. Total price was 16 euros.

One of my hobbies is electronics so I ordered some wires (22AWG, 28 or 26 AWG would be sufficient though) at Aliexpress.

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005002536962793.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.37.283879d2FJfjfS&gatewayAdapt=glo2nld

In the past for the same reason I ordered a crimp tool for JST terminals.

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4001079210189.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.223.283879d2FJfjfS&gatewayAdapt=glo2nld

In total all included I spend about 100 euro's to install the Faikins in my aircos.
The wires are 32cm long.
Of the S21 female connector I removed the locking pin as the male S21connector on the Daikin PCB is type SMD.
Due to that you need to be very careful removing the female connector. Besides that the locking is located on the top side against the side of the casing and is not really accessible.

Below the images of the installed Faikin.
I routed the cable underneath the optical receiver unit so that the Faikin is located on the backside of the airco, resting on plastic casing free from iron parts to have optimal WiFi operation.
To protect the Faikin electrically I encased it in shrink tubing, without heating it, it fitted snug around the connector.

The build in WiFi device I do not use, it is switched off.

I hope other people can benefit from my adventure.

[trullock]

Good to know ta. Id been holding off firmware updates for fear of api breakages but seeing as they've knackered it server side and im on the Faikin route ill give it a go

[njh]

You can also just unplug the built-in the Daikin Wifi Module. Air conditioner works fine without it.

[klausj1]

@ThiefMaster , with which firmware version is it possible to disable the WiFi?

[ThiefMaster]

no idea about the version, but the one i had installed end of last year already turned off the AP once i connected it to their cloud.

and for manually turning it off w/o cloud (ie if you don't want to use the builtin wifi module at all because you go faikin-only) you have use the IR remote like you'd do to get it to wifi setup mode, but select a different number in the menu. in case of my unit that's also explained in the user manual:

[ando2040]

#49 (reply in thread)

Not sure what you mean by "knackered it server side" but Daikin did switch off the old (unofficial) API and implement a new one, more fully featured, implementing OAuth and Europe-only again, during the last week. So if you're outside Europe, it probably is knackered but if you're in Europe it's improved! Needs a newly-forked Home Assistant integration if that's what is knackered - I use both Onecta and Faikin. Family get the pretty UI, I get the powerful one but my Home Assistant has both. https://github.com/jwillemsen/daikin_onecta

[Y0Sam]

Question for revk:
Is it possible to get power consumption and efficiency numbers from the outdoor unit?

[revk]

If you can find the S21 messages, I can add that. Not something I have now.

[Y0Sam]

I would like to try, but have no idea how to do that.
How did you do this?

[revk]

Tricky, you need to dump something that does it. It can be done with tapping the tx/rx on some other device which does it and dumping the serial data. Or finding someone on the internet that has done that already. I don't think my unit has it.

[Y0Sam]

I thought so, maybe I'll have a go on this, but there may be other ways as well.

[njh]

I have been trying to see if I can work out any more of the S21 protocol. Not had much success but I thought I would publish what my FTXM20R2V1B (FTXM-R) responds with to various commands. It may be useful for comparing to other models.

Request	Response	Hex Payload	ASCII Payload
F1	G1	30344541	04EA
F2	G2	3D3B8080
F3	G3	30FEFE30
F4	G4	30008030
F5	G5	30303080
F6	G6	30B0303C
F7	G7	30304A3F	00J?
F8	G8	30323030	0200
FA	GA	34393230	4920
FB	GB	30343430	0440
FC	GC	43463231	CF21
FG	GG	31323030	1200
FK	GK	717B3531	q{51
FM	GM	39333830	9380
FN	GN	30303030	0000
FP	GP	31363030	1600
FQ	GQ	32363030	2600
FS	GS	34303030	4000
FT	GT	32303030	2000
RH	SH	3039312B	091+
RI	SI	3537312B	571+
Ra	Sa	3038302B	080+
RN	SN	3532312B	521+
RM	SM	3532312B	521+
RX	SX	3033322B	032+
Rd	Sd	303030	000
RL	SL	303030	000
RD	SD	303030	000

I got hold of these by turning on debug and dump in the Advanced settings and then subscribing to the messages using MQTT:

mosquitto_sub -t 'info/faikin/+' -h mqtt -v
info/faikin/tx {"protocol":"S21","dump":"0246317703","F1":""}
info/faikin/rx {"protocol":"S21","dump":"024731303444416103","G1":"04DA"}
...

[trullock]

@njh Would you kindly fix the broken images in this post? I'm about to embark on the same project. thanks

[revk]

It does not try tx/rx swapped? It tries them inverted to allow for different boards. So connect 1:1.

[klausj1]

1:1 is totally fine, but you still have to know on which side of the connector in the Daikin is Pin 1 on the S21. I did not see find a mark on the board, therefore I measured. Not sure what you refer to with "it does not try tx/rx swapped?"

[revk]

Pin 1 is a square pad and the numbering is standard for the connector. There is a triangle by pin 1 on Faikin board.

And I mean it does not try tx/rx swapped. You have to get them right. I was referring to "TX and RX swapped or not does not matter, as the Faikin tries both option."

[klausj1]

Thx for the correction. I was sure I have read that "swapping" somewhere, if its not true, I was just lucky 😉

[trullock]

Bought these, worked a treat. Not sure its exactly the right connector as it needed a bit of a push to get it on, anyway. fits and works

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006291181398.html

[trullock]

I've started a separate thread with instructions for the floor standing Perferas: #291

[naelcm]

For the cable, I bought ready crimped wires from RS Components for the two connectors, and soldered them together with some heat-shrink tubing over the joint. The parts are (quantity for five units):

Description	Manufacturer + PN	RS code	Qty	Cost
S21 mating connector housing	JST PAP-05V-S	RS: 476-6798	10	1.71
S21 mating connector wires 150mm, 0.25mm2	SPHD1-SS5-24150	RS: 512-8721	30	14.43
Faikin mating connector housing	JST EHR-5	RS: 311-6237	10	0.76
Faikin mating connector wires 300mm, 0.34mm2, double ended	01SEHSEH-22300	RS: 688-1476	20	11.52