MQTT to Broadlink

This project links MQTT messages to commands on Broadlink RM3/4 remote IR devices. It relies on the python-broadlink project to communicate with the broadlink devices and uses paho-mqtt to process MQTT messages.

Setup

All configuration is stored in the data/config.ini file, it has details for connecting to a MQTT broker, details for connecting to the broadlink devices and details of known command codes.

A minimal config could look like this:

[mqtt]
host = 192.168.1.6

[devices]
rm3 = 0x5f36 192.168.1.2 aaaaaaaaaaaa

[commands]
command_1 = 2600660072380e0e0e2a0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e2a0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e2a0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e0e0e0e0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e0e0e2a0e00097b0d05

Running

The program can be run from the command line or in a Docker container. The Docker method is the most well tested option.

Docker image

A docker image is available for amd64 and arm64 systems.

docker run --rm -it \
  --name "mqtt_to_broadlink" \
  -v "$(pwd)/config.ini:/service/data/config.ini" \
  d6jyahgwk/mqtt_to_broadlink:latest

This will use config.ini file from the directory where the command is run, to work fully the config.ini file will need to be writable by UID 65534 (user nobody, group nogroup on many default linux installs) as the docker image runs as that user.

The image can be built locally from a repo checkout using the scripts/docker_build.sh script.

Command line

This requires a checkout of the repository and python3, python3-pip and optionally python3-venv to be installed before running.

git clone https://github.com/shanemiller60/mqtt_to_broadlink.git
cd mqtt_to_broadlink
python3 -m venv venv        # only if using a virtual-env
source venv/bin/activate    # only if using a virtual-env
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
./scripts/run.sh

Commands can be learned or added by hand using IR code converters. The device details (<device-type> <device-ip> <device-mac>) match the output from the broadlink_discovery tool.

MQTT interface / topics

The program listens on the following topics:

Topic	Payload	Description
m2b/device/<device-name>/send	<command-name>	Sends a command through the device
m2b/device/<device-name>/learn	<command-name>	Learns a command through the device and saves the code to the config
m2b/device/<device-name>/discover	<device-ip address>	Attempts to discover a device and save its details to the config
m2b/device/<device-name>/add	<device-type> <device-ip> <device-mac>	Adds a device to the config from a known device string
m2b/device/<device-name>/remove	-	Removes the device from the config
m2b/command/<command-name>/add	<command-code>	Adds a broadlink code to the config
m2b/command/<command-name>/add_pronto	<command-code>	Adds a pronto-hex code to the config
m2b/command/<command-name>/remove	-	Removes a command code from the config
m2b/log/level	DEBUG, INFO, WARN or ERROR	Sets the level of messages shown in stdout

<command-name> is the key of a value of an entry in the [commands] section of the config.ini.

<device-name> is the key of a value in the [devices] section of config.ini.

<device-ip address> is the IP address of the RM3/4 device.

<device-type> <device-ip> <device-mac> is the device string produced by broadlink_discover CLI.

<command-code> is an IR code in either broadlink or pronto format as required.

Discover a device

These examples require the mosquitto-clients package to be installed on a linux system to have access to the mosquitt_pub program.

mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.1.6 -t m2b/device/rm3/discover -m "192.168.1.2"

Learning commands

mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.1.6 -t m2b/device/rm3/learn -m command_2

This puts the IR device into learning mode, the light will come on and it can learn a code from a remote. Learned commands are saved into the config.ini file.

Sending commands

mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.1.6 -t m2b/device/rm3/send -m command_2

Device name (rm3 in the example) and command name (command_2 in the example) must be defined in the config.ini file.

config.ini and command codes

The config file has 3 sections, mqtt, devices and commands.

The mqtt section can have up to 5 values:

Name	Default	Notes
host	-	Required
port	1883	Optional
user	''	Optional
pass	''	Optional
prefix	m2b	Optional, this is added to the start of all topics used by this program

The devices section has 1 value for each device under control, the name of the device is the key and the broadlink_discovery output is the value.

[devices]
rm3_1 = 0x5f36 192.168.1.11 aaaaaaaaaaaa
rm3_2 = 0x5f36 192.168.1.12 aaaaaaaaaaab
...
rm3_n = 0x5f36 192.168.1.19 aaaaaaaaaaaf

# General format is:
<device-name> = <device-type> <device-ip> <device-mac>

The commands section lists each command that can be sent to any of the devices.

[commands]
command_1 = 2600660072380e0e0e2a0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e2a0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e2a0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e0e0e0e0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e2a0e0e0e2a0e00097b0d05

# General format is:
<command-name> = <command-code>

Command codes can be learned by the device, or built manually from available code databases.

irdb
Remote Central
Tasmota - Codes for IR Remotes

This program only saves and uses broadlink codes, they look like the example command_1 value above. Pronto codes can also be added manually, they look like 0000 006C 0000 0022 00AD 00AD 0016 0041 0016 0041 .... NEC codes look similar to 7F 4A (can be longer or shorter) and they can be converted to pronto format using the Yamaha IR Hex Converter website.