Another widely used heater in mobile homes is the LFBros with radio remote control. We have integrated the radio protocol into the VanPi OS so that we can control this heater using an RF receiver and an RF transmitter (radio frequency) on a 433MHz basis.
The relay board has soldering points to which the receiver and transmitter can be easily soldered. In the photo below, the devices are only plugged in.
To use the RF signals, we have the software WiringPi preinstalled (ATTENTION: No longer current, the software is not installed on newer VAN PI OS versions! The corresponding flow is deactivated in the backend, but still available.) and the corresponding pins of the Raspberry are brought out.
In the Node-RED frontend we can see the pin assignment with the debug command "GPIO Readall", in this case we are interested in the column "wPi".
At the same time, under the Wiringpi configuration, in the folder ~/pekaway/433Utils/RPi_utils, we find the files codesend.cpp and RFSniffer.ccp, these two C++ files are ultimately responsible for being able to send/receive commands via 433MHz. There, pins 4 are set for sending and 3 for receiving.
Now we can activate the heating in the VanPi system configuration under System Config → LFBros. There we learn the commands of the radio remote control. If we press the "Read on" button in the "Training" area, an RFSniffer process is started. As soon as data is received, this command is saved and can then be sent with "Send on".
Accordingly, after activating the heater, the buttons for controlling the LFBros heater are displayed in the Heater tab and can be used as soon as they have been taught.
The corresponding flow in the Node-RED backend looks a bit complicated at first glance... and it is, it actually took some time :D We tried to cover as many situations as possible in order to prepare the system for all eventualities.
Likewise, with the setup and some adjustment in Node-RED, other 433MHz devices can also be controlled.
