Case study
Hisense AEH-W41H1: local A/C control over a reconstructed RS-485 bus
Hisense AEH-W41H1 local control replaces the air conditioner's cloud-connected Wi-Fi module with ESPHome firmware for an ESP32 board or the stock RTL8710C module. The implementation speaks the A/C's RS-485 bus and exposes climate controls and diagnostics to Home Assistant. Protocol notes describe the frame envelope, checksum, bus roles, and command/status behavior derived from device observation.
- Targets
- Firmware · Protocol
- Category
- Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship
- Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed
Requirements & limits
- Prerequisites: A Hisense A/C with an AEH-W41H1 module; the ESP32 route requires a 3.3 V RS-485 transceiver.
- Prerequisites: ESPHome 2026.10.1 for the documented ESP32 build path.
- Limits: The stock-module path has no rollback without a pre-flash whole-chip dump and a SOIC-8 recovery clip; other ESPHome chips have only compile checks.
- License: MIT License.
About this entry
The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Primary sources
- README.md GitHub · AndrewDemsDS/hisense-w41h1 · Revision 678cc64
- docs/guide/Protocol-Overview.md GitHub · AndrewDemsDS/hisense-w41h1 · Revision 678cc64
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