Hisense AEH-W41H1: de-cloud your air conditioner

Run a Hisense air conditioner entirely locally through Home Assistant, with no ConnectLife account and no cloud dependency, by replacing the firmware on its AEH-W41H1 Wi-Fi module (Realtek RTL8710C / AmebaZ2) with a custom Matter build.

Two hardware paths are documented and both are running on real units:

  • AmebaZ2: reflash the stock W41H1 module in place. No added hardware.
  • ESP32: drop an ESP32 plus an RS-485 transceiver into the module bay. Useful when the W41H1 is dead or unobtainable, which is common.

Everything below is written from a working system, not a plan. The RS-485 protocol was reverse-engineered from the stock firmware and validated against live hardware.

Not sure if your A/C is supported?

Check compatibility: which units are confirmed, and how to tell in a minute without opening anything.

Start here

   
Hardware and wiring pinout, the 4-pin module port, RS-485 A/B
Installing the custom firmware flashing the module over a CH341A SPI clip
Commissioning and Home Assistant pairing into python-matter-server and HA
Everyday control modes, fan, swing, Eco / Quiet / Turbo / Sleep
OTA updates Matter OTA, the break-glass HTTP path, and the serial trap
Recovery and reflash getting back from a bad flash
FAQ and gotchas the things that actually bite

Choosing a path

ESP32 vs AmebaZ2 compares the three firmware tracks on cost, toolchain, reproducibility, OTA mechanics, flash headroom and diagnostics, with figures measured on this project’s own hardware rather than taken from datasheets. On an ESP32 board the choice is Matter or the ESPHome build, which drops the Matter stack and exposes the A/C natively to Home Assistant.

Reverse engineering

The protocol and firmware analysis, if you want to port this to another Hisense unit or verify the claims:

Firmware and build

Source

Code, issues and releases: github.com/AndrewDemsDS/hisense-w41h1

Uses Matter test credentials, so this is for development and personal use. It is not a certified Matter product and is not affiliated with Hisense, Realtek or the CSA. Reverse engineering of hardware you own, for interoperability.

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