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Johnson JN52N Air Conditioner (TYWE1S, TCL protocol)

Device Type:misc
Electrical Standard:global
Board:esp8266
Difficulty:Disassembly required (3/5)

Product Description

Split air conditioner sold as Johnson JN52N (TCL-based, also found under other brand names). Its WiFi module is a Tuya TYWE1S (ESP8266EX, 2 MB flash), but the unit does not use the Tuya MCU protocol: the module talks to the indoor unit over UART using the proprietary TCL protocol (frames starting with 0xBB, 9600 baud, EVEN parity), so neither the tuya: nor the midea: ESPHome components work with it.

Flashing the TYWE1S with ESPHome plus the community TCL climate component gives full local control: modes (cool/heat/dry/fan/auto), presets (eco/sleep/boost), fan speeds, motorized vertical and horizontal swing, beep on/off and ambient temperature.

Product Images

Johnson JN52N datasheet Back of the WiFi board TYWE1S module

Flashing

The TYWE1S is flashed like any ESP8266 with esptool:

  1. With the AC unplugged from mains, connect a USB-to-UART adapter to the labeled flashing pins on the back of the board: 3V3, GND, TX, RX. Dupont cables held firmly in place work; no soldering needed.
  2. Bridge GPIO0 to GND and power up the board to enter download mode.
  3. Back up the stock firmware first: esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 read_flash 0x0 0x200000 backup.bin (the dump must be exactly 2097152 bytes).
  4. Flash ESPHome: esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash 0x0 firmware.bin.

Warning: this device works with mains voltage. Take all necessary precautions.

GPIO Pinout

PinFunction
GPIO15UART TX (to AC indoor unit)
GPIO13UART RX (from AC unit)

Basic Configuration

The config below exposes the climate entity (modes, presets, fan speeds and per-axis swing on/off). Extras like the beep switch, swing position selects and ambient temperature sensor are template entities wired to the component’s methods — see the full example in the component repository linked below.

https://github.com/esphome/devices.esphome.io/blob/main/src/docs/devices/Johnson-JN52N-TCL-AC/config.yaml
esphome:
  name: ac-jn52n
  friendly_name: "Johnson JN52N AC"


esp8266:
  board: esp01_1m


external_components:
  - source: github://gnacho/esphome-tcl-ac/components
    components: [tcl_climate]


uart:
  id: uart_bus
  tx_pin: GPIO15
  rx_pin: GPIO13
  baud_rate: 9600
  parity: EVEN


climate:
  - platform: tcl_climate
    id: tcl_custom_climate
    uart_id: uart_bus
    name: "Johnson JN52N"
    icon: "mdi:fan"


wifi:
  ap: