Sergey Dudanov's "Universal IoT Dongle" Packs an ESP8266 for Easy Appliance Remote Control
Designed to offer wired UART and wireless infrared control, the dongle comes pre-loaded with the ESPHome firmware — but more is supported.
Engineer Sergey Dudanov has released an open-source "Universal IoT Dongle," designed to offer UART and infrared remote control of a variety of home appliances — built around an Espressif ESP8266.
"The dongle is universal and you can use absolutely any firmware that supports the ESP8266 and your device," Dudanov writes of his compact dongle design. "The choice is almost endless. But it was originally designed to control Midea air conditioners via Home Assistant. For this, I developed the midea_ac component for the ESPHome project."
As a result, the sticks Dudanov sells come with ESPHome firmware already installed — but documentation is provided for flashing new firmware onto the dongle's ESP8266 microcontroller via a USB-UART adapter.
The dongle offers signal transmission and reception over UART and infrared, with Dudanov having confirmed compatibility with devices from Midea, Electrolux, Qlima, Artel, Carrier, Comfee, Inventor, Dimstal, and Simando — plus others not listed.
"You can also read the IR signal on the GPIO12 pin from all remote controls," Dudanov notes. "It can help in researching protocols and various automation goals without resorting to additional devices, thus saving energy."
Design files for the dongle have been published to GitHub under an unspecified open source license, while Dudanov is selling pre-assembled units flashed with the ESPHome firmware on his Tindie store for $16 with a choice of connectors including USB, horizontal XH2.54, and both horizontal and vertical pin header options.
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