Fireplace requires heartbeat signal

[alkalinecoffee]

The fireplace includes a safety mechanism that requires the remote to send out a heartbeat signal every 15 minutes. I originally implemented this to re-send the ON signal every so often, but this does not appear to work. Will need to capture signals from the remote and see if there is a different code for sending the heartbeat signal.

[robross0606]

Incidentally, I noticed something that looked a heckuva lot like a periodic heartbeat "blip" when I was capturing my remote signals in URH. The length of the blip is extremely short -- much shorter than what I originally thought was my bit length (URH term). I haven't gotten to the point where I can test my decoded signal yet, so I'm not sure if my bit length interpretation was even correct. Were you able to solve this heartbeat problem?

[alkalinecoffee]

Nope, I have not had a chance to look at it. The signal doesn't look very clean, so I'm not even sure it's sending a code rather than gibberish. I'm not too familiar how this is implemented so it'll require a little more research. Maybe the remote's FCC data can shed some light on it.

[robross0606]

Now this has me second-guessing my "bit length" which I really thought I had finally cracked on my signal. I could see definite repeating patterns (preamble, gaps between repeats, length of signal, etc.) in the various signals I recorded. But maybe my length value (482) is way too long and the actual binary signal is much longer. Otherwise, like you, the heartbeat is "there" but extremely short.

My biggest fear is that the communications might bi-directional. Does the remote have to receive any data back from the fireplace? Does the FCC data tell us if there is any Rx capability in the remote? They definitely call it a "Transmitter".

[robross0606]

Sitting down to tackle this today and immediately overwhelmed by my lack of experience with Arduino. I'm a seasoned developer (Java, Android, etc.) and have plenty of experience hacking devices, but this is tera incognita for me. I bought all the same parts you recommended (HiLetgo NodeMCU, etc.). Any advice on how to get started with tooling? Okay to use Windows or should I stick with a Linux toolchain? Any good documentation or tutorials you can recommend for a complete Noob WRT Arduino?