Thermostat with extra controls?

Hi, folks. I'm working on a plugin for my ESPHome-controlled Mitsubishi mini-split heat pumps. Basic temperature and mode control works fine. I'm now proceeding into the fan speed and vane settings, and of course the Indigo thermostat device doesn't have those states. What's the right approach here? Should I end up with distinct devices, through the DeviceFactory path, so I have "minisplit - thermostat", "minisplit - fan" and "minisplit - vane" devices? Or would it be better to go with custom states attached to a single thermostat device?

[jay (support)]

Not really knowing about the use-case(s), I don't really know which is better. If you want the user experience to be like any other thermostat, then you'd probably want to go the thermostat route and either add custom states/actions or add grouped devices for the other things that aren't directly supported in the thermostat.

Well, that's the question - should I prefer grouped devices or custom states? The temperature and mode are in a Thermostat-class device. The fan speed for the device could reasonably be treated as a Speed Control device, which would need to be distinct. The vane control (what angle the fan points at) makes more sense as a custom control, because it just has different states than anything else. Perhaps one Thermostat device for the mode/temp settings, and a Speed Control device with custom states for the vane angles, as an overall "fan control" device?

Ultimately this is controlling a Mitsubishi MSZ-GL minisplit head, using the ESPHome API to a device running ESPHome with this ESPhome plugin, connected to the Mitsubishi's control board.

[jay (support)]

If the vane control can be addressed like a dimmer (a range of 0-100) then you might want to use that. But again, I'm unclear on what the target user's use-case is. If they won't be directly controlling via Indigo Touch (for instance) but rather will be almost completely in automation, then custom states and custom actions would probably suffice.

So, you could have the thermostat to set/control temps. You could use a speed control device if the fan part isn't integral to the thermostat (as is the case with most standard thermostats). And then potentially a dimmer that represents the vane (angle), or alternatively custom states and actions on either of the above devices to control that.