RM3 mini password length limit?

After failing to connect a recently purchased Broadlink RM 3 mini (aka Black Bean) to my WLAN with all three Android apps (e-control, Intelligent Home Center, Intelligent Home Center EU) even in AP mode because apparently the glorious Broadlink engineers randomly and against the rules chose to limit the password length to 32 characters, I still wonder if this is a software or hardware limit. While the apps constantly and silently failed to connect, I received only once a hint that the WLAN password is limited to 32 characters. Trying with the latest python-broadlink, I get this error:

>>> import broadlink
>>> broadlink.setup('ssidofmynetwork', 'mylongnetworkpassword', 3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "broadlink/__init__.py", line 865, in setup
    payload[(pass_start + pass_length)] = ord(letter)
IndexError: bytearray index out of range

Needless to say that an attempt with a shorter password succeeded. I hoped that using python-broadlink instead of the vendors’ apps might overcome this limitation. Now I’m afraid its an annoying hardware limit.

[drew1kun]

Thanks for this… you saved me a lot of time trying to find out the max limit, as my wifi networks use 63 char wpa passphases.

[IgitBuh]

If you can still return yours, it’s probably cheapest to do that and get a Wemos D1 and some IR send/receive circuit bits instead.)

Well, I can still return it, but I’m not sure if that’s really an alternative. I purchased the RM4 Pro specifically for being able to control both IR and RF devices. I understand that there is the possibility of building a custom IR/RF control device myself, but I wasn’t planning on investing days or weeks into this project. If there is a good alternative IR+RF device with openHAB support, I’d be more than happy to hear about it!