I have a project that I’ve been thinking about for a while that I see ae having 2 main Parts the overall Idea is that If I’ve been out and about during the summer I can send a Text msg while traveling home to turn My Air con on so I wont boil once I get home. I see this as 2 main parts 1 the control for the AirCon the other is a way to recieve the SMS and tell the remote what to do my current understanding is that the SMS would likly be best with a Raspberry Pi and some thing like the while creating an IR remote might work best with a microcontroler rather than a S.B.C.possibly something based on an ESP32S? chip so it can receive commands from the R.Pi over my home network. from what I can tell the IR remote will be the harder project. Any guides for either part of the project would be most helpful as would knowing any traps just waiting for me to fall into thanks.
Not sure the IR would be that hard really.
Key bit will be making sure the IR match’s what the AirCon is using (i.e. there are different types of IR; wavelength and packet formats.
They way i would start is see if you can find what the aircon is using… sometimes you can find the actual command/response online.
then I would setup an IR Receiver and point the aircon remote at it and press a button… can see the packet ? This step helps when you move to the actual transmit as you have confidence to know you are sending what you have seen.
from memory aircons can send data back to the remote; not too sure if that will matter, but it might. e.g. when you turn on the power it may send the current values to the remote, then the up/down button might send an actual value or it may send an increment from where you are.. thus you may need to know the current value.
This is more food for though, as I have not thought it threw fully…
I think you would want to “sign/encode” the sms data. Without this anyone could play with your aircon.
e.g. You could, for example AES Encrypt the command with a pre-shared key, the binhex/mime that so its just ascii text and send that.
Also at some time stamp, so if the message gets replayed and “is too old” don’t action it.
Keep in mind that the ESP32 (and others) can have a HTTPS web server running on it. I would be 99% sure (not tried) that you could have a client certificate auth to it. This all the encryption and authentication is handled at the webserver level; but you did say you wanted it to be a SMS/TXT…
ages ago I made an android ap that would display the info from a TXT msg just to look at the data included in the msg tne Data includes the phone number so I would either set up a white list for phone numbers it allows or the formatting of the msg would need to be exact to do anything as far as messing with my Air Con. so that fixes that issue. I may extend the Pi side of the project to control wifi “Smart” lights
Hi Kiera,
Welcome back!
What a sweet project! I’ve got something setup thats somewhat similar using HomeAssitant.
For the GPS locations, it uses the zone feature: Zone - Home Assistant
A trigger to send that information to an ESP programmed using this firmware: IR Remote Climate - ESPHome - Smart Home Made Simple
At the moment its a collection of parts on a breadboard, but I found this:
module to be the best bang for your buck
The SMS route is also a sweet idea, most of the cellular boards ought to have a guide for Arduino or ESP32: Boards & Kits - Cellular - Wireless Australia
With that webserver project it sounds like youre all over it!
Super keen to see this one come together!
Liam
Hi Kiera
I have recently completed a project based on a pico w (2).
It is pretty wide ranging but some of the components may be of interest.
In my experience using the Sensibo product in your home allows for all sorts of smart stuff.
You can use a telegram bot and monitor and interact with the aircon from any where.
I use Thonny for the coding and a free AI for help on code features, it’s all very simple to do.
My design covers many features, without having to learn any HA stuff. It covers lots of stuff, API calls for power costs, time of day, local environment, a simple bit word output control for local devices, managing thermal storage in water tanks, valves, pump, fans, BUT depending on your interest level you can adapt a little or a lot. It’s surprisingly easy.
As a retired engineer I new what I wanted but did not have the typing or syntax skills.
If you would like any specific details let me know.
I am still not a coder, but this approach gave me capabilities I could only dream of for 60 years.
I’d go the Home Assistant (HA) route. It can provide you the full range of AC controls (not just on/off); it has a slick iOS/android app so you can communicate with on your mobile device - from anywhere; you can add automation such as automatically turn the AC on when your coming home but only if the outside temperature is above a certain temp; and it has a big community of users who can help. See my screenshot from my Home Assistant app below.
In terms of interfacing HA with your AC, it depends on your make and model. There are a lot of HA community “custom components” out there that might just work out of the box. Otherwise you’ll find “off the shelf” IR/RF devices that will interface to HA. Or, as you say, for ultimate flexibility go the ESP32 route and use the ESPHome integration available in HA to interface to it.
In terms of running HA I’d consider a Raspberry Pi or a “Home Assistant Green” smart hub. Both will give you a solid platform to expand your home automation.
