Help Solving a Problem

gregoinc

gregoinc

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Joined
Jan 7, 2018
Messages
274
Hi Folks,

Wasn't sure where to post so I am posting in here.

My problem... Turning on my split system air conditioning unit via infrared (like you would using the manufacturer supplied remote control) with input from outdoor (and indoor if needed)temperature readings/sensors.

Here's the scenario... My home data center / man cave has a wall mounted Daikin split system. I want the split system to activate based upon temperature differences between the inside and outside.

For example, if the temp outside is 20 degrees celcius, but the temperature inside rises due to heat generated by the equipment in the data center / man caveroom the air conditioner receives an infrared signal to turn on.

Another scenario... The temperature outside is going up, andthe temperature inside is going up, the air conditioner receives an infrared signal to turn on.

Of course the scenarios need to reverse...if the temperature starts going down the air conditioner receives an infrared signal to turn off.

Right now I have only looked at a handful of ideas, so treat this as a clean slate requirement in need of a solution. The solution needs to be as simple as possible, with minimal complexity and low chance of failing - which would be bad.

So far I've looked at rs485 temperature sensors and infrared senders, but nothing has come from it. I also looked at thisDifferential Temp Sensorbut not sure if it's worth going futher?

That's it... over to you amazingly smart folk... looking for some awesome ideas!!!!
 
mhmm, i did something kinda similar like this in my bedroom, auto check every 5 min the room temp that turn on/off AC via infrared

Basically, with irrecord on rpi and ofc an ir receiver, i recorded some keys of my AC remote.
I took 1 ds18b20 temp sensor, hooked it up to rpi and then, well few lines of python to
check temp and send infra red signal via ir emitter, i put that on a crontab to run every 5 min and i send stat to grafana
for nice dashboarding. Its my easy setup and it works pretty fine so far, put ur rpi sd card on read-only mode to avoid
sd card corruption, and mine run since 2 years happily :)
 
I looked at Raspberry Pi but wanted something much simpler.

I was considering purchasing a replacement infrared remote and wiring the on/off button to the relay on the differential temperature sensor. Only stopping point was how to simulate the button press?

The temp sensor would have a relay that was either on or off, however the remote button would require momentary on then off. Some folks have suggested a 'one shot' circuit, but I havent had any experience with that.
 
Arduino nano. Or ESP8266/ESP32 and you get WIFI and or Bluetooth. Cant beat that kind of.

You can of course hook in an existing remote to above uCs too. No problem to simulate the press on the button.
 
i must have 3 pi at home and 12 esp32 for all my plants auto watering system, and i do not see in what way an arduino is simpler, i mean, the code for sensors is the same style, plus lirc is very easy on linux, since you need to record your remote button to be able to send them later on.

On arduino, you debug with serial.println, then you need to upload couples of dozen of times your code until you have it working properly, i use platform.io but still arduino code is not as easy as python on the PI for ex, i think in overall, pi is simpler and faster to make it working, but that's only my point of view ;)
 
I agree with daromer and raccooon. ESP32/8266 would be a great way to go. the ESP boards can be coded the same way Arduinos are since the Arduino IDE can support them.

Also with ESP, you can install the bootloader to allow for python code to run (is that the platform.io?)(I don't recall what it is atm, but can find the video on how to do it if you want). This makes running and 'updating' the code very fast; we're talking about mere seconds to start running the new code. Great for rapid development.
I plan on doing this with my ESP8266 board
 
Look at espeasy which is very very easy to customize, only by setting of parameters...
 
Thanks for all the feedback and ideas. Normally I would go Pi or ESP, but for this one I am going a bit more old school. I want this to be a 'lights out' setup with no human intervention.

Am lookjng atone of thesewhich will connect to an infrared remote on/off button, and then the differential temperature controller which has a relay can initiate the sequence. Will most likely need anotherone of theseto turn AC off, the differential temperature controller has two relays.

Thoughts, thinking?

No where near as cool as a Pi or ESP, but I hope way more simple. I may go the Pi / ESP route later, even as a backup that could monitor whether the AC is running and turn it on if not... or something like that.

I have an over temp power cutoff, so I don't cook the equipment i.e. AC doesn't come on, over temp threshold,power cut, everything goes to UPS (or keeps running on battery) and graceful shutdown commences.

Charly144 said:
Look at espeasy which is very very easy to customize, only by setting of parameters...
Click to expand...

Just looked at this, very interesting. I am avoiding Python because I am a crap programmer, but espeasy might be an option. Might have to dig deeper... do you know if there are examples where espeasy has been used for my use case above?
 
gregoinc said:
...I am avoiding Python because I am a crap programmer, ...
Click to expand...

Can't ever become a better programmer if you never dive into the deep end ;)
 
Yes, fair point... With summer coming in Australia I am going to setup an initial low level solution, and then look at an ESP8266 solution. As I am a complete novice with ESP I think it may take me until after summer to get sorted... unless there is an example out there where someone has done the same thing?
 
Don't you just put the aircon on auto set a temp say 24 then set and forget?
 
Your requirements for temperature rate of change/ratio of in/out change make the off the shelf selection option very short and expensive.

Beyond a basic on/off thermostat... ESP unit with NodeMCU, 1-wire DS18B20 for the sensor and an IR LED for transmitting. This might help a bit... https://github.com/mdhiggins/ESP8266-HTTP-IR-Blaster

Simpler is what raccooon has done with the Pi as debugging the ESP units can be a real pain. Use the 1-Wire file system and an off the shelf USB IR TX/RX unit.
 
I've done some digging and the ESP looks interesting, and appears to be lots of info regarding temperature sensors and infrared transmitters. Longer term it will most likely be the solution, or I will dig out my Pi and have a go at using that.

Short term I remain focused on a more 'analog' solution, so will cobble together a few bits and will provide updates.

Re ESP it appears ESPeasy supports a number of ESP boards, do any of you have a favorite ESP board?
 
I am using lots of d1 mini!
 
Charly144 said:
I am using lots of d1 mini!
Click to expand...

Thanks. Noob question... would the d1 support IR and temp sensors?

I will do some digging to see if there's any AC controlprojects out there using the d1.

Also, is there a way to use an ESP if you dont have a wireless network?
 
Ir and temp yes. Just explore espeasy as a firmwate...

Ethernet no. Only esp32 has ethernet on board but i have never tested that.

With ethernet you should go for arduino

Best
Karl
 
gregoinc said:
Hi Folks,

Wasn't sure where to post so I am posting in here.

My problem... Turning on my split system air conditioning unit via infrared (like you would using the manufacturer supplied remote control) with input from outdoor (and indoor if needed)temperature readings/sensors.

Here's the scenario... My home data center / man cave has a wall mounted Daikin split system. I want the split system to activate based upon temperature differences between the inside and outside.

For example, if the temp outside is 20 degrees celcius, but the temperature inside rises due to heat generated by the equipment in the data center / man caveroom the air conditioner receives an infrared signal to turn on.

Another scenario... The temperature outside is going up, andthe temperature inside is going up, the air conditioner receives an infrared signal to turn on.

Of course the scenarios need to reverse...if the temperature starts going down the air conditioner receives an infrared signal to turn off.

Right now I have only looked at a handful of ideas, so treat this as a clean slate requirement in need of a solution. The solution needs to be as simple as possible, with minimal complexity and low chance of failing - which would be bad.

So far I've looked at rs485 temperature sensors and infrared senders, but nothing has come from it. I also looked at thisDifferential Temp Sensorbut not sure if it's worth going futher?

That's it... over to you amazingly smart folk... looking for some awesome ideas!!!!
Click to expand...
You can purchase a smart WiFi programmablethermostat that has a 2 wire input for an outdoor thermocouple. They are made for heat pumps so you can set a differential temp, maximum and minimum indoor, Rate of change (does not wait for high SP if outdoor thermocouple is rising faster than N/min) With the WiFi yourphone or laptop or those externallythrough your internet connectionyoucan access all the functions and programing of the thermostat. I have my boiler for heat and hot water and my central AC hooked up to the one thermostat and I can log in with the provided appfrom anywhere to turn the AC on before I return home. With my phone I can turn up/downthe AC/heat from mybed.
 
SolexxX said:
You can purchase a smart WiFi programmablethermostat that has a 2 wire input for an outdoor thermocouple.
Click to expand...

Thanks Solexx, that is an awesome suggestion, and way cheaper than the differential temperature controller I was looking at purchasing. Thank you for the tip mate :)
 
Update: Only problem I found is 99% of all the smart WiFi programmable thermostats I found need 240v AC to run, when I would prefer 12 or 24 volt. Great units, but little options away from AC.
 
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