IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
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IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
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Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#2This sort of IR hacking is pretty badass, even if a bit fiddly.
How much additional heat does that old G4 add into the mix?
I wonder if this could be done much more efficiently with an RPi Zero or similar.
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#3This sort of IR hacking is pretty badass, even if a bit fiddly. How much additional heat does that old G4 add into the mix? I wonder if this could be done much more efficiently with an RPi Zero or similar.
Was wondering the same. Those old PowerPC's used to run hot. I think it was one of the primary motivations Steve had for changing to Intel.
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#4Not too long ago I got a new AC in my office, and attempted to do some automation (turn the temp up during the weekend, etc.) via an IR Blaster. At some point I ran out of patience and gave up trying.
After reading this article I am encouraged to see that I was _not even close_ to getting it working, ha!
Maybe I'll try again in the future, but gosh I just with these stupid units had another way to be controlled.
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#5Not too long ago I got a new AC in my office, and attempted to do some automation (turn the temp up during the weekend, etc.) via an IR Blaster. At some point I ran out of patience and gave up trying. After reading this article I am encouraged to see that I was _not even close_ to getting it working, ha! Maybe I'll try again in the future, but gosh I just with these stupid units had another way to be controlled.
I looked into the blaster approach and decided "just no"; I ended up getting a Sensibo which is just an IR blaster that someone else has done all the hard work for, which seems well work paying for.
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#6This sort of IR hacking is pretty badass, even if a bit fiddly. How much additional heat does that old G4 add into the mix? I wonder if this could be done much more efficiently with an RPi Zero or similar.
Was wondering the same. Those old PowerPC's used to run hot. I think it was one of the primary motivations Steve had for changing to Intel.
G4 Macs didnt run that hot, compared to G5 ones, which came factory water cooled in the case of a PowerMac G5. (https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/faq/powermac-...)
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#7If you want to try something similar without all the fiddly bits (which are admittedly awesome)
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#8I've got two portable air conditioners, an LG in a living space, and a "Comfee" (which is made by Midea) for my home office/server room.
The Comfee was very easy to automate. I just grabbed an ESP32 board that I had handy, some parts out of my bins, and soldered up a working IR blaster. ESPHome provided all of the hard parts, Home Assistant provided the UI. It works brilliantly. I have the air conditioner on a smart outlet which gives me real-time power consumption information, from here it's easy to determine what the machine is doing. I also have a Xiaomi temperature/humidity/pressure sensor, which I can use to feed into automations to control the unit if I want to.
So far I've been unsuccessful at using an IR blaster to control the LG - ESPHome, out of the box, can't seem to control this unit. I haven't gone down the rabbit hole of capturing IR codes, but that's the next step once I get the appropriate parts.
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#9For those who don't want to, or have the time, to build something like this, there is also an off the shelf solution: the Aqara M2 Hub[1]. I currently use this to control both my portable AC, and an electric fireplace.
And for those who are concerned about security, you can easily restrict this device from accessing the internet using your firewall, and it will continue to function just fine.
Re: IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
#10Most of big brand aircons have an option for wired control. It's just those controllers & gateways are rather obscure, and hard to find.