AC_PiController

My HomeKit implementation to remote control my A/C.

What is this?

As my A/C has not a scheduler function, neither a network port to control it, I decided to create this little project to have a semi-automatic use of my A/C using an IR Led and a Raspberry Pi.

I decided to share it as this can be a good base to develop your own solution.

This project consists in different parts:

• HTTP Server (few ugly buttons are shown on port 80): it's just to test stuff as I currently use Home app and Siri on my iPhone (HomeKit).
• HAP Server: HomeKit support. You can use Siri or Home app on iPhone to control AC.
• Scheduler: I have a shitty low cost AC. It does not have anything special. No WiFi, No scheduled tasks.
• Temperature Sensor reading: I added a temperature sensor. Not many functions I coded for it, it is just a reading at the moment. Can be used for some useful things (See Ideas paragraph)
• IR transmitter (codes are hardcoded, more info are written in config.py and in docs folder.)

Requirements

• I used a Raspberry Pi 1 Model B with Raspbian Stretch Lite. I will probably move it on a Raspberry Pi Zero W to reduce size and to use built-in WiFi instead of Ethernet.
• Working IR LED on GPIO port (there are a lot of projects on the web showing how to build one, it's really cheap.)
• Python 3 (Should be already preinstalled in Raspbian Stretch Lite)

My Setup

• Raspberry Pi 1 Model B + Raspbian Stretch Lite
• DS18B20 with its data pin connected to GPIO.4 (There are a lot of tutorials on how to connect it, it needs a resistor and nothing more).
• IR Led on GPIO.25 (I used one I got from an old broken TV remote control. Lot of schemas are available for this too on the web).

Installation

1. You require pigpiod, if it's not already installed use this command to install it: sudo apt install pigpiod

2. Install some required python modules sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt

How to launch

Pigpiod needs to be launched too.

sudo systemctl start pigpiod

• or - sudo pigpiod

then

sudo python3 start.py

Other

To set pigpiod to run whe Pi boots: sudo systemctl enable pigpiod

Ideas (Not sure i'll work on them, PRs are appreciated though)

• Use a thermal sensor (example: ds18b20) to avoid some tasks if AC does not need to work as the room temperature is not high.
• Implement ability to control relay on a GPIO port. (can be used to turn ON/OFF a light for example)
• Implement DB to store temperatures (maybe to show a graph on web side) and store all activities made by app. (sqlite3?)
• Use flask for http server. Maybe bootstrap for UI and implement some cute functions or statistics.