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Cooling Homes from a Galaxy Far, Far AwayI found an old R2-D2 toy sitting around the house and thought it’d be a perfect container for a custom AC_thing for the living room!
I actually got into some new areas of hardware with this. For example, a USB-C...
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Building an Apple Watch AppI was playing with my old Apple Watch recently and realised it might be a fun challenge to create an AC_thing app for it!
Actually, I used AI for building a few elements of this. I used Claude and it...
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Implementing Advanced ControlsI recently implemented the ability to control the user’s air conditioner’s fan speed and air direction.
Originally, I didn’t want to do this as the more functionality I add, the farther I get from the original, purposely basic goal: “simply...
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Rebooting Beta TestingJapan’s brutal summer is here and so too is its peoples’ reliance on air conditioners!
So, AC_thing is back for take 2 at some beta testing. The last time, it was March… So nobody was really using their ACs at...
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App Store Release and Disappointing Beta ResponsesUploaded the AC_thing app to the App Store last night. My friend Chris also made this sick app icon.
This feels like a milestone I guess but for now, I’m holding off on continuing the experiment until summer when I...
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Building More Test DevicesBuilt a few more devices over the long weekend. It’s slow now as I’m assembling the base circuitry and testing each one over a couple of days, plugged in before I assemble it all and consider it done. Trying to...
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Boxes and Beta Tester PrepGood bit of progress over the holidays. I think the first prototype casing is done! It’s basically a cardboard gift box I got off Amazon :sweat_smile:
But… it was more involved and tricky to get it working with the internals...
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First User TestingDid my first proper user test over the weekend. Gave it to a pretty tech-savvy friend. It didn’t go so well but learnt quite a bit…
The device only works on 2Ghz WiFi networks. I put a pretty visible note...
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Skeuomorphic Design ExperimentsRecorded a video over lunch of the weekend’s progress. This time adding the view most users should see; the full AC remote control view.
I’m not sure I’m happy with the skeuomorphic design path I took for the main view...
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IR Signal Recording PrototypeRecorded an end-to-end video of the “training mode” feature of my AC project last night. This is when the user’s AC model is not supported by the in-built library of AC protocols. In this case, they record signals from their...
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First ESP32 PrototypeDid a bit more work on the AC hardware over the long weekend. I think this is the final form (minus the box it’ll live in). It’s become a little harder to see all the bits and pieces since I...
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Adding Support for AC ModesDid some work on the app over the weekend. This time adding support for different AC modes (warm, cool, dry) and selecting temperatures.
Still not what I want (the available temperatures need to change depending on the selected mode and...
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Production AmbitionsWorking on a “production ready” prototype of the AC controller. Full setup via companion app including configuring network credentials (communication via Bluetooth) and training AC IR remote signals.
The aim is to make a small, clean product that doesn’t require...
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First Successful Switch-OnI’ve been working on an Arduino project to automate my air conditioner recently. The goal is to remotely control (and schedule) it via an iPhone app → UNO board (via cloud) → infra red transmitter → AC.
Primarily I want...