Detect if the AC is on or off

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So this plug is under the lid of my AC. I think it’s used to power the LCD that shows the temperature in front of the AC. I figure I can splice into it and connect some sort of device which will connect on my WiFi when the AC is powered on.

I can then configure a binary sensor in Home Assistant that will detect if this device is connected to the network, so I’ll know if the AC is powered on or not.

Theory is good, but I have no idea what device I can connect on this plug or how much voltage it outputs.

Any suggestions on what can I use to do this?

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Can’t you use a multimeter and figure it out?
But it looks like a lot of cables to be just power.

There is no LED that shows if it’s on or off?

Love the OK stamp by the way! :slight_smile:

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It would be a cool project if you could also detect temp and fan settings.

But as simple solution to you: door/window sensors on the AC vanes (I guess that’s the name in english). So when it’s off, vanes are closed and door sensor is off/closed. When it’s on, door/sensor is on/open.

Found a pic:

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from this topic: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/smartir-control-your-climate-tv-and-fan-devices-via-ir-rf-controllers/100798/236

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This model works well - I had the door/window sensor using zigbee2mqtt and used SmartIR and a broadlink mini to issue commands. It doesn’t understand what the AC is set at if you use the remote, but we just stopped using the remote. It allowed us to control the AC in full away from home, and if for some reason the IR blaster (broadlink mini) didn’t open operate the AC vents in 5 seconds it just resent the IR command. The next step was to automate the settings of the AC based on the outside temp to save energy.