Rotating Knob AC

Hardware
1

Hello all. I’ve looking for a month now for a smart device that can rotate a knob on my AC. Two to be precise. This is the AC unit that cools my entire living area.

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It doesn’t come with a remote and is manually controlled. I tried taking apart the overlying wooden structure looking for the plug in an attempt to have a smart plugin switch turn it on and off but there is a very large amount of insulation and the plug dives below the floor boards. Even if I did find it, I believe it uses a 220V outlet since there is a similar model upstairs.

The closest smart device I’ve found that may be able to turn a knob is the Candy House Sesame and it’s $230 for one device with the access point.

Is there a simple, Switchbot-like device that would allow me to control at least one of the knobs? I could use a climate integration in HA and turn the AC on and off depending on the temperature but I cannot figure out how to rotate knobs smart-ly.

If anyone has any advice, recommendations, or link for a guide/product that would fill my needs, my electric bill and I would be extremely thankful.

Thanks in advance!

1 Like
2

So…take a circle and put a small hole in one side

Place light(led) mounted so that as circle rotates light will shine through at each 360 rotation

Use sensor to detect light so now you know when it has rotated 1 turn(360)

Maybe 1 turn is too much so let’s add 30 evenly spaced holes along circles edge. You now have 30 positions for the circle

Attach circle to motor and AC knob to control rotation by motor….use light sensor to detect position 1-30 and stop/start motor accordingly

This is basically how it’s done but you’ll need to hack together the needed parts. Maybe a stepper motor already does this easier but I forget

Same can be accomplished with magnet and reed sensor or potentiometer
Hope that’s at least gives you and idea

EDIT

Since it has remote…there are several of the shelf items that do IR and RF control and will be easier than physical control

I’d bet you can do IR control from headphone jack of raspberry pi

Or GPIO

or Broadlink seems to be the way to go for IR

3

may be you can hack these to push/pull it certain direction

4

I does not have a remote!

I suggest taking a look under the cover and see if you can replace those manual controls with something digital, then it could be done with an esp8266.

5
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Thank you for the suggestions. The knobs aren’t that large so I think I’ll have some terrible Jerry rigging a device to rotate it.

I suppose if I had a 3D printer, I could overlay a piece that’ll grip the knob and be ribbed to allow for a cable to rotate it.

My concern with those devices is how many positions I can program into them. Can I control the movement indefinitely or an I limited to 2 positions (open or closed)?

7

The curtain puller can set upper and lower limits…
mine one here also have third partially open positions.

8

Did you find a solution? I’m struggling with the same problem.
I’m now considering buying the valve thing, and use LEGO gears to go from 90 degrees to 360 dgr rotation. The curtain bots are quite expensive to just try out.
Or an ESP with a stepper motor diy.

Any experience?