I Hacked My AC
Mini splits don’t work with smart thermostats. So naturally, I wired an ESP8266 into the serial port.
We went with mini split units — except now I’m knee deep in researching all the ways to replace remotes with some sort of nifty smart thermostat.
The real challenge is, none of the good looking smart thermostats work with mini splits. I have determined that the units have a serial port, and I’m now trying to convince myself not to build a custom solution — even though it would be real fun.
Whoops, I hacked my AC. Though, it’s got a serial port, it’s almost not even hacking! Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 now providing AC control over WiFi.
A friend was talking about their home heating and cooling setup
Indeed. Mitsubishi pumps — we installed two surface mount and two flush mount. Very happy with them so far, but want something more sophisticated than a remote. And, this is fun. :)
So, it’s fairly trivial to trick a Nest into thinking it’s wired to an HVAC system. With this, it’s possible to use the Nest streaming APIs to use thermostat state and relay that to the mini splits. This will work, but feels like probably the wrong approach.
My Android thermostat UI is suuuuuper shitty looking right now. But it is also currently controlling my mini split AC’s. So, a sort of progress.
I’ve got 95% zwave, and a couple home brew WiFi connected devices (Lights and Mini Split AC). Best part is, Homebridge is built in, so if it’s in Home Assistant, it’s in HomeKit for basically zero effort.
Even though it’s based 98% on other people’s work — wiring ESP32’s to my mini split ac/heating units so they can talk to Home Assistant probably made me feel most accomplished. 2nd place is the custom HA controlled wall splash color nightlights I built for my girl’s bunk bed.
Mini splits means the old central heating duct work doesn’t do anything. So I replaced the air return vent with a custom built-in shelf.
