[HN Gopher] IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room ___________________________________________________________________ IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room Author : Stamp01 Score : 28 points Date : 2022-10-16 15:00 UTC (7 hours ago) (HTM) web link (oldvcr.blogspot.com) (TXT) w3m dump (oldvcr.blogspot.com) | baybal2 wrote: | Johnny555 wrote: | _Computers are hot. No, I mean, they 're hot. They heat our house | in the winter here in primarily sunny Southern California (not as | much as my wife would like, but that's another story for another | day)._ | | I had to look at the date on the article to see if this was | written 20 years ago, since most modern computers aren't that hot | and use very little power when not in use, unless you've got a | big gaming (or crypto mining) rig. | | Then I read further: | | _Normies don 't have a room with an IBM POWER6, Sawtooth G4 (and | its FireWire RAID), Mac mini G4, Macintosh IIci, Alpha Micro | Eagle 300, Cobalt RaQ and associated IoT devices and network | backbone infrastructure running non-stop (to say nothing of the | Apple Network Server 500 and HP 9000/350 that also occasionally | come out to play)._ | | So the article wasn't written 20 years ago, but his computers at | at least that old. | | The only computer that I run 24x7 is a fileserver + home | automation controller, and it uses around 35W of power (including | the network switch), which is still more than I'd like, I want to | build one that's more power efficient. | metadat wrote: | This sort of IR hacking is pretty badass, even if a bit fiddly. | | How much additional heat does that old G4 add into the mix? | | I wonder if this could be done much more efficiently with an RPi | Zero or similar. | WWLink wrote: | That g4 has a green power light, so it's probably a 'yikes' or | 'sawtooth' model. Those G4 processors use like 7W of power! | | It wasn't until the Quicksilver dual processor models that they | started hitting the limits with that case design. They | introduced the "Mirrored Drive Doors" model to help lol. At | that point we were talking about 40w or so. | classichasclass wrote: | It's a Sawtooth 450MHz. | sgt wrote: | Was wondering the same. Those old PowerPC's used to run hot. I | think it was one of the primary motivations Steve had for | changing to Intel. | Asmod4n wrote: | G4 Macs didnt run that hot, compared to G5 ones, which came | factory water cooled in the case of a PowerMac G5. (https://e | verymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/faq/powermac-...) | classichasclass wrote: | (author) | | The G4? Not much. The G4's FireWire spinning disk RAID? Quite a | bit. I'm plotting possible replacements. | sparker72678 wrote: | Not too long ago I got a new AC in my office, and attempted to do | some automation (turn the temp up during the weekend, etc.) via | an IR Blaster. At some point I ran out of patience and gave up | trying. | | After reading this article I am encouraged to see that I was _not | even close_ to getting it working, ha! | | Maybe I'll try again in the future, but gosh I just with these | stupid units had another way to be controlled. | rodgerd wrote: | I looked into the blaster approach and decided "just no"; I | ended up getting a Sensibo which is just an IR blaster that | someone else has done all the hard work for, which seems well | work paying for. | grepfru_it wrote: | I have a rack with 6 1u servers in it (and some other A/V | hardware and lots of disks). We have an AC unit for each | floor of the house, the bottom floor is sized larger than the | top floor. I keep the bottom floor set to 74 and the servers | see an ambient temp of 76. I find this to be acceptable, but | there are times when I don't need to maintain 74 for the | entire floor of the house.. like when we are on vacation. One | time we came back and our cleaning service raised the temp to | 86(!!!) lets just say my servers were loud that day. So I'm | looking into a mini-split unit to put in the server room. | | A minisplit is better than a window unit or a standing unit | because I don't have to cut a very large hole nor do i have | to figure out drainage. The power consumption is the same as | what the article is pulling (900W) and all of the noise is | exported to the exterior of the house. If you do not have a | high cooling requirement then a heatpump may be sufficient | for your needs | ctoth wrote: | If you want to try something similar without all the fiddly bits | (which are admittedly awesome) | | https://github.com/smartHomeHub/SmartIR | Mister_Snuggles wrote: | I've got two portable air conditioners, an LG in a living space, | and a "Comfee" (which is made by Midea) for my home office/server | room. | | The Comfee was very easy to automate. I just grabbed an ESP32 | board that I had handy, some parts out of my bins, and soldered | up a working IR blaster. ESPHome provided all of the hard parts, | Home Assistant provided the UI. It works brilliantly. I have the | air conditioner on a smart outlet which gives me real-time power | consumption information, from here it's easy to determine what | the machine is doing. I also have a Xiaomi | temperature/humidity/pressure sensor, which I can use to feed | into automations to control the unit if I want to. | | So far I've been unsuccessful at using an IR blaster to control | the LG - ESPHome, out of the box, can't seem to control this | unit. I haven't gone down the rabbit hole of capturing IR codes, | but that's the next step once I get the appropriate parts. | danhor wrote: | Most modern LG TVs work via a wireless connection to the | remote, not IR | r2_pilot wrote: | I too have an LG. I tried to control it with a Flipper Zero but | it didn't respond well. I figure the codes are more of a state | machine rather than simply replaying them. I didn't pursue it | further though. | watsonkr wrote: | For those who don't want to, or have the time, to build something | like this, there is also an off the shelf solution: the Aqara M2 | Hub[1]. I currently use this to control both my portable AC, and | an electric fireplace. | | And for those who are concerned about security, you can easily | restrict this device from accessing the internet using your | firewall, and it will continue to function just fine. | | [1] https://www.aqara.com/us/product/hub-m2 | InvaderFizz wrote: | Most minisplit units work over IR blaster. HomeAssistant or | ESPHome can be used to drive units capable of acting as IR | blasters. | | Personally I use Broadlink RM4 Pro units. The connect to WiFi | anywhere in the house and I can use HomeAssistant to drive them. | They work for both IR and 315/433MHz devices. | | Broadlink isn't the only vendor, but I find the price reasonable | and it's nice to not have to solder anything. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-10-16 23:00 UTC)