Control your non-smart AC with Alexa/ Google Home/ Siri

I've always wanted to have a Smart AC so I can turn it on when I'm on my way home and arrive to a cool place. I couldn't just use a smart thermostat because I don't have central Air. I instead modded my AC's remote to be triggered by an Arduino.

The general steps are as follows:

Remote Mod / Arduino Setup

• I modded my AC remote to always have the power button pressed

• I removed the remote's battery and connected it to Arduino

• I included 2 LEDs. A red one to tell me when the project was online and a green one to tell me when the button had been triggered

Adafruit & Arduino IDE Code

• I created a button on here and assigned it to a feed. When that button is pressed, it passes a value of 1 to the feed

• I connected the feed to my Arduino code using Adafruit's API

• The API function listens for new data from the feed. I wrote a function in there that said IF the feed sends a value of 1 ----> Arduino should send power to the remote, therefore firing off the power button. It should also turn on the green LED so I see it was activated.

IFTTT:

• I made an applet on IFTTT and connected it to Adafruit and Google Home

• IF Google home is told "Turn on the AC", THEN IFTTT will send a value of 1 to the Adafruit feed therefore triggering the Arduino

• This can be repeated for Alexa, Siri, Home Assistant, etc...

The steps are outlined in this Video: