The Development of an Automated System for Air Conditioner On/Off Control Using Remote Signal Emulation
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Abstract
Some air conditioners used in buildings or equipment storage rooms do not provide an automatic on/off scheduling function, or their timer functions have operational limitations. As a result, personnel are required to manually control the operation of these air conditioners. This research aimed to develop an automatic air conditioner control system using a microcontroller to emulate the infrared signals transmitted by the original remote control. The proposed system was implemented by employing an ESP8266 development board together with an infrared receiver to capture and record signal data from the air conditioner remote control. The acquired signals were then analyzed and used to generate corresponding infrared command signals for controlling the air conditioner. In addition, a Real-Time Clock (RTC) module was integrated into the system to enable automatic scheduling of on/off operations. The prototype system was tested with an air conditioner installed in an electrical measuring instrument storage room. The operating schedule was configured to automatically turn the air conditioner on from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., while room temperature data were continuously recorded over a period of 15 days. The experimental results demonstrated that the developed device successfully transmitted the control signals and operated the air conditioner according to the predefined schedule in every test, achieving a 100% success rate. Furthermore, the recorded temperature data indicated a continuous decrease in room temperature during the periods when the air conditioner was activated. The findings confirm that the proposed system can effectively replace conventional remote-control-based operation of air conditioners. The developed system reduces reliance on human intervention while maintaining reliable operational performance. Moreover, it can be adapted for use with other brands and models of air conditioners that are controlled via infrared remote signals.
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