[HN Gopher] IR-Controlling New Air Conditioner in Server Room
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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.
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(page generated 2022-10-16 23:00 UTC)