Hi - I have a tricky situation. I'm trying to ultimately make it so I can remotely turn on and off my apartment's AC. This post is dedicated to only the first step of this: figuring out the IR codes it uses.
The problem is a) the in-wall unit model is by simon-aire, and I have been unable to find any documentation anywhere on the codes it uses (I've also emailed them and they said they don't have access to the remote codes) and b) a remote costs $200 so trying to avoid using that to discover the codes as I've seen in other tutorials.
Would it be realistic to use an Arduino / IR and have it run through all the codes possible (and I can monitor the ranges so if it ever reacts, I can figure out the range of possibilities to ultimately find the actual code)? I have done a few Arduino projects in the past around LEDs so have an O-K understanding of the ecosystem, but not familiar with IR codes at all.
Doing some reading, it looks like there is a library people use to interact with devices, but I'm not sure if this will help go through all the code possibilities or not (and I think there might be some other variables it needs to run through)?
Would it be realistic to use an Arduino / IR and have it run through all the codes possible
If no one has decoded an IR signal from that particular AC manufacturer, probably not. But be sure to search.
If you start from zero, there are a number of parameters that could be adjusted over a large range, like IR emitter modulation frequency (38, 40 or 56 kHz), individual IR pulse widths, individual timing between IR pulses, total number of IR pulses, etc.
You could imagine writing a program to run through a zillion combinations of the above, but somehow, you need to figure out how to stop the code generator when the AC unit finally reacts.
