How do I connect to this zephyr hood control panel

Projects General Guidance
1

(Sorry if this is the wrong category for this question, please advise).

My Zephyr hood vent has an electronic control panel. See pictures below.
I want to stick a micocontroller (maybe an Uno WiFi Rev2 or MKR WiFi 1010) in between the control panel and the hood vent so that I can read the button presses from input and control the hood vent by writing to the output, but I don't know where to start.

  1. How should I physically connect the microcontroller to the touch panel (to the connector shown in the top photo)? What is the name of the connector shown in the photo?
  2. Once properly wired, what APIs could I use to read and write the signals?

Thanks!

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2

No way to know without a schematic.

Does the panel you show have any electronics on it? If not you should be able to trace the connector pins to a panel function.

3

There's a chip on the back side, partly visible under the sticker:

IMG_20210915_201426
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Is that what you mean by electronics?

What about the physical connection? How would I go about connecting the Arduino to the connector shown?

Thanks!

4

In that case, I'm not sure if it's really going to help if you receive advice.

Sorry to be this blunt about it, but this is kind of semi-advanced hackery. If it were some kind of open-source connection, it would be different, but this is likely Zephyr proprietary stuff. Not necessarily very complicated, but without some fundamental knowledge of reverse engineering electronics it's going to be neigh impossible to interface this with something home-built.

5

If you cannot find any documentation on the device, contact the people who provide service for the hood. Should be in the instruction manual.
Paul

6

In that case, I'm not sure if it's really going to help if you receive advice.

I'm very comfortable with software, but I was hoping to get help with the physical connectors and what sorts of APIs I'd use to read and write. Once I have that I think I may be able to reverse engineer the protocol. Any suggestions as to how to get to that stage?

7

With zero documentation, get out your meters and oscilloscope and go to work. Oh, you will now have to learn electronics.
Paul

8

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