Final project
Universal Remote Control
Last summer, our baby managed to lose the remote control for the air conditioner we have, so this has been a major pain. We have used a phone remote off and on to conrol the air conditioner, but a better, more permanent solution is needed, and this will be it.
The universal power supply will be able to receive and decode the infrared signals of various remote controls, which can then be used to control various devices with this universal remote. The universal remote control may also incorportate various sensors such as one for temperature/humidity, which can relay the condition where it's at using its interface, so that one can make informed choices to operate the remote control remotely (using their computer or phone).
During input devices, networking and communications, and interface and application programming weeks I have document my work on creating a remote control using the Lolin NodeMCU v3 board, with an ESP8266 microcontroller/wifi module.
For the final project, I tried to use an ESP 12-Mod board with the ESP8266 instead.
This project is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
In doing this work, I would like to thank all the Fab Lab Dilijan staff and instructors: Mariam Nahapetyan, Babken Chugaszyan, Ashot Margaryan, Azniv Hovhannisyan, Razmik, and my coursemates Narek Mkrtumyan and Vachik Khachatryan for all their help and friendship.
Bill of Materials (BOM)
Here are the final components needed to make this board:
| Material needed | Where to get it | Cost (AMD) |
|---|---|---|
| 3D printed part of the box | ||
| PLA | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| Laser-cut part of the box | ||
| Transparent acrylic | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| Remote control board | ||
| ESP 12-Mod | list.am | 2300 |
| Button switch | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| Sliding switch | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| IR receiver | From old TV's, provided by a Dilijan electrician | - |
| IR emitter | RadioAshkharh in Yerevan | |
| DHT11 with board | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| 330 Ω resistor (1x) | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| 10 kΩ resistors (4x) | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| 1 kΩ resistor (1x) | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| 3.3V voltage regulator | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| 10 μF capacitor (1x) | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| 100 μF polarized capacitor (1x) | From old printers at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| 1 μF capacitor (1x) | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
| BC847 transitor | RadioAshkharh in Yerevan | |
| 6x1 male connector (for FTDI) | Available at Fab Lab Dilijan | - |
Here is the pinout configuration for ESP-12E:
Here's why there are polarized an non-polarized capacitors in parallel for power regulation:
hereSummary slide and video of the universal remote control
Here is the summary slide of the universal remote control project:
And a short video to showcase it use:
Original design files
The files for the NodeMCU remote control board can be downloaded here:
- The schematic of the board (KiCAD schematic file with .sch extension, 47 kB)
- Monochromatic image of the traces of the board -- should be inverted for milling (.png, 133 kB)
- Monochromatic image of the outline and holes of the board (.png, 72 kB)
The rar archive including all the final design files (mechanical design files, board files, and code) from here.
