Make (almost) anything.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License by Maro Aghazarian 2021.
My final project for this course will consist of a Universal Power Supply (the original plan was for an arm prosthesis, which I'm planning to continue working on independently).
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 knowing choices to operate the remote control remotely (using their computer or phone).
As a Universal Remote Control, this device should be able to control various devices controlled by infrared signals. It should also be able to receive infrared signals of other remote controls and decode them to be used later for its original purpose. As a purpose, it can be fitted with various sensors, and I'm especially going to use a temperature/humidity sensor to make sure the temperature and humidity at the location of the remote control are known in case someone wants to control the remote control after knowing those conditions.
In the Fab Academy network, it seems that a universal remote control project has been done before, by Haithem Abdelkhalek from Egypt.
There are also quite a few tutorials and instructions online, especially for what I was interested in: Using a board with ESP8266 on it. For the networking and communications week I started to look into those that would use the Lolin Nodemcu V3 breakout board with ESP8266 on it. I came up with several websites and videos including:
I will design the following in making this universal remote control:
Here is a list of materials to be used for this project -- this is the list for the final board using ESP 12-Mod:
| 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 | - |
The box to hold the remote control (with 3D printed bottom part and laser-cut acrylic top part) will be made at the lab. The designed board will also be milled at Fab Lab Dilijan.
3D printing, lasercutting, CNC milling will all be used in creating the universal remote control.
I think programming the board will be the biggest challenge. In the interface and application programming week, I programmed the NodeMCU board using a micro-USB connection with the computer, and used Arduino IDE for that.
When using the ESP 12-Mod board, it seems the only connection I'll have with it will an FTDI serial connection from the computer, so I'm hoping to be able to program the board via that.
This is a masterpiece, according to Neil, with masterpiece's original definition:
"A piece of work produced by an apprentice or journeyman aspiring to become a master craftsman in the old European guild system."
And this work should be evaluated accordingly, to judge whether I have been able to capture showcasing all the skills that I have learned in the journey of this course. That includes additive and subtractive manufacturing (which it will showcase), being able to design and manufacture my own electronic board, and programming and interfacing it appropriately to show I've learned how to do that.
Here's to hoping I'll be able to demonstrate just that.