@Ibrahim-Sayed

Devlog#4

SO FINALLY after constantly adjusting dimensions and having 0 xp in this kinda cad work and taking help with gemini,i completed 60% of my first ever cad model!

which is a great feeling,the gap between the screw holes and pcb edge was troublesome! now i have to make cutouts for the display,ir led,vs1838b receiver and power cable.

Now in the next devlog,I MUST COMPLETE THE CAD MODEL AND PLACE THE ORDER!

wish me luck for completing this quick, later i gotta assemble everything and show ya’ll the protype vid before that!

comment what improvements to add to my product,read the project details on my page as i didnt make any readme file yet.

DEVLOG#3

i was learning to create the enclosure from yt,then i thought of exporting the 3d pcb model with the components from easyeda,when i viewed the pcb on the easyeda,I realised i made quite a fatal miastake that wouldve been a disaster,my dimension calculations were wrong!

SO AFTER HOURS OF HEADACHE OF RE-DESIGNING THE PCB LAYOUT ON A COMPLETELY NEW UI OF EASYEDA PRO! I FINALLY ADDED IT INTO THE CART

THEN TO CONTINUE THE HEADACHE OF DESIGNING THE ENCLOSURE WITH 0 KNOWLEDGE,took much help from gemini for the pcb re design on the new non-familiar pro version,then yt for some cad modelling,becuz of easyeda pro,i burnt so much time D:

TIP: DONT TRUST THE CALCULATIONS OF MODULES U WILL SOLDER ON UR PCB,CROSS-CHECK WITH 3D VIEW

IG in the next devlog i’d complete the plastic enclosure atlast!

Devlog#2

So i have successfully completed phase 2 of designing my pcb,from my previous devlog my design with smt assembly had reached 52$ which was overpriced,so i re-designed the pcb by removing the separate battery holder,resistors,decoupling caps and that expensive RTC chip.

since i should be soldering everything myself, i decided to solder all the components from my breadboard onto the pcb which felt like a genius idea!

so i updated the footprints so i can solder the ds3231 module directly on the back of the board and the tactile button footprints as well.

IDK why designing pcbs gets me nervous that i might make a mistake thatll waste the money and bcuz of tht the process takes hours!

so after completing the layout and saving the 5 bare boards in cart with a coupon,NOW THE TOTAL IS 8.7$..AWSOME! :D

with that,phase 2 is complete,IN the next devlog i will have completed the CAD design of the outer cover that i will order from the same vendor,unfortunately i had to remove the buzzer from the schematics of my breadboard here cuz i had no space!

i wonder how engineers even remember part numbers cuz i have to get all the components infos from gemini

I shouldve joined stardance before i made the prototype

Why I Built This

A month ago I was prepping for a 25-day summer vacation, and every time I leave my house, my room literally turns into an oven. Leaving the AC running 24/7 destroys the electricity bill, but turning it completely off means returning to melted stuff, fried electronics, and dead room plants. So I built a smart ESP32 IR controller to manage the AC automatically while I was away—you just plug it into any regular 5V wall adapter to keep it powered continuously, and let it do its thing!

Coding the Firmware w/ Claude

Since the firmware needed to handle real-time MQTT, an OLED menu, schedule tracking, and saving IR codes, I used Claude to generate and structure the C++/Arduino code.Universal IR Remote Cloning: It has a “Register New AC” option right on the OLED. You point any factory remote at it, it decodes the IR pulses, and saves them straight to flash memory so it stays saved even after a reboot.Global App + Offline Buttons: I built a phone web app using Lovable + MQTT so I can check room temp and toggle settings from anywhere in the world. If the internet drops, there’s a 6-button physical menu on the device to control everything offline.

Auto Emergency Cooling: If the room temp hits 33°C, the ESP32 automatically kicks the AC on by itself so things don’t boil.

Hardware Fix: The Darlington Pair Boost:
During early testing, the IR LEDs couldn’t reach the AC unit across the room. After debugging the circuit w/ Gemini, I found out my transistor wiring was off. I fixed it by pairing the original 2N2222 with an S8050 to make a Darlington Pair. The extra current boost made the IR signal blast even further than the original factory remote!

25-Day Vacation Test & The $16 Price Shock
I left this messy breadboard setup plugged into a 5V phone adapter and running unattended for 25 straight days while on vacation, and it worked flawlessly without crashing once.Now I’m turning the prototype into an actual polished PCB (upgrading the cheap DHT11 to an SHT40) and was working for some hours on it and asked the component stock infos from gemini. But right when I went to order, the standalone RTC chip spiked the total bill by $16 cuz of component pricing! Next log: fixing the schematic w/ a cheaper RTC chip and starting the 3D printed case! in the future devlogs,i will post a vid which shows almost all the functions of the prototype.