IR to WiFi air calculator fan conversion with Home Assistant and ESPHome
I recently bought an air calculator fan which I was expecting to automate using an existing IR blaster, but I was disappointed with its IR receiver range and angles. The signals from my WiFi IR blaster, which works perfectly with other devices in the same room, weren't reaching the fan. Determined to fix this, I opened the fan and discovered a spacious base and a modular DC power supply (25V) powering the efficient DC motor. This gave me an idea: why not build an IR blaster right inside the fan base? Parts List To make this happen, I used the following components: DC-DC step down buck converter (5-30V to 5V) 2-wire T-type wire tap ESP8285 ESP-01M IR transmitter/receiver USB TTL adapter (for initial flashing) Total cost: ~$12 Initial Flashing (Capture Mode) Connect the ESP-01M IR module to a PC using the USB TTL adapter. (Note: You might need to run Windows Update to install the necessary drivers.) Open ESPHome in your Home Assistant instance. Initialize the device, adding the fo