I decided to start this project when I eventually grew frustrated with the lack of scheduling options for the Aqueon OptiBright LED aquarium light. It comes stock with a fairly simple remote control, offering individual on/off schedules, brightnesses, and (for the RGB channel) colors for three channels: White, Blue, RGB. My goal will be to re-implement the remote's functions on a WiFi enabled project board, enabling advanced scheduling, scheduled color changes, direct connection to Home Assistant, etc.

While it works great for what I initially bought it for, it could be better! Rather than replace it with a new (more expensive) WiFi connected unit, I figured "How complicated could it be?" and decided that this would be my first hardware reverse-engineering project. Of course I had to pick one that involved radio, because why should it be simple? I've sniffed out Zigbee packets to create SmartThings device handlers with a degree of success before, though the Zigbee Alliance provides documentation for the protocol. For this one, I'm on my own.

The FCC listing for the remote (FCCID AD8Y-15720) has sparse details, appearing to have some info withheld at the request of the manufacturer. It does have some teardown shots, revealing a RFM110 ASK/OOK radio module, confirming my assumption that this is a 433MHz device and that it's using a fairly simple modulation scheme.

Next steps, acquire an SDR dongle and start capturing some transmissions!