brunnhilde's refrigerator control - part 1

I am warming up to the idea of taking away the refrigerator's control from Brunnhilde's Central Display Console. There is another wrong with it. The biggest motivator for me is to be able to read off the actual temperature inside without needing a improvised digital thermometer like I am using now. This home brewed refrigerator controller, if carefully and thoughtfully designed and implemented, will add a nice touch to ergonomics and aesthetics. 

this is a beautiful design given the time; the main down side is Westfalia chose not to display the actually temperature which is understandable as some owners will think something is badly wrong when the actual vs the target diverse significantly; doing so will only invite costly service support

this is an older Ink Bird generic temperature controller with only display in C

Having played with three similar controllers I now have a lot of insights into how these manufacturers function, their role in the hardware, software, and industrial design of them. There are so much room they can improve the code but yet not, because a variety of reasons and their limitations. The MCU with the H/W design is capable of a lot more free functionalities, and yet they are not exploited.

they didn't bother to remove the protective film on the LED segmented display

 

and I fixed that

the segmented display is different from that of the newer Ink Bird and it cannot display F because the degree character is made as C only

it is an older design so more discrete parts

I begun exploring how I can hack the unit to create a display blanking feature. I want to be able to switch off the glaring red LED display at night as it will be distracting and unpleasant. I did some probing and examination and I made some progress. However I don't plan to start hacking until after I bench test the controller with the refrigerator, while not compromising being able to abort the modification. That is to avoid making any wiring modification until I know it is a go.

one of my goal is to reuse the faceplate which will really make it look factory; I know I can step up to the challenges 

the other goal is not having to enlarge the aperture of the cabinet