What does it control? Is it a proper AC with compressor or just a fancy fan?
If this is a thermostat controlling a compressor you don’t want to go replacing it with just relays or it will be very easy to kill your compressor.
But you could program and ESP board as a thermostat to do it for you. ESPHome has some off-the-shelf libraries for this.
If it is just a fan, a relay would allow you to turn it on an off. But you still probably won’t be able to change speed because it probably does PWD to control fan speed. This could also be solved with an ESP running motor controller code.
Appreciate the response, it’s for a seap/evaporative cooler.
How about simulating the button presses? Would that be safest way?
The safest way would be to have a SwitchBot press the existing buttons. But the existing buttons are part of your problem.
It looks like it is these type of buttons
Hard to tell from the first photo, if you take the board out of the housing (looks like it’s just held in with plastic clips) and turn it over to see the actual buttons you can possibly wire in relays to press the buttons.
It looks like it is these type of buttons