Cruisair Bench Testing without Controls

[Saqqara]

I have a salvaged 7000 BTU Cruisair (Stowaway?) unit with an A-285 circuit board module, but missing its SMXII controller. Hoping it will help cool the salon of my sailboat eventually.

Before I invest more in a controller than I have in the unit, I'm wondering if there is a way to fire it up on the bench, just getting power to the fan and compressor to see if it cools, using a garden hose on the inlet port.

It seems this unit could work with a simpler three knob controller (don't have that either), setting the A-285 box aside. Is there a way to bridge wires to mimic what a 3 knob controller would do?

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong item, because I'm confused why those 3 knob controllers are so expensive. My first thought was to simplify the unit to keep costs down and just use analog controls.