Nice walkthrough of your design, thank you!

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

Thank you! Cheers!

Nice, Engineering - a great big barrel of trade offs. Thanks for sharing yours.

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

Thanks!

I signed up, but I never received anything correspondence. Are you already selling them?

Nice work! :) Maybe it is just me, but an ethernet variant would be greate. Heating is a critical infrastructure, therefore wired connection is recommended imho. :)

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

It's easy to say that like it's as simple as ticking a box, when in reality, designing an ethernet port would increase the cost of this product to a level that might stop people from purchasing it. And for no good reason if you ask me, there is nothing bad that's gonna happen if the wifi connection drops (which it doesn't as far as I've noticed so far).

@TiczAdam

6 ай бұрын

You are perfectly right I know that :) Adding ethernet is costly and most people don’t need that. Maybe creating a “pro” variant with an ethernet port and option to attach 11 temperature sensors. One from the heater, and one for every return pipe. Just throwing ideas. :)

Cool! If the mounting holes aren't an issue, you can rotate the ESP module 90-degree CCW. This is based on (3.1.2) Positioning an ESP32 Module on a Base Board stated in their ESP32 Hardware Design Guidelines. Anyway, if it works - it works! 🙂

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

The orientation of the esp32 module has come up a few times over the years as I was publishing videos on the topic. I have designed countless boards, I know the ESP32 Hardware Design Guidelines mentions it but in practice there is however no noticeable performance drop in wifi connectivity having it this way. If one wants, it could easily flip the board around and have it pointing up though.

@jvp5000

6 ай бұрын

@@voltlog Cool! I've also been in several situations where placing the module following their guidelines is impossible. If I'm correct, they have a lineup of modules that are the same package and pinout but offer the ability to add an external antenna via an ipex connector by simply shorting a 0-ohm resistor. Anyway, this is a really nice project of yours! Looking forward to your next uploads. :)

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

@@jvp5000 Yes, the U version of the module is designed specifically for use with external antennas and has the ipex connector. I offer that as an option for the valve controller, for people that want to install this in places with poor wifi reception.

hello, where is the pump from the mixing group powered and where is the dry contact for the power plant start command? what kind of thermostats can be used? Thanks.

Do you have any resources on snubber design? Ive got a similar project, but am curious if i really need to add snubbers.

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

I just did a bunch of internet reading. With the types of load that I have, the actuator valves are purely resistive, then the triacs are zero-cross so there is no ringing or overshoot at turn on. Normally I wouldn't need snubbers in this scenario. But I figured I should add them, because triacs can be sensitive and you never know how other valves on the market behave.

x1 pwm signal to my grundfoss pump would be af nice feature? -two would be even better, second controlling my mixing valve ;).

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

There are a few GPIOs that could be used for that, but you would probably have to adapt the voltage level.

Is „Waning! High voltage!“ a cut out soldermask exposing a polygon? If so, wouldn’t it be more dangerous?

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

Yes it's a soldermask exposing a polygon not connected to anything electrically so the answer to the second question is no, it's not dangerous.

do u really need resistors rated for 400V? asking since i dont see how they would ever experience even close to that , since i assume they are 0 ohm resistors so about mohm range so nearly no drop on them . On a side note wouldn't it have been cheaper or easier to simply use some pieces of thicker wire and then isolate them with some epoxy ?

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

resistors need to be rated for the voltage that they are subjected to and they need to be populated by an automated pick and place machine.

@sanjikaneki6226

6 ай бұрын

@@voltlog so u have 400v dc max across them and you have 2 resistors it would be 200v per resistor if the load is shorted, with normal load it would be a few volts, Then again I don't know the standards and I am only looking at it on paper Thx

@jaro6985

6 ай бұрын

@@sanjikaneki6226 In real world use the voltage rating doesn't matter, just the package size and current rating. But in terms of regulations it can be a different story.

Nice work! Is it possible to modify it to have ethernet? I know its a topic with the isolation but it would be realy nice to have not only a wireless connection

@pn8902

6 ай бұрын

ethernet boards with esp32 do exist and can be done easily I think, but I think it uses a lot of the GPIO. For example you can look at a POE board by lilygo, boards without poe would follow the same idea, just less components. I agree a wired connection is preferred especially with devices that wont need to move, or will be placed in areas where cabling being visible doesn't matter, like this UFH board would be placed in a plant room where the heating plumbing would go, and so hiding cables doesn't matter, also the environment it would be in, lots of mains wiring and plumbing pipes doesn't make it a good place for wifi devices

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

I agree, wired is always more reliable but turns out in practice you can actually do a lot with wifi, especially with an external antenna. Ethernet is going to take up a lot of pins and it wasn't worth it in terms of cost either. I'm pretty sure that if I make an ethernet version, I will invest a bunch of resources into it and then nobody is going to order it, because it's more expensive and they find out wifi works just fine.

When you first start selling things, you natually assume that all of them are being used. Depending on the item, some just sit in a box for years on end. So don't assume sales is equale to the number of units out in the wild running. It's never the case.

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

That's a good point, thanks!

@GeorgeGraves

6 ай бұрын

@@voltlog I have some items that people will contact me 10 years later asking for the install instructions - so that's how I know :)

@voltlog

6 ай бұрын

@@GeorgeGraves Yup, people still email me for a thing I said I would giveaway in a video posted 2 years ago.

Please always break out all puns on the microcontroller…. So that other makers can extend what you made, and feedback.