Welcome to a new Voltlog, today I’m gonna be showing you revB for the ESP32 based thermostat valve controller, this is based on revA that I first showed in Voltog #383. So a few words about this board, just in case you haven’t seen Voltlog #383. It’s based on an ESP32 and I designed it so that it’s compatible with the open source firmware called TASMOTA and that allows us to control it via MQTT from homeassistant.
We have 10 individually switched triacs, each capable of up to 900mA or 1.2A depending on the version of the triac that it’s equipped with and a few expansion capabilities via I2C, 1Wire and some spare GPIOs. Everything was designed to fit inside one of these inexpensive, DIN rail enclosures and the whole purpose of this is to allow smart control of electrical thermostat actuators.
In my case, I use these 240V rated electrical thermostat actuators to control zone valves for my floor heating system. but if you would like to know more, I recommend you also watch Voltlog #383.
So why did we need revB? Well I’ll tell you all about the changes that happened in revB and I’m gonna start with this odd shape that you see around the ESP32 module, I removed the PCB from under the antenna section of the wifi module and although the improvement is probably marginal, in theory at least, it helps to keep the antenna clear of other objects.