draft blog, and mastodon link

content/blog/9999-11-01_neighbors-water-heater-automation.rst

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+Neighbor's Water Heater Automation
+##################################
+:author: tyrel
+:category: automation
+:tags: automation, c++, esp8266, servo, stepper
+:status: draft
+
+The Setting
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+My neighbor has a Bosch tankless water heater he put in last year.
+This water heater has one slight problem that when the power even blips a single second, it gets set back to its lowest temperature of 95°F.
+My neighbor (we'll call him Frank for this post) wants to set his heater to 120°F in his house.
+The problem arises in that his water heater is under the house in his crawl space.
+
+Without an easy way to set his temperature, he needs to crawl under his crawl space and turn a dial  *EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.*
+
+He asked me if I knew of anything off the shelf that would help.
+I did not.
+So I said the only logical thing someone `like me <https://tyrel.website/wiki/HomeAssistant>`_ would have done.
+"I can totally automate that!"
+
+The Lay Of The Land
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+He has a `Bosch Tronic 6000C <https://www.prowaterheatersupply.com/PDFS/Bosch_Tronic_6000C_Pro_WH27_WH17_Installation_Manual.pdf>`_, with what appears to be a rotary encoder knob to set the temperature.
+I only spent a few minutes under his house while planning this and didn't think to any measuring of how many detents to rotate, or how long the dial took to rotate to 120°F, so my first pass of this project is done with estimations.
+
+Project Time - Round 1!
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+I have a few random servos laying around, and an NodeMCU ESP8266 module.
+I figure these would be the perfect solution! ... note: was half right...
+
+I found some code online by `Kumar Aditya <https://github.com/kumaraditya303>`_ that is for the `two items in my current parts list <https://github.com/kumaraditya303/ESP8266_SERVO_CONTROLLER>`_ (ESP8266 and SG90)
+
+The Original code runs a web server on port 80, and runs a web page with some jQuery (wow it's been a while) to change the angle of the servo.
+I realized this wasn't what I needed because my servos could only go 180° and I might need to go multiple rotations.
+I found a youtube video on how to make a `SG90 run infinite in either direction <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZGkkzMBL28>`_, so I did those modifications.
+I then modified the front end code a little bit. 
+
+The new code on the back end was actually exactly the same, even though the effect was slightly different.
+It would run on port 80, listen at `/` and `/angle`, but the angle here was more of direction and speed (a vector?).
+The way the servo was built, 160° was "Stop", higher than that was rotate clockwise, lower was rotate counter clockwise.
+
+I put three buttons on my page that would be "Lower" (150), "STOP" (160), and "Higher" (170).
+I then did some standard debouncing and disabling of buttons using setTimeout and such.
+
+For a final touch I added in a range slider for "Time".
+This held how many seconds after pressing Higher or Lower, that I would send the STOP command again.
+
+This seemed to work relatively well, but I figure I should just use a stepper motor if I was attempting to emulate one this way.
+I dug around in my closet and was able to find some parts.
+
+Project Time - Round 2!
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+I was able to rummage up a `28BYJ-48 <https://components101.com/motors/28byj-48-stepper-motor>`_ stepper with control board, and a `HW-131 power module <https://www.cafago.com/en/p-e8575.html>`_.
+
+With these I needed a new library so I stripped the c++ code down to its basics, just getting me a server with the index page for the first pass.
+
+On the Javascript side of things, I then decided I would add a temperature slider, from 90° to 120° (which writing this realize it should be from 95°... git commit...) with a confirmation button, and a small button to initialize down to 95°.
+
+The initialize button would need to trigger an initialization where I rotate counter clockwise an appropriate amount of time (Length TBD) in order to force the rotary encoder dial to always start at a known state of 95.
+The green submit button sends the new desired temperature as a post.
+
+Server side, I was using a library called `AccelStepper <https://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/AccelStepper/>`_.
+This I set some made up max speeds and steps per rotation, actual values TBD.
+
+I added an endpoint called `/setTemperature` that takes in a temperature and sets a local temperature variable.
+From there, I calculate the temperature less 95, to find out how many degrees I need to increase by, for now I'm considering this rotations.
+
+I then apply a multiplier (TBD also... there's a lot of these as you can see!) and call  `stepper.moveTo()` and it actually feels like it's pretty accurate.
+
+The endpoint `/initialize` runs `stepper.moveTo` with ten rotations CCW, and then resets the "known location" back to zero (this also runs on power on for now).
+
+In Action
+~~~~~~~~~
+
+The result of this second round of coding is a lot more that I expect to happen once I can finally get down beneath his house.
+Frank will lose power, his water heater will reset to 95°F, the NodeMCU will reboot, and reinitialize itself.
+Frank will then open his browser to the NodeMCU's server, set the desired temperature, and take warm showers.
+
+Version 2 will come once I actually test EVERYTHING.
+My first quesiton is if a rubber band on a lego tire with a servo wheel adaptor (`which I 3d modeled and printed... <https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5594405>`_) will work sufficiently.
+Programming wise, I need to figure out how many steps is one degree. Is the rotary encoder one degree per detent? Is it a constant speed? Is it like an alarm clock where you can sometimes jump by 10? 
+
+Stay tuned to find out the exciting conclusion once I can go down below Frank's house.
+
+
+
+

themes/custom/templates/base.html

@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@
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                             <li><a href="{{ link }}">{{ name }}</a></li>
                         {% endfor %}
+                            <li><a rel="me" href="https://mastodon.social/@tyrel">Mastodon</a></li>
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                 </div><!-- /.social -->
         {% endif %}