[OpenTRV-interest] Tinkering kits

[Damon Hart-Davis]

I suggest that we use this list to discuss how to use the tinkering kits in the first instance!

You shouldn’t need to get any electricians or plumbers etc in in the first case to play with this…

Next thing to do is get hold of an appropriate FTDI cable such as this one from RS:

429-307	1	£13.72	£13.72	USB-serial TTL cable,FT232RQ,TTL-232R

(note that it’s the 3V3 / 3.3V logic-level version), set up your computers USB serial to talk at 4800 board to the board, possibly using the Arduino IDE “Serial Monitor", eg see here:

http://sourceforge.net/p/opentrv/wiki/Arduino/

"Ubuntu, Arduino IDE and installing the latest release of the controller software”

and you can interact with the CLI (command-line interface).

You can set one board up as a hub and the other as an normal valve controller and have them talk to one another.

You can go wild and order a Conrad FTH8V wireless value to be controlled by one of the boards and I can tell you how to wire the other to control your boiler in another instalment!

Rgds

Damon



On 23 Mar 2014, at 18:12, Damon Hart-Davis <EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I’m just getting the tinkering kits ready to send out tomorrow.
> 
> 
> I have loaded up the latest code, beta_17, which will also be going to another trial participant’s home tomorrow.  You can see that code, eg to check out from SourceForge and load into the Arduino IDE:
> 
> svn+ssh://YOURID@svn.code.sf.net/p/opentrv/code-0/trunk/Arduino/snapshots/20140323-r2736-V0p2-Arduino-REV2-beta17-boiler-bypass-timing
> 
> Loading the code verifies for me that the FTDI serial/USB connection is working.
> 
> For fiddling with the code, eg adjusting and it or just looking at its output on the Arduino serial monitor you may want to look here:
> 
> http://sourceforge.net/p/opentrv/wiki/Arduino/
> 
> in particular at the section "Ubuntu, Arduino IDE and installing the latest release of the controller software”.
> 
> Even if you’re not using Ubuntu the main points that matter are editing the boards.txt file (wherever it is in your install) and getting the bootloader .hex file in place, and setting the serial monitor to 4800 baud.
> 
> Even if you don’t want to fiddle with the code, the last of those lets you interact with the just-human-compatible CLI to change settings via an FTDI USB cable, dump stats and so on.
> 
> You may also want to look at the latest code under:
> 
> svn+ssh://YOURID@svn.code.sf.net/p/opentrv/code-0/trunk/Arduino/V0p2_Main
> 
> 
> I have not soldered on the Big Red Button (that cycles between FROST, WARM and BAKE modes); solder to it’s normally-open contacts which are the near-centre lug and the one furtehr from it, marked ‘C’.
> 
> 
> Have fun!
> 
> Rgds
> 
> Damon