[OpenTRV-interest] Boiler controller (Was: The shop is open!)

[Damon Hart-Davis]

> Hi,

> The site is a bit slow, and there's not much to buy :-)
> 
> Actually, the speed is OK - not blazingly fast, but not anything that would put me off. After all, if it puts off the "page doesn't load in 1/2 second, go somewhere else' crowd then that's a good thing as it puts another hurdle in the way of people ignoring the "only buy this if you are a dev and happy to program it" bit !
> 
> Question on the boiler controller. How much space is there in the box, it looks "fairly deep" but can't see from the photo how deep that is. For me, it's obviously a bit of space just crying out to be filled with a small PSU to power the board. It's getting connected to the boiler with a cable, the boiler will have power, why use a separate power supply (and make things untidy) - apart from the "while doing dev stuff, it allows you to switch it off if it misbehaves" one.
> 
> I guess for a future production unit, an internal PSU would make sense - for dev work, doesn't really matter that much.

Our REV10 units do have an internal PSU, and space for an Arduino GSM shield to relay data off-site, but they’re all taken for now!

> As an aside, while "contemplating in the small room" the other day, it occurred to me that it might be useful to have one or two heads connected even if not working. My idea was that I'd put them next to the existing TRV heads just to gather temperature & occupancy stats while the current system is in use - so there's something to compare against after putting the Radbots into use.
> Might also allow me to answer authoritatively when SWMBO wakes up in the early hours (when the heating is off on the timer) and asks the declaratory question "isn't it hot in here ?" On second thoughts, perhaps not ...

Well, you *may* want one of our wounded bare REV7 boards for that, ie that you can at least load via the SPI connection and has working serial or radio, that you can use as a remote sensor/logger.

Rgds

Damon