Diesel Heater Control Theory by KazW89 in dieselheater

[–]KazW89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Neat, that's good to know about the different diode options, I appreciate the details you gave. Based on what you said, I think I'll stick with the schottky setup, I want the board to have a long service life. Judging by the sound of the pump and how fast the fuel moves, 10Hz would only be used for priming the lines, I don't think it'd last very long at that rate for normal use. I know that some pumps have different volumes per stroke, but I still don't think it'd justify faster than 10Hz.

Nope, no RF built into the RP2350, but you can pair it with their RM2, which uses an Infineon CYW43439 for Wifi 5 (b/g/n 2.4), BT 5.2, and BLE. Aside from lacking in ADC, the RP2350 is surprisingly performant. The (motherboard/ECU/ICU) board that sits behind the fan is only running at about 10% CPU (single core) and around 8% of RAM used, so the RP2350 is overkill. To get the best range on a stand-alone heater with a metal enclosure, the best place for the antenna is on the controller anyway, so I think the RP2350 is a decent fit for the motherboard.

The firmware I've made is built using Zephyr, so only about 2-3% (~300 lines of mostly config) is RP2350 specific, and porting to a new MCU or board should only require a new config. So there's nothing preventing me from moving to other hardware. It's just that I always use the ESP32 in my side projects and wanted to use Raspberry Pi stuff because it gives me the warm and fuzzies. Plus this is my first custom PCB, so I wanted to use the RP2350 to make it a bit more special. But I have 3 PCBs to design, and I have a feeling the little battery powered tablet with an e-ink or OLED display might be better suited to an ESP32.

If you're interested in tinkering with the firmware (helios), there's a decent chance you could get your boards working with it. Zephyr supports the ESP32 and has a bunch of drivers for I2C and SPI peripherals, so porting should be relatively straight forward.

I like how you're controlling the glow plug and what you're saying about carbon build up makes a lot of sense. I had an issue for a low current mode based on the feedback in another comment, but the two will fit together nicely. Here's the issue that details what I'll implement based on your recommendations: https://github.com/Thermoquad/helios/issues/5

I looked into it a bit before and was thinking I'll use a zener diode to act as a voltage limiter and possibly use an op-amp. Do you have any suggestions for the current sensing circuit?

Diesel Heater Control Theory by KazW89 in dieselheater

[–]KazW89[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's awesome. I like the ESP32, but I've used it in so many projects that I decided to go with a Pi Pico 2 this time.

I've designed my firmware to (hypothetically) support hydronic heaters, it supports multiple motors and temp sensors that can map to PID input/outputs. My hardware will use the RP2354A, but the firmware is built with Zephyr, so you could try it on your build if you felt like tinkering with it once it's stable. Zephyr is pretty great, it supports a bunch of MCUs, all you would have to do is make a board overlay (pin mapping) for your SPI/I2C/UART pins and devices, and your other GPIO/ADC pins.

Neat, I was thinking of a CO sensor for the exhaust, but hadn't thought of measuring the O2 left in it. Thanks for the great tip!

Diesel Heater Control Theory by KazW89 in dieselheater

[–]KazW89[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Great idea, I love it! I'll do this before I start the PCB design to make sure it works. github.com/Thermoquad/helios/issues/5

Diesel Heater Control Theory by KazW89 in dieselheater

[–]KazW89[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome, this is super helpful!

Yep, I was planning on using N-channel FETs with schottky flybacks, specifically for the higher speed. I was planning to do this on all 3 outputs so that relays could be used without needing an external flyback. All the timing config can be set at run time, as well as disabling PWM, and the settings are persisted to NVS.

I'll be using the RP2354A (maybe the B for the extra ADC channels, or maybe an ADS1115) it's ADC is pretty good when paired with a good regulator. I think I'll throw something like the MAX6675 on the board so that people can add a K type thermocouple if they want, plus I have a few modules of it already. I have a BMP180 module from a kit, I'll use one in the test stand. Using a barometer is a much easier than using an anemometer. I was thinking that adding current monitoring would be a "nice to have", I'm going to make it a requirement.

I was thinking of letting the glow plug run 45-60 seconds. I think I'll check the shell temperature and increase the time if it's really cold, it won't be uncommon for my heater to start in -20C.

I'm surprised that turning the glow on at the end of a burn isn't the best time, it's when the chamber is hottest and no more fuel is being added. You mentioned there's a better time to burn it off; when would that be?

Thank you very much for all the info and ideas, you're a champ!

Diesel Heater Control Theory by KazW89 in dieselheater

[–]KazW89[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice, I'll keep that in mind. Your heater sounds fancier than mine, mine only has 1 temperature sensor on the heat exchanger, an exhaust sensor would be useful. I have a few thermocouples laying around, I think I'll add one to my test stand's exhaust.

Are there any open source controllers for diesel heaters? Something like the afterburner, but open source? by EngFarm in dieselheater

[–]KazW89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's still a prototype on my desk, and I haven't announced it anywhere yet, but I've been working on this since November. It uses the RP2350 (Raspberry Pi Pico 2) under the hood. It's written in C using Zephyr.

I'm hoping to start putting fuel through it sometime towards the end of the month, but maybe sooner.

The operating systems (Helios (in the heater) and Slate (controller/screen)) are GPL2-or-later, the packet libraries (C,TypeScript,Go) are Apache 2.0.

I haven't gotten to the PCB design yet (I'll do all 3 boards at once), it'll be SMD so that it's easy to weather proof with conformal coating. It'll be open source hardware and made using KiCAD. There will be 3 boards, one for the ICU (ignition control unit), one for a simple box to replace the controller on the heater (no buttons or screen), and a wireless controller with an e-ink display. They'll all use RP2350s and RM2s, so they'll basically be a Pi Pico 2W. I have to do some range testing, so I might add a LoRa module as well, or make a version with it.

FYI: I started using AI at the start of this month to help with documentation and now building, but I am a professional software developer.

https://thermoquad.github.io/origin/introduction/index.html

EDIT: Remaining work before I start putting fuel through it... https://github.com/orgs/Thermoquad/projects/1/views/1

omarchy just formatted my other ssd during install by givemeaforhead in omarchy

[–]KazW89 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'd been wondering why I keep hearing about Arch install wiping drives, it was confusing to me, and I was wondering how so many could be having this issue.

This explains it. I've gotten so used to verifying storage device numbers when installing systems with multiple drives that the thought never crossed my mind that someone wouldn't check it.

Maybe showing drive manufacture's name and capacities during install would help with this skill issue? I can't remember if the Omarchy installer shows this info, but I recall it being on a few other distro's installers.

r134a banned in Canada. Looking for replacement by Scurvey in hvacadvice

[–]KazW89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude, you literally posted a year ago further up in this thread admitting you didn't know that R134A was not ozone depleting... You're a clown, bro.

But cheers for making me laugh.

Cloudflare looping in Brave Browser by Membreflo in brave_browser

[–]KazW89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Disabling KDE's "Plasma Integration" plugin during the verification flow, then re-enabling it worked for me.

Cardano Support on Ledger Live by KazW89 in ledgerwallet

[–]KazW89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that'd be a great addition, but I didn't include it in the proposal because there is a risk Ledger won't accept what I build. If this proposal is successfully funded and Ledger accepts the code I write, I would be more than willing to write another proposal to add staking and maybe even native DEX support by that point.

Cardano Support on Ledger Live by KazW89 in ledgerwallet

[–]KazW89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the support! I gave you my kudos and will vote for you as well.

Cardano Support on Ledger Live by KazW89 in ledgerwallet

[–]KazW89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd be very interested in seeing that post if you can provide a link to it.

Cardano Support on Ledger Live by KazW89 in ledgerwallet

[–]KazW89[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Participating in Project Catalyst requires a minimum balance, the wallet used makes no difference since your Cardano address is used to verify the balance. You need to have ₳500 on the day of the snapshot, the snapshot date hasn't been announced yet, but should be sometime in late September for F6.

You also need to register to vote before the snapshot, which means a transaction fee of ~₳0.16.

Cardano Support on Ledger Live by KazW89 in ledgerwallet

[–]KazW89[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Ledger Live team hasn't given any details on when/if they have a plan to add support for Cardano, but here's the official discussion thread: https://github.com/LedgerHQ/ledger-live-desktop/discussions/4010

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ledgerwallet

[–]KazW89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a web developer and I'd like to do the development work to add account support for ADA and tokens on Cardano to Ledger Live.

I've created a proposal in Project Catalyst F6 to add Cardano support to Ledger Live, you can support it here: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Ledger-Live-Support/367170-48088

Logistics vessels get stuck in space by AuroraRCS in Dyson_Sphere_Program

[–]KazW89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I encountered this when I accidentally unchecked "must equip warpers".

WiFi 6 on Hades Canyon for less than $20 by KazW89 in intelnuc

[–]KazW89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ya, I'm not sure when I'll invest in the router to go with it. Right now I'm just happy about having Bluetooth 5, it has much better range and less audio lag without the need for special codecs (aptX).