DIY Smart Thermostat For Under $40 Using Raspberry Pi Pico W

[@waynenocton]

Please don’t be offended, and feel free to delete this comment, I don’t know another way to contact you. I’m really liking your content, and your voice is loosening up and bit which is great, the wife said you sound like a 1950’s narrator… I put ear buds in and listen anyway, and usually several times on each video, thanks for your effort. Anyway, no offense intended, just input.

[@smartercircuits]

No offense taken at all! I appreciate your support and the compliment! I've always been a fan of orators with a certain subtle showmanship. Words were painted with a different brush before, and even though we've learned a lot, that doesn't mean everything from that time has to be out of fashion, so I take the 1950's narrator label with some pride--even if it's not everyone's cup of tea. I'm finding a comfortable mark and the stiffness will fluctuate, but eventually go away, I think.

[@saul3950]

This video and project was perfect timing for me. Id liked to have seen this in action a little more than shown in video, but I am going to use your work as starting point for my thermostat project. I am tired of the other "smart thermostat" companies changing how things work and not letting me adjust things such as hysteresis deadband simply. I have an old house, I do not need the cooling or heating to crank on as soon as going under or over setpoint.

[@smartercircuits]

Controlling cycles is super easy, and don't worry, I'll be doing a follow up to this follow up once I let it run for a while and I can show some graphs. I'm also planning to test it in a couple of weeks with two external sensors to see how much the accuracy effects the overall cycling. I'll also be talking about orchestrating multiple sensors to get a better picture of ideal temperature settings.

[@NikoKun]

Ooo, I might give this project a shot soon. Could even theoretically design my own 3D printed case for it, & if I go that far, for sure I'll have to share it here. ;)

[@smartercircuits]

I'd love to see it!

[@MrBobWareham]

Are you going to go into more depth with this project?, I have joined your channel in the hope of seeing more.

[@smartercircuits]

Yes, but it may be after a few more videos. I have made some new changes to the Pico version because there have been some things I don't like compared to the version I had built using a Zero W. One such change is making it a little dumber by letting my Home Assistant send on/off signals to it and programming my logic through there when the wifi is available or just staying within a "safe" range (65 low, 75 high) when it cannot connect. Also, I'll be installing another one in my camper which will be a bit simpler, though it will still use a ventilation fan to assist in cooling and humidity management.

[@JamesFraley]

I like the case!

[@smartercircuits]

Thanks! I drew up a few things in SketchUp, but eventually settled on that to try to make it compact. It might've looked a bit better if I'd used acrylic, but mistakes would've been a little bit more expensive and taken much longer on my rather weak laser.

[@JamesFraley]

@@smartercircuits I built something similar. But my wife wouldn’t let me use it on with my first case because she didn’t want people to see it. I finally built a wall space to hide most of the unit. She acquiesced.

[@Tdezayo]

This was a very cool video, thank you for making it. Can you please make a video tutorial showing how you'd link a single heater to one of these thermostats? I am looking to heat my garage with a 240v electric heater (which is thermostat compatable), and want to build my own wifi enabled thermostat to control it

[@smartercircuits]

Thanks for watching it! I do have another video on a smart thermostat build that might be perfect for your project. I'm going to be building a small one for my camper trailer to control the furnace. It will be a heat-only thermostat like you're describing, but it may be a while, just as fair warning. I've been trying to get a video on smart locks done, but the holiday season always messes things up. It'll probably be close to the end of January at least when I get the next thermostat video made.

[@Tdezayo]

@smartercircuits that sounds awesome! Thanks for documenting the process. I have a lot to learn between now an then. Looking forward to future videos 👍🏻

[@anikdasdigital]

Your videos are amazing. I really like it. I am a new subscriber to your channel. Can I talk with you Circuits?

[@smartercircuits]

Well, thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoy it--it's hit or miss sometimes. I may not always be online, but you can reach me on the Discord server (link in the channel banner) or on the website through the contact section (smartercircuits.com).

[@anikdasdigital]

​@@smartercircuits ok thanks. Joined

[@NathanielWyatt]

Automated house fan cycling? 😍 That's smart! Future video suggestion: Roundup video of common IOT boards that have on board temperature sensors that could be used to make smart thermostats. Part two could be a data-driven comparison / review of the temperature accuracy of the onboard sensors. I got to buy a house before I start implementing all this cool stuff that you're teasing you with 😂. In an apartment currently.

[@smartercircuits]

It's really helpful having so many methods of moving and sensing air!

[@saul3950]

I have a house fan too. Been wanting to do this for a long time. So I am excited to see what level of control I can exert out of this project.

[@Fearless-ym6uw]

I would like to build a Thermostat that controls a potentiometer, having a Honeywell 90 series mod motor, replacing a T921A with a pico and DS3502. great video gives me hope this is possible. can you help me..?

[@smartercircuits]

This is absolutely possible. The proportional control thermostat you have, from what I've been able to ascertain from looking up spec sheets, uses PWM to ultimately control the motor. You need to know the temperature to position you'd like and work out the calculations for that in the code, but your next challenge is the 24 VAC motor you're using (again, based on somewhat vague spec sheets from Honeywell). If you just try to find something like an AC motor controller, the internet will tell you to bugger off because EV motors (with a polyphase wound rotor) use frequency changes that are much harder to deal with than simple PWM and most other motors used in HVAC applications are motors with polyphase case rotors whose speed is relational to the frequency of the current applied. I believe what you actually have is just a two-phase servo. That means what you ultimately need is something akin to a PWM light dimmer (to handle the higher current application). I found the one below (affiliate link, of course), but I cannot vouch for it's reliability or quality--only that its specs are reportedly up to snuff. amzn.to/493GiKQ That should control your motor if the specs aren't a lie. If they are a lie, it will burn itself up but more than likely not hurt anything else. I also believe you could use this at the native 24 VAC because the switching circuits shouldn't require any sort of specific load, but you could install a transformer to step the voltage to 120 VAC if you wanted to keep everything exactly to the specs. I may try to acquire some of these parts in order to test this setup because it would make a great video, but that would be much further in the future (those parts are 'spensive), so I wouldn't wait on me if I were you (which I'm not because I'm me). I hope this helps a bit--remember to double and triple check all information--and thanks for checking out the video!

[@Fearless-ym6uw]

thank you so much yes that is what i needed. i will experiment with everything. i have most thing just laying around so this should be fun....!!! LOL

[@smartercircuits]

@@Fearless-ym6uw Glad to be of service! Good luck, be safe, stay warm!

[@cdurkinz]

What kind of changes are needed to use this code with a cheap 5" touch LCD in lieu of hardware buttons and a separate small LED? EDIT: Ah. I just realized there's no HDMI out on the pico w. Ugh.

[@smartercircuits]

Yeah, unfortunately the options are fairly limited in that regard, but I'm certain there is a similar thing possible with something like a Pi Zero for even more shenanigans... perhaps a topic for a future build...

[@eza_khuzwayo7711]

Hi, I'm doing my collage project and i'm designing a smart thermostat , my i please get your assistance by sharing the code

[@smartercircuits]

You can get the initial code from the Smarter Circuits github repo below. Please note you'll need to make sure it's modified for your use case. I haven't had time to maintain it lately. github.com/SmarterCircuits/pico_w_thermostat