or where ever you decided to put it, fan controller...
This project started with the need to cool a small Ikea cabinet full of computer hardware and it got me thinking, why not over-engineer a solution to a simple problem like cooling a cabinet full of hardware?
Based on an ESP32 microcontroller along with some prototyping later, the fruits of my labour (hopefully ours at some point) is now ready for use.
After pulling the repo, you can simply open the project in VS Code and start playing. Make sure you have the PlatformIO IDE extension installed. Of course you will likely have to change a few settings in the platformio.ini like the type of board you're using if different.
The \cabinet-fan-project-frontend directory contains the frontend project. You will need to make sure NodeJs is installed.
To install all the node packages, switch to the frontend project's directory and run:
npm install
Once all packages are installed, then you should run:
npm run build
This will build the frontend project and spit out the files into the /data folder. Beware the /data folder is cleaned on every build of the frontend so you should not put any files you want to keep, inside.
By this point you should ideally have built and flashed the ESP32. Using PlatformIO, build the filesystem image and then upload it also. This will flash the assets to your EPS32's flash chip via SPIFFS.
All the assets are gzipped using Vite and the vite compression plugin, we produce the smallest posible sized files to save space and increase loading speed at the browser end.
When testing or writing new frontend code, you will likely want to run the dev server. You can do this by running:
npm run dev
Please be aware that you may need to change the DEV_PROXY_URL constant variable found inside vite.config.js, to the IP address your ESP32 is assigned to. If it is wrong, you will not be able to communicate with the web server on the ESP32 while testing locally.
During my research, I came across the lovely project by @KlausMu and their project, found here: https://github.com/KlausMu/esp32-fan-controller so it deserves credit especially for the electronics side of things.
As I'm new to the world of IoT and MCUs, I really wanted to learn so I decided to write my own project. I decided to make a prototype on a breadboard, test it, then I took it a step further and made it into a PCB on EasyEda. I will in time include these here but it will likely be later while I get to grips with KiCad in an effort to keeping things open-source.
I will include the Fusion 360 files for the 3D printable model and STL files. Be warned they are not bad but also not great too. Certainly there is room for improvement, certainly would like to make the models parametric.
The PCB files I will eventually include here, are a use at your own risk type situation! I'm not an electronics expert and consider myself a beginner. That said I would be happy to accept changes to the PCB provided there is proof of it working along with a reasonable explanation that myself and others can understand.
I currently power the ESP32 via a usb hub and the fans with a 12v 2amp adapter. I initially used a buck convertor to tap off a 12v dc supply into 5v but I didn't like the bulk it added and my electronics isn't good enough to confidently build my own 5v power delivery system into the PCB design for the MCU so I left it until I get better at it or until someone comes up with something better.
- Written in C++ using platform.io via VS code
- AHT20 temp/humidity sensor (buy/use this one as it is more reliable than the DHTXX)
- DHT11 temp/humidity sensor
- ESP32 MCUs (I used an Adafruit Huzzah32 feather v2 with w.fl wifi connector)
- 128x64 display (I used an Adafruit featherwing oled 128x64 display)
- Any 12v PC fans with PWM (4 pin)
- Tacho reading and setting support
- Frontend Built using VUE-Cli and includes VueJs, Bootstrap 5, Pinia, Vite, and eCharts (TODO: need to write docs for that)
- WiFi Manager
- Web server w/ ESPAsyncWebServer
- MQTT Support. Full list of topics in the MqttTopics class
- OTA updates using AsyncElegantOTA
- The frontend will not update if changes are made via MQTT
- Support for others sensors
- Moarrr fans??*
- Configurable fan threstholds
- Support for 0 RPM mode fans
- PCB design
* No reason you can't chain more fans but be aware of total amperage. Also the PCB traces on the existing design can only take so much current (and heat) so you may need to take that into account.
- 3 Pin fans
- Fans that are not 12v