{"id":4926,"date":"2016-10-08T06:14:04","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T11:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.plastibots.com\/?p=4926"},"modified":"2019-12-29T16:40:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-29T21:40:35","slug":"hot-tub-esp8266-iot-temp-monitor-and-neopixel-lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.plastibots.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/08\/hot-tub-esp8266-iot-temp-monitor-and-neopixel-lighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Tub: ESP8266 IoT Temp Monitor and NeoPixel Lighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally got our free hot tub hooked up. \u00a0 Well, not so “free”.\u00a0 Hot tubs are never free unless you have all the electrical and other bits already. \u00a0\"IMG_2176\"<\/a>Anyway, \u00a0I wanted to add some remote temperature monitoring as well as jazz up the lighting a bit.\u00a0 \u00a0Given Winters can get pretty cold here in Canada, I wanted to get notified if the temp falls below a threshold as frozen pipes in a hot tub pretty much spell disaster.\u00a0 Blynk is my go-to app of choice. \u00a0If you haven’t heard of Blynk, you are missing out on the biggest thing since slice bread for IoT!<\/p>\n

These days my go-to controller is the NodeMCU Mini<\/a> ESP8266. \u00a0I hooked it up to a DS18B20<\/a> temperature probe and an Adafruit NeoPixel Jewel<\/a>. \u00a0Currently this system is completely isolated from the hot tub controller – I didn’t want to mess with something I didn’t understand as it’s an older tub and the controller boards are hard to come by.\u00a0 I also don’t mess with high voltage.\u00a0 This is not a big deal and simply means that you can’t turn on the hot tub lights by the switch located in the hot tub.\u00a0 \u00a0Which is moot given I just use my phone to set the lights and they are on a timer anyway.\u00a0 You can also check out how this\u00a0is integrated into my WIoT-2<\/a> master unit.<\/p>\n

The sketch is pretty straight forward. \u00a0 \u00a0It monitors the temperature and sends readings every 2 minutes to my master Blynk app where the data is plotted on a History Graph which shows the temperature over time. \u00a0There are also triggers that to send a notification to my phone & watch when the temperature falls below 60F. \u00a0This is particularly important during the winter when the temperature can fall well below 0C in our Canadian winters. \u00a0Don’t want to be dealing with a frozen hot tub!\u00a0 My Blynk app is multi-tabbed and allows me to control and monitor this unit, my garage door status<\/a> device, my WIoT2<\/a> device as well as other future devices.<\/p>\n

Blynk App:\"IMG_2178\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Blynk app has the following features:<\/p>\n