How to control a DMX dimmer with ESPHome

ESPHome
1

I would like to use this dimmer to control the voltage (and thus the energy consumption) of my water heater, so I can optimally use the energy produced by my PV system.

It has both, a DMX input and also a mini-jack (where you can plug in a potentiometer) to do that. I would asume the first would be the more elegant solution, but the latter would probably be a good failsafe … well, if nothing works I could strap a servo to it and manually move the integrated slider.

However, using a digital signal would probably be the more elegant soultion - so, anyone tried to do that? (I found some DMX related threads, but they are not about ESPHome and controlling RGB lights :thinking:)

2

I think I know what your trying to do. The link below will make your water heater like a battery. Smart everyone has a water heater (not battery) and that is the one of the highest consumptions for electricity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdXu8307E-M

If so, this would be very tricky as it would be so variable but if you can do it that would be interesting.

3

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.

There are a couple of off the shelf solutions, but they are really expensive and would never pay off with the small PV system I’ll use (at first it’s going to be 800W Peak and I can expand it to 1500W Peak) so spending 1500€+ is just not feasible (that’s why a battery is not a realistic option either)… also my boiler is very small and doesn’t have standard heating elements that could be swapped.
And after all, where would be the fun if I just bought such a system and have it installed :wink:

If you speak German, here someone already did the exact same thing (but a lot stronger)

Of course I will write up everything and post my results (if I get everything to work the way I want to hahaha)

To get back to the initial question, it seems like someone is already up to the task and here’s a video explaining the basics of DMX It seems to be a really simple and straight forward thing to - so I just ordered a MAX485 and the Stairville DS-2 RF DMX 1-Channel Dimmer and see what I can do :sweat_smile: