WiFi Fan Speed Regulator (ESP8266 AC Dimmer)

This instructable will guide how to make an Ceiling Fan Speed Regulator using Triac Phase angle control method. Triac is conventionally controlled by Atmega8 standalone arduino configured chip. Wemos D1 mini adds WiFi functionality for this regulator.

Featuring -

1. Both local and wifi controlled (Push button & Smartphone wifi).

2. State saving feature to resume fan speed level even after power interruption.

3. Low speed fan cut off (avoiding overheat of Fan stator).

4. LED Indication feedback for button push and speed level.

5. Standalone cheap Atmega8 DIY board rather than Arduino Uno R3.

6. Without snubber capacitor and resistor can be used as dimmer for AC incandescent bulbs.

BE CAUTIONED THAT THIS PROJECT INVOLVES WORKING WITH DIRECT AC 220V WHICH IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS.

Step 1: Parts Needed

LEVEL : ADVANCED

1. ATMEGA8 or ATMEGA8A 28 Pin Chip + 28 Pin IC Base

2. AT24C32 EEPROM + 8 Pin IC Base

3. Berg strip

4. 1k Network resistor + 10 LEDs or 10 channel bar LED

5. 10uF 25V Electrolytic capacitor

6. Hookup wires

7. 5 X 10k resistor

8. 3 X 2N2222 Transistor

9. 22pf + 16mhz crystal

10. 2 X 120k 2W Resistor

11. 2W10 Bridge Rectifier

12. 4N35 Optocoupler

13. 2way terminal block

14. BT136 Triac

15. MOC3021 Optocoupler + IC Base

16. 1k resistor

17. 0.01uF X Rated AC Capacitor (Snubber circuit)

18. 47ohm 5W resistor (Snubber circuit)

19. 2 X 390ohm 2W resistor

20. 5V 2A SMPS Power supply

21. Perf board (As required size)

22. Dupont F-F connectors

23. 4 X Push button

24. Wooden box (Enclosure)

25. Wemos d1 mini

Step 2: Testing Circuit

The circuit has 4 speed control carefully chosen. Pins 13, A0, A1, A2, A3 shows status of speed. Pin 13 blinks whenever push button is pressed or Wemos pulse is received.

Pin2 is input from zero cross detector

Pin3 is drive to triac optocoupler

Atmega8 standalone version runs on 16mhz external crystal.

Push buttons with parallel headers for Wemos, trigger a pulse to pin7 and pin8 for increasing or decreasing of fan speed. These pins are pulled up.

Schematic has own Zero cross detector for each channel. Each channel i.e each fan has seperate Atmega8 standalone. Standard configuration of MOC3021 driving Triac. Snubber circuit added for this inductive load.

Pin A0 is showing lowest speed for the fan is driven through a transistor to MOC3021 to ensure very low speed to AC fan is avoided.

I2C EEPROM saves the speed whenever corresponding speed level is changed.

Step 3: Schematic and Soldering

Find the attached schematic and design your layout or do an etched PCB from my previous instructable.

I have used this type of board for easy soldering.

Since I am controlling two fans I have used 2 boards as shown. A 10 channel bar LED for feedback and status purposes.

As shown in the picture push buttons are soldered to dupont for easy connection to male header in perfboard.

A network resistor of 1k is used to drive 5 status LEDs

Since 220VAC zerocross detector is in same perfboard of Atmega8 enough spacing was given and at the back (copper area) is hot glued preventing exposure of 220V.

Step 4: Burning HEX File

Configure the Atmega8 chip for using with Arduino IDE following this excellent article.

Once Arduino Optiboot loader is installed on Atmega8, just plug out the Atmega328p chip and plug in the new Atmega8 bootloader burned chip into the Arduino Uno R3 board 28 pin socket taking into account the pin notch.

Then download the Burn.zip file extract it to a folder. Right click 'bet.bat' file and click Edit and open batch file in notepad and change COM5 to your corresponding active arduino COM port, which can easily be seen from "devmgmt.msc" from Run command.

Then close notepad and run bet.bat file

Avrdude will burn hex file to Atmega8