Finally! My new improved NixieStat is working god

[Joe Croft]

Hi Yall,

For those of you who are not familiar with me, over the last few forevers I have been playing with a thermostat with a Nixie display. I just released to the public the code and KiCad files for version 3. It is much nicer. The display actualy functions every time I need it to (the previous version was finickier then your cat!) and I now have the beginings of Home-Assistant integration. It also supports the Govee H5100 blue tooth sensors.

A short description can be found here: https://hackaday.io/project/184709-nixiestat-esp (scroll down to Version 3) and the code can be found here: https://sourceforge.net/p/nixiestat-3/code/ci/master/tree/ .

A few questions to the group. I would like to make a kit out of this. First, is there any interest in such a kit? Second, what protections do I need for liability if a house burns down and the Insurance company takes aim at my thermostat as the cause. I am confident that they don't need reality to make that determination.  No to mention, I am only human.

I am thinking of describing it as a development platform. This is because there is functionality that still needs to be added or at least tested. Primarily central A/C. The code is there but my current house  does not have such luxuries to test it with. Next year, maybe I'll be moving into one that does :). Heat Pump control is another thing that would nice to have support for. The hardware is there for it, but not a shred of code.

Let me know what yall think.

Thanks,

   Joe

[Tom Katt]

That's pretty neat looking ;-)

Looking at the various kits and components easily available on the web, I get the sense that liability must not be too big of an issue.  The CRT clock kit and components I recently purchased could kill you dead if you handle it wrong, and there are dozens of them for sale.  But it's a point worth considering - and I don't know the answer.

As for the code and features, home temperature control strikes me as one of those things that look rather simple on the surface, but the devil is in the details and there's probably no end to the rabbit holes you could go down...  Central vs zoned.  Hysteresis.  Timers.  Outside weather influence.  Not to mention adapting to what equipment people might have - simple 2 wire make/break or more complicated.   

But for sure I'd like that hanging on my wall ;-)