Hey all, just figured I'd share this project I'm currently working on. I have the project shared on
Hackaday.io as well if you'd like to see.
It's basically an Internet Connected Boot Dryer. This MaxxDry boot dryer I bought from Goodwill for like $6 has a timer switch on the front and a switch to enable/disable the heater when the timer is active.
I dislike that the timer switch only allows me to run it for 3 hrs at a time. I'd like to not have to manually turn the timer and start it. It'd be nice if I could have it start before I wake up so when I leave in the morning I have nice warm shoes/boots. If you've never used one of these, they're absolutely incredible especially here in Wisconsin where the winters get absolutely frigid.
So I decided to take the thing to pieces and use an ESP32 to make it Internet-connected.
Currently, I've completed creating the ESP32 software and creating the online dashboard to control it, which looks like this. The backend is created using Node Red, and you can see a detailed writeup on hackaday.io about how I did that.

I can enter a start/stop time to schedule it, or manually control the fan/heater. Right now all this does is light up some LED's on my breadboard. I'm currently in the process of getting PCB's made, the first batch didn't work (couldn't program them, and the relay footprints were wrong... thanks to DigiKey providing incorrect footprints) so I'm getting more made.
I'm going to be putting this all in an enclosure and attaching the enclosure to the dryer itself. There is a surprising lack of room inside the thing and the entire enclosure is filled with quite hot air all the time, so I don't really want to be putting the electronics inside anyway.
Here's what the thing looks like all disassembled:

Just figured I'd share this if anyone finds it interesting! I'll be providing all the PCB design/gerbers, schematics, code, etc. once it's all working and I know I've removed all my passwords from the code
