It works! Opentherm Interface V2

We're Back after a very long break!

Last January I presented a schematic for a second version of Alex's JeeTherm to Opentherm interface.

 

Well Alex finally had the time to test it and it works.... almost :-)
The first part of the board related to the physical interface actually works (!) i.e. sending and receiving the bits and packets to the boiler. This part was done with good old technology and using an operational amplifier as an active load.

The second part of the board was designed to power the remote controller from the loop power supply. This one we knew it would be trickier.
Placing the small supercap (0.1F) as load of the regulator was a good idea as the regulator is output short circuit protected so charging current is maintained within reasonable levels. Our fear was that due to the big charge current for some time on power up, the boiler would give up communicating (part of Opentherm interface, in case a boiler is connected to a plain old thermostat).
The key problem was that the display, the backlight (even when disabled) and the Jeenode take too much current for the system to be reliably powered...
We will have to arrange a winter sunday meet to fully debug these problems...