dreo-headwind

Trying to put together a rudimentary version of a smart fan for workout sessions (primarily cycling) leveraging the smart Dreo fan DR-HAF004S (CF714S) with its vertical and horizontal oscillating capabilities, an old Raspberry Pi and old USB ANT+ stick.

This is a good opportunity to learn a bit of TypeScript and the ANT+ protocol while creating something that fits my needs better; for instance, I would like to have the fan pointing at my bike trainer when cycling indoors, but also have it tilt and point to a rowing machine while always adjusting the air speed to my heart rate.

I hope this will be helpful to others.

NOTE: The API used to control the DREO fan is not public, so this integration can stop working without previous notice.

Setup

Still work in progress, but this is how to set it up. Tested both on a macbook laptop (Sonoma) and Raspberry Pi (Debian bookworm)

Raspbery pi

• Connect to the Raspberry pi
• Insert the USB stick
• Check that it is being recognized

  eabe@rpi:~ $ lsusb
  Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
  Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0fcf:1008 Dynastream Innovations, Inc. ANTUSB2 Stick
  Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
  Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  

• My USB stick is described as Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0fcf:1008 Dynastream Innovations, Inc. ANTUSB2 Stick from where we can get:
  • idVendor: 0fcf
  • idProduct: 1008
• Unplug the USB stick
• Create a udev rule to get the USB serial kernel driver to create a node for the USB stick

  eabe@rpi:~ $ sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/ant-usb-m.rules
  

• With the following content (adjust idVendor and idProduct based on your own USB stick):

  SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0fcf", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1008", RUN+="/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x0fcf product=0x1008", MODE="0666", GROUP="users"
  

• Re-insert the USB stick and check that a /dev/ttyUSB0 node was created:

  eabe@rpi:~ $ ls -la /dev/ttyUSB0 
  crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 Nov 12 13:37 /dev/ttyUSB0
  

  • Note that for me the MODE and GROUP defined in the udev rule is ignored - the node has mode 660 and group dialout. Make sure your app user is member of the group.

Check-out and compile

• Install dependencies: npm install
• Build code: npm run build

Configuration

The application relies on a config file loaded by nconf:

• Create a config folder in the project directory

  mkdir ./config
  

• Create a config.json file based on the template below:

  {
      "dreo.config": {
          "email": "<your_dreo_app_email>",
          "password": "<your_dreo_app_password>",
          "server": "us",
          "serialNumber": "<your_dreo_fan_serial_number>"
      },
  
      "ant.allowed_devices": {
          "hr": "<ant_id_of_your_heartrate_sensor>"
      },
  
      "user.heartrate": {
          "zones": [ [<z1_min_hr%>,<z1_max_hr%>], [<z2_min_hr%>,<z2_max_hr%>], [<z3_min_hr%>,<z3_max_hr%>], [<z4_min_hr%>,<z4_max_hr%>], [<z5_min_hr%>,<z5_max_hr%>] ],
          "max": <your_max_hr>,
          "rest": <your_rest_hr>
      }
  }
  

  Note that the heart rate zone is defined as a percentage of your max heart-rate.

Running the application

• Run the app: npm run start

The app will scan for your heart rate monitor; once it finds it, it will start gathering data to control the Dreo fan. The mobile app and/or fan controls will override the controls sent from this app, but only temporarily - by default, this app is sampling and adjusting the fan settings every 30 seconds.

Running at startup (Raspberry pi)

• Create a systemd service file:

eabe@rpi:~ $ sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/dreo-headwind.service

File contents:

[Unit]
Description=Dreo Headwind smart fitness fan
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
User=eabe
WorkingDirectory=/home/eabe/antplus/dreo-headwind
ExecStart=npm run start

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Configure the new service to start on boot:

eabe@rpi:~ $ sudo systemctl enable dreo-headwind

• Start the service:

eabe@rpi:~ $ sudo systemctl start dreo-headwind

• Check that the service is running:

eabe@rpi:~ $ ps -ef |grep dreo
eabe        1131    1126 18 14:29 ?        00:00:18 node /home/eabe/antplus/dreo-headwind/node_modules/.bin/ts-node ./src/index.ts
eabe        1884    1163  0 14:30 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto dreo

• Logs are available via journalctl:

eabe@rpi:~ $ sudo journalctl -u dreo-headwind.service -f

You can now start, stop and restart the app manually as well

sudo systemctl start dreo-headwind
sudo systemctl stop dreo-headwind
sudo systemctl restart dreo-headwind

Thought process

As I flip through some of the ANT+ public documentation, I am thinking about the basic functionality of the application:

• App will behave as continuous scanning node, allowing it to receive and process data from multiple transmit nodes (masters).
• I have multiple ANT devices but only some will be used to control the smart fan, so the app should have a list of "allowed" devices, namely:
  • FE-C trainer
  • PWR on each bike (for cadence)
  • HRM strap

Possible features

• Adjust the fan speed based on the fan's temperature sensor
• Simulate riding experience (ex: fan speed matching virtual speed) based on data from smart trainer
• Improve heart rate logic and make it smarter
• Integrate with Home Assistant to rely on additional sensors / automations
• Support my other trainer (2 trainers next to each other - have the fan point to either one or the other)
• Set app as an Express server hosting a display / config web app
• Make the app listen to (and respond to) the fan websocket messages so that specific fan controls can override the app behavior (ex: enabling Sleep Mode could instruct the app to stop controlling the fan until the end of the session)

Special Thanks

This project is deriived from the following projects:

• Project config tips to set up a console Node app
• DreoAPI from the zyonse/homebridge-dreo
• ANT+ implementation from incyclist/ant-plus
• ANT+ basics from thisisant.com And probably bits and pieces from other sources - I'll do my best to list them all.