Description

A Python library for interacting with the Afterburner; an aftermarket, extensible controller for diesel heaters. Please refer to the Afterburner Manual for information on what types of diesel heaters are compatible with the Afterburner.

pyBurner leverages asyncio for concurrent operations and the websockets library for communicating with the Afterburner. By utilising pyBurner you can fetch runtime information and statistics from the Afterburner and send commands to adjust the operations of the heater, such as turning it on/off and setting the desired temperature.

Compatibility

pyBurner has been verified with the following versions of Python and the Afterburner firmware.

Afterburner	Python
v3.4.4	v3.9

Installation

$ pip install pyburner

Usage

Since pyBurner utilises Python's built-in asyncio library, you will first need to ensure an event loop is running. Calling asyncio.get_event_loop() will attempt to retrieve the current event loop, and if one is not found it will create one automatically. Please refer to the asyncio Event Loop docs for more information.

You can then instantiate the pyburner.Client() class and pass the Afterburner's IP address as the only parameter: heater = pyburner.client("192.168.0.9")

Next, a websocket connection should be established using heater.init_websocket(), followed by the commands you wish to send. A full list of available commands can be found further down.

Below is a simple, standalone application that uses pyBurner to fetch temperature information from the Afterburner.

import pyburner
import asyncio

heater = pyburner.Client("<afterburner_ip_address>")
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()


async def main():
    asyncio.create_task(heater.init_websocket())
    # allow time for websocket to connect
    await asyncio.sleep(1.5)
    tasks = await asyncio.gather(
        heater.fetch_data("TempCurrent"),
        heater.fetch_data("TempBody")
    )
    print(f"The ambient temperature is {tasks[0]} degrees.\n"
          f"The heater body temperature is {tasks[1]} degrees.")
    await asyncio.create_task(heater.close_websocket())

asyncio.run(main())

If you wish to run the asyncio event loop in a separate thread, see examples/threading_example.py as a reference. One example of running the code in threading_example.py:

>>> import threading_example
>>> threading_example.start_thread()
>>> threading_example.init_websocket()
>>> threading_example.set_tempdesired(22)
True

When establishing the initial websocket connection, the Afterburner will send all current data to pyBurner which is then stored in a dictionary called heater_data. You may then directly access the values in the dictionary. For example:

Full dictionary: heater.heater_data

Specific key: heater.heater_data["TempCurrent"]

Note that while a websocket connection is open, the Afterburner will only send updates when a value is changed, and only that specific value will be updated in heater_data. It is possible to trigger a refresh of the entire heater_data dictionary by sending the refresh() command. Note that the fetch_data() by default does not execute a full refresh of the heater_data dictionary. If you need to ensure that up-to-date information is retrieved, parse refresh=True in the fetch_data() call.

Commands

fetch_data(request: str, refresh: bool = False)

Fetch a specific parameter from the Afterburner. The refresh option controls whether a full refresh of the websocket data will be executed before returning the value of the requested parameter. Please refer to the Afterburner Manual for a list of available parameters.

Example: fetch_data("TempCurrent", refresh=True)

set_tempdesired(temperature: int)

Set the desired ambient temperature.

Example: set_tempdesired(21)

set_runmode(runmode: int)

Instruct the Afterburner to turn the heater on or off.

Valid runmodes are 0 (off) or 1 (on).

Example: set_runmode(1)

set_fanmin(fan_min: int)

Set fan RPM for lowest heating power

Example: set_fanmin(1680)

set_fanmax(fan_max: int)

Set fan RPM for highest heating power

Example: set_fanmax(4500)

set_pumpreset()

Reset the accumulated number of pump cycles (fuel gauge)

Example: set_pumpreset()

set_pumpmin(pump_min: float)

Set pump rate for lowest heating power (in Hz)

Example: set_pumpmin(1.6)

set_pumpmax(pump_max: float)

Pump rate for highest heating power (in Hz)

Example: set_pumpmax(5.5)

set_pumpcal(pump_cal: float)

Volume of fuel in mL / stroke of pump

Example: set_pumpcal(0.022)

set_lowvoltcutout(low_volt_cutout: float)

Threshold for low voltage shutdown (unloaded)

Example: set_lowvoltcutout(11.5)

set_froston(start_temp: float)

Starting temperature to activate Frost Mode. Set start_temp to 0 to disable Frost Mode.

Example: set_froston(3.5)

set_frostrise(temp_rise: float)

Frost Rise can be configured in one of three ways:

• zero value: Run the heater using the usual thermostat set point, once started by the set_froston threshold being tripped.
• positive value: Stop the heater once the temperature has risen by the value over set_froston.
• negative value: Run the heater using the absolute value as the thermostat set point.

Example: set_frostrise(0)