Home Environmental Monitioring

Mister Ed

I am BRAND NEW to Stamps and Parallax.

Goal:

Develop PC-based home environmental monitoring system.

Typical Inputs desired: room temp/humidity; radiant floor heating temps and zone circulation pump(s) run status at supply/return manifolds; hot water heater; current draw at elec distribution panel; Outside air temp/humidity

What modules/sensors would best serve this type of application? Any canned software I could modify and run with?

Has someone else done something similiar? No need to reinvent the wheel.

Any leads or suggestions are welcome,

Ed

Sal Ammoniac

For humidity there's the Sensirion SHT15, which Parallax sells as product code 28018. For temperature, I like the LM34 (or LM35 if you like temps in Celsius). It outputs 10 mV per degree F, which is easy to read with an ADC. Another option is the Dallas 1-wire series of sensors.

ElectricAye

Are you fixated on using Stamps or have you ever considered the Propeller chip? The Propeller has lots of pins to play with and plenty of "objects" that allow you to hook up things like Real Time Clocks, digital thermometers (DS18B20, for example), you name it, plus record data onto SD cards, plus output things onto a TV or VGA screen with menu capability using a mouse, etc. You might even be able to log your whole house on a single chip.

Just a thought.

TinkersALot

Mister Ed said: Typical Inputs desired: room temp/humidity; radiant floor heating temps and zone circulation pump(s) run status at supply/return manifolds; hot water heater; current draw at elec distribution panel; Outside air temp/humidity What modules/sensors would best serve this type of application? Any canned software I could modify and run with?

There are lot's of sensors that you can shop right on this site. There are also similar sensor boards/kits at other sites. I get a lot of parts from parallax, but they are not an exclusive source. But do check out their sensors offering.

Mister Ed said: Has someone else done something similiar? No need to reinvent the wheel.

The great thing about the sensors offered here is that they come with driver samples (how to drive/read the sensor). So that wheel is already handled, but the last wheel will be put on by you. Because you get to develop a custom system that exactly meets your need and/or budget. Also, if you look carefully at the language/object specification you can find some "standard inteface technology samples" such as One-Wire or SPI bus. With these options, you can broaken your search of sensor options to include those interface types. If you purchase products from other parties that support those same interfacse, then you can also keep most of the driver code left in the examples. The only item you may need to recast is the actual interface card command codes. (usually may man changing string from "Abc" to "other") and then it JUST WORKS.

Take your time. Make choices about processor. Make one thing work. Make it then work well. Then make it work correctly. Then move to next and repeat. Before you know it, you have a completely just-what-you-want device with the additional pride that you BUILT IT YOURSELF.

Make sure your project planning accounts for the realities of the current holiday season.

Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year!

Always TinkerAlot and you will LearnAlot!

Sal Ammoniac

Mr. Ed - what kind of accuracy are you looking for? Choice of sensors often depends on this. If your needs are not too great accuracy wise, then you can often find a cheap and cheerful solution and avoid the expense of some of the pricier sensors.

icepuck

Mister Ed said...
I am BRAND NEW to Stamps and Parallax.

Has someone else done something similiar? No need to reinvent the wheel.

Ed

There use to be something called the HCS which was a home control system designed by the founders of an electronics magazine called the circuitcellar.

www.circuitcellar.com/

Old info on the HCS can be found at...

www.cc-concepts.com/hcsii/

hope that helps...
-dan

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Arguing with myself--sometimes me, myself, and I don't always agree.
(Former) Caterpillar product support technician

Mister Ed

"Mr. Ed - what kind of accuracy are you looking for? Choice of sensors often depends on this. If your needs are not too great accuracy wise, then you can often find a cheap and cheerful solution and avoid the expense of some of the pricier sensors."

Accuracy is not critical. Plus or minus 1 or 2 degrees. I just want to know the basic temps of my heating system and the status of the circ pumps.

Ed