iButtons
Tim-M
Posts: 522
I don't hear·much about projects using iButtons and I don't see them for sale·in the Parallax product line-up anymore... I'm just wondering if there is a particular reason for this, or if that product line just isn't very popular with hobbyists?
Tim
Tim
Comments
I had never heard of these. A little googling later. Wow! Pretty neat. Did Parallax sell them at one time?
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Whit+
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer
Parallax, Inc.
I·get the feeling that·there are alot of folks who have not heard about iButtons.· Yep, Parallax used to carry them.·(Wonder if I have an older catalog around yet that has them listed? -- I bet I do.)· I have to say that I expected them to be very popular... especially in the Basic Stamp community.· They are a wonderful product line, just ripe with creative possibilities.
Paul,
My gut feel is that the low sales were due to a market·timing thing...·I think Parallax was ahead of it's time in selling them when you did.· Now that the hobbiest uC market has had a little more time to·mature and grow, and with the advent of the Propeller, I would venture a guess that they would do better.· I'm sorry to hear you·confirm that you do not carry them any longer.· Do you have any remaining·stock hanging about in the corners?
Tim
(I have a whole lot of them, and 'quite a few' SMT and TO-92 1-wire chips)
The fact that my BS2 board has a socket for them, and the BS2p/BS2pe/BS2px have SW support, made me think that it would make a good electronic lock for my car, but alas, I never got the time to do that properly. (I had most of the code up and running in a matter of evenings) I just had to figure out how to control the actuators.
Then my car got backed over by a dump-truck...
I still have the iButtons, I got a few Propeller Protoboards, and the doorlocks on the car I have now, are beginning to act flaky... Maybe it's time to resurrect this project?
Anyway, you'd think that some of the iButtons would be very popular with the hobbyist crowd...
One has 64Kbit storage. (8KB)
There's the Java iButton. Did anyone say 'Co-processor in a can'?
Certain of the other 1-wire chips are very useful, too...
The latches, f.ex. allows you to have hundreds or more simple peripherals connected to ONE pin.
And you can switch them all ON or OFF at the same time, or individually, if you prefer.
Combine that with the network switches, which allows you to group the peripherals, and you get Individual/Group/All selectability.
Need to do concurrent temperature readings on all floors of a big office-building?
Hook a few temperature sensors to the same 1-wire grid that you use to control the lights...
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Don't visit my new website...
In some cases, like the Thermochrons and Hygrochrons, they really are independent data recorders with real time clocks that stand alone. Unless you want to network them, there is little to do. And even then, there are cheaper choices for a network of temperature and humidity measurement as you don't need redundant memory and redundant clocks.
On the other hand, the clock·iButton is a quite attractive supporting chip·as it has its own battery and operates when power to the BasicStamp is off.· It has just about the smallest real estate that a complete outboard clock could provide.· It is easy to swap out too.
I am not sure what I would want the others for, but there are memory buttons and ID buttons.· Do these things really fit into your system needs or are you happy with more generic chip?
The great disappointment I have with iButtons is that they are often hard to get in small quantitiy and quick turnaround.· I've tried to order the clock a few times and it never seems to be available. The manufacturer seems to want someone to buy 10,000 and wants them incorporated in other devices before·one can really be viewed as a customer.·
In spite of that, I do have one Hygrochron and three Thermochrons that I showed to local orchid growers for quality assurance of shipments, but even with interested customers·I can't seem to buy a few more on demand [noparse][[/noparse]have to wait months·for a production run] to allow them to explore their usefulness.· So, I started looking at and suggesting larger data recorders that are competatively priced with immediate availablity [noparse][[/noparse]and replacable batteries].
In sum, other 1-wire products are far more economically realistic and better supported.· The iButtons seemed to be orphaned by their own company as·a somewhat over-developed package concept that cannot find marketing traction.
Nonetheless, I love the Thermochrons and Hygrochrons·for what they are - one of the most extremely sophisticated tinyest microcomputers with internal power for several years.· They are truly a marvel of engineering.
I just wish I could recharge the battery rather than throw them away.· They only have a few years of useful life at best.
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"Everything in the world is purchased by labour; and our passions are the only causes of labor." -- David·Hume (1711-76)········
I'd probably switch to RFID now, using some of the smaller tags. The older ones wouldn't fit and the range is only a cm or two.
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Don't visit my new website...
One can continue to use the devices with a dead battery, but there is no backup if the external battery goes down.
From what I have gathered, regardless of advances in low power and technology, any battery is a chemically corrosive and active package - even if it is not plugged in. So rarely does their useful shelf life go for more than 5 years.
Of course, it does help to do two things - keep the battery at full charge it at all possible AND keep the battery at the lowest reasonable temperature. [noparse][[/noparse]I have my iButtons in Tropical Taiwan which is really not good as I don't have a refrigerator to store them]
Of course, not all iButtons have internal batteries.· But the micro power with battery included is one of their best features.
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"Everything in the world is purchased by labour; and our passions are the only causes of labor." -- David·Hume (1711-76)········
Post Edited (Kramer) : 9/6/2007 10:50:52 AM GMT
The documentation on the unit I used was very ambiguous and I spent some days, and some posts to this forum to work out how Maxim allocated their memory pages.
As Kramer says, the units are expensive in small quantities. In fact, they are expensive in any quantity.
There are often better, cheaper ways of achieving the same end product. For example, one of the major car Satellite Tracker/alarm/immobilizer manufacturers upgraded their product to use a 1wire EEPROM module into a plastic holder in place of an iButton (special low cost product for Africa and the East where anything can get stolen).
The question one needs to ask is why a mature product (over 15 years old) hasn’t taken off. A lesson I’ve been slow to learn is if no one else is using the product, don’t be the first…
In South Africa, one car in 5 will be stolen during it’s life so there should have been plenty of scope round here for the security iButtons!!!
John Bond
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/260963981538 5 ibuttons $6
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140795517595 3 pickups $15
http://www.picaxe.com/docs/axe109.pdf "off brand" chip & info
I have a box of humidity and temperature recording iButtons that I acquired some time ago for a project monitoring the shipment of live orchids to Europe.
And it have a few Tini DS80C410 Motherboards that actually have a socket for installing one iButton. There are contexts where they really can be quite useful, but if you are building bareboards, many times a 1-wire chip is quite adequate.
You could use them to start a 'key club' and hand out one to each member to gain entry.
If you stop it from recording, then restart it, it will reset the memory.
So if you know when it was supposed to be activated, and how long between measurements, it's easy to verify that a shipper didn't 'switch it off' to hide 'out of bound' temperatures in their trucks.
(you of course need to make certain that they can't be removed from the goods, but that's another issue entirely)
If you use an iButton as a 'key' to a vehicle or something, you can use not just the serial number to identify the driver, but also to store personal settings(motorized seats, mirrors, preferred AC setting).
I believe they have rings available that holds an iButton, and at least one couple got custom rings made by a goldsmith when they got married.
The iButtons on them contains a B/W picture of their significant other.
http://www.samsung.com/us/microsite/tectile/
I would like to place one on nightstand that will turn texts alert silent and
one in the car (on cradle as max distance is 1") to auto reply to texts that i'm driving and will get back too you.
As I don't want to use another sticker to go back to normal mode,
I hope that there is setting that it will check for the tag every 2 minutes to see if it's still there.
NFC is the future version of Ibutton.
This makes me want to trade my iPhone for a Samsung phone. This is cool!
Interesting. The BUY NOW option takes you to PAGE NOT FOUND. tonyp12 got the last ones!
I'd agree that NFC is the future version of iButton. Now what's the cheapest reader for an NFC tag, if you don't use a smartphone? I do like that a $2.50 Picaxe 08M2 can read the iButton directly.
The storied $10 iButton ring... the first choice of Java geeks everywhere. I must have one when I find a size 9.
Tony have you seen this? http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/27/samsung-galaxy-s-4-drops-original-tectile-support/
I have the GS3. These are pretty cool...
No I used http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/accessories/appcessories/sku6120246.html#fbid=gytc3qS7jBg
I had $10 off $15 coupon from signing up with ATTALERTS, location based ad-texts that I plan to text STOP to soon though I only got one text yet.
I have the Galaxy S III too.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/03/did-samsung-flub-the-galaxy-s4-intentionally.aspx