Maker Pro
Maker Pro

suggestions on direction for temp monitor/control

J

JeffH

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm way out of my league on this newsgroup, but at present I don't
have a lot of resources to ask questions about this. Anyway, perhaps
someone can point me to the path.

I want to monitor temperatures in numerous locations at various
distances (two applications - one is for making beer at home where I
want to monitor temperatures and fire off a heater when the temp
drops, applying some logic to the process. The second application
would be monitoring conditions in various areas in the home and
opening/closing vents and controlling the furnace). I am comfortable
with programming on a PC (I prefer C, not interested in BASIC at all).
Programming a PIC is not out of the question as long as I have some
resources to learn up on it.

I also see there are several products out there - the BASIC Stamp, the
C-Stamp, and the MakingThings controller. The BASIC stamp does not
appeal to me because it uses BASIC. The others give me concern about
support - if that's really an issue.

What I don't really see is a way for the computer to be the processor
and do IO through a cable. I'm sure that's an option, but I haven't
run across it yet beyond the linux-powered-coffeepot which uses a
single serial connection for some really basic stuff.

My concerns are being pigeon holed into something limited for the day
when I want to do more. That's why the PIC route is appealing - but it
is a bit more of a ramp-up to get going on so I'd need some good
training material to get rolling on it. I'm also concerned about the
usefulness of sensors from platform to platform - would a temperature
sensor I purchases initially for a C-Stamp work well with a PIC
controller. Another concern is running out of I/O for controlling
relays and getting data - the MakeThings controller is particularly
sketchy on it's specs.

So if someone was just getting into PICs is there a good book to buy?
A concise website designed for the newbie? Anyone have opinions about
going the Stamp/MakeThings route for my application? I've read a
number of the PIC vs Stamp emails in the forum already but knowing WRT
my applications would be more helpful. Any resources you can point me
to would be very helpful.

Thanks,
-Jeff

So any suggestions about
 
R

Rich Webb

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm way out of my league on this newsgroup, but at present I don't
have a lot of resources to ask questions about this. Anyway, perhaps
someone can point me to the path.

I want to monitor temperatures in numerous locations at various
distances (two applications - one is for making beer at home where I
want to monitor temperatures and fire off a heater when the temp
drops, applying some logic to the process. The second application
would be monitoring conditions in various areas in the home and
opening/closing vents and controlling the furnace). I am comfortable
with programming on a PC (I prefer C, not interested in BASIC at all).
Programming a PIC is not out of the question as long as I have some
resources to learn up on it.

I also see there are several products out there - the BASIC Stamp, the
C-Stamp, and the MakingThings controller. The BASIC stamp does not
appeal to me because it uses BASIC. The others give me concern about
support - if that's really an issue.

The Arduino boards are becoming a popular alternative to the [xxx] Stamp
style. They're open source hardware and software platforms that are
pretty easy to use and don't require a lot of additional work to get
something up and running.

Their home is at http://www.arduino.cc/.

One (among many) place that sells Arduino-compatible boards is
http://moderndevice.com/. I got one of their kits out of curiousity and
it worked fine. You will need either an USB->TTL-level serial or a
232->TTL-serial converter; they have both for a decent price.

Another resource to get to know is Sparkfun
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php
They have Arduino (and many other) dev boards as well as sensors and
things aimed at the enthusiast market.
What I don't really see is a way for the computer to be the processor
and do IO through a cable. I'm sure that's an option, but I haven't
run across it yet beyond the linux-powered-coffeepot which uses a
single serial connection for some really basic stuff.

Nothing particularly wrong with serial comms and they do have the
advantage of being easy to implement. If necessary, you could gateway it
to the outside world through a PC.
My concerns are being pigeon holed into something limited for the day
when I want to do more. That's why the PIC route is appealing - but it
is a bit more of a ramp-up to get going on so I'd need some good
training material to get rolling on it. I'm also concerned about the
usefulness of sensors from platform to platform - would a temperature
sensor I purchases initially for a C-Stamp work well with a PIC
controller. Another concern is running out of I/O for controlling
relays and getting data - the MakeThings controller is particularly
sketchy on it's specs.

One way to expand the system is to make one board the master (it talks
to the PC over 232 serial) and have the master talk with the next layer
down over an SPI link (avsynchronous serial link with individual enable
lines).
 
H

hrh1818

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm way out of my league on this newsgroup, but at present I don't
have a lot of resources to ask questions about this. Anyway, perhaps
someone can point me to the path.

I want to monitor temperatures in numerous locations at various
distances (two applications - one is for making beer at home where I
want to monitor temperatures and fire off a heater when the temp
drops, applying some logic to the process. The second application
would be monitoring conditions in various areas in the home and
opening/closing vents and controlling the furnace). I am comfortable
with programming on a PC (I prefer C, not interested in BASIC at all).
Programming a PIC is not out of the question as long as I have some
resources to learn up on it.

I also see there are several products out there - the BASIC Stamp, the
C-Stamp, and the MakingThings controller. The BASIC stamp does not
appeal to me because it uses BASIC. The others give me concern about
support - if that's really an issue.

What I don't really see is a way for the computer to be the processor
and do IO through a cable. I'm sure that's an option, but I haven't
run across it yet beyond the linux-powered-coffeepot which uses a
single serial connection for some really basic stuff.

My concerns are being pigeon holed into something limited for the day
when I want to do more. That's why the PIC route is appealing - but it
is a bit more of a ramp-up to get going on so I'd need some good
training material to get rolling on it. I'm also concerned about the
usefulness of sensors from platform to platform - would a temperature
sensor I purchases initially for a C-Stamp work well with a PIC
controller. Another concern is running out of I/O for controlling
relays and getting data - the MakeThings controller is particularly
sketchy on it's specs.

So if someone was just getting into PICs is there a good book to buy?
A concise website designed for the newbie? Anyone have opinions about
going the Stamp/MakeThings route for my application? I've read a
number of the PIC vs Stamp emails in the forum already but knowing WRT
my applications would be more helpful. Any resources you can point me
to would be very helpful.

Thanks,
-Jeff

So any suggestions about

One possibility is to use one wire temperature sensors made by Maxim.
In earlier life they were made by Dallas Semiconductor.
The people at http://www.digitemp.com/ have software available for
using one wire temperature sensors with Linux. Tomorrow when I get
more time I will see what I can find for outputting control signal
from Linux.

Howard
 
H

hrh1818

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm way out of my league on this newsgroup, but at present I don't
have a lot of resources to ask questions about this. Anyway, perhaps
someone can point me to the path.

I want to monitor temperatures in numerous locations at various
distances (two applications - one is for making beer at home where I
want to monitor temperatures and fire off a heater when the temp
drops, applying some logic to the process. The second application
would be monitoring conditions in various areas in the home and
opening/closing vents and controlling the furnace). I am comfortable
with programming on a PC (I prefer C, not interested in BASIC at all).
Programming a PIC is not out of the question as long as I have some
resources to learn up on it.

I also see there are several products out there - the BASIC Stamp, the
C-Stamp, and the MakingThings controller. The BASIC stamp does not
appeal to me because it uses BASIC. The others give me concern about
support - if that's really an issue.

What I don't really see is a way for the computer to be the processor
and do IO through a cable. I'm sure that's an option, but I haven't
run across it yet beyond the linux-powered-coffeepot which uses a
single serial connection for some really basic stuff.

My concerns are being pigeon holed into something limited for the day
when I want to do more. That's why the PIC route is appealing - but it
is a bit more of a ramp-up to get going on so I'd need some good
training material to get rolling on it. I'm also concerned about the
usefulness of sensors from platform to platform - would a temperature
sensor I purchases initially for a C-Stamp work well with a PIC
controller. Another concern is running out of I/O for controlling
relays and getting data - the MakeThings controller is particularly
sketchy on it's specs.

So if someone was just getting into PICs is there a good book to buy?
A concise website designed for the newbie? Anyone have opinions about
going the Stamp/MakeThings route for my application? I've read a
number of the PIC vs Stamp emails in the forum already but knowing WRT
my applications would be more helpful. Any resources you can point me
to would be very helpful.

Thanks,
-Jeff

So any suggestions about

I haven't found anything to use with LINUX yet. However, here is an
alternative using a serial port to interface a PC to analog and
digital I/o signals.
http://www.ontrak.net/products.htm Ontrak Control Systems has an
excellent Web Page devoted to Programming Serial Data Acquisition
Products See: http://www.ontrak.net/Programming.htm

Howard
 
A

aubug2

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm way out of my league on this newsgroup, but at present I don't
have a lot of resources to ask questions about this. Anyway, perhaps
someone can point me to the path.

I want to monitor temperatures in numerous locations at various
distances (two applications - one is for making beer at home where I
want to monitor temperatures and fire off a heater when the temp
drops, applying some logic to the process. The second application
would be monitoring conditions in various areas in the home and
opening/closing vents and controlling the furnace). I am comfortable
with programming on a PC (I prefer C, not interested in BASIC at all).
Programming a PIC is not out of the question as long as I have some
resources to learn up on it.

I also see there are several products out there - the BASIC Stamp, the
C-Stamp, and the MakingThings controller. The BASIC stamp does not
appeal to me because it uses BASIC. The others give me concern about
support - if that's really an issue.

What I don't really see is a way for the computer to be the processor
and do IO through a cable. I'm sure that's an option, but I haven't
run across it yet beyond the linux-powered-coffeepot which uses a
single serial connection for some really basic stuff.

My concerns are being pigeon holed into something limited for the day
when I want to do more. That's why the PIC route is appealing - but it
is a bit more of a ramp-up to get going on so I'd need some good
training material to get rolling on it. I'm also concerned about the
usefulness of sensors from platform to platform - would a temperature
sensor I purchases initially for a C-Stamp work well with a PIC
controller. Another concern is running out of I/O for controlling
relays and getting data - the MakeThings controller is particularly
sketchy on it's specs.

So if someone was just getting into PICs is there a good book to buy?
A concise website designed for the newbie? Anyone have opinions about
going the Stamp/MakeThings route for my application? I've read a
number of the PIC vs Stamp emails in the forum already but knowing WRT
my applications would be more helpful. Any resources you can point me
to would be very helpful.

Thanks,
-Jeff

So any suggestions about
 
J

JeffH

Jan 1, 1970
0
Lots of good information; thanks you all for your input. I am
particularly interested in the Arduino board now, so I think I'll
start there.

Thanks again,
-Jeff
 
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