Webserver and Temperature Sensor

[Bodensee77]

Hi guys,

I have a WL 550gP Router. What I want to do: Install a temperature sensor at home and call up the temperature value via internet. I don't want to have any computer running all time due to energy costs.

Thank you for your help!
Bodensee77

[raas]

Hi,

For this you need some analog or digital I/O to the router.
A product which can do this is the velleman K8055 usb interface board: http://www.velleman.be/ot/en/product/view/?id=351346

This board has 2 analog and 5 digital inputs (it also has 8 digital outputs, but you don't need them for this)

As temperature sensor you could look at Maxim's DS600: http://datasheets.maxim-ic.com/en/ds/DS600.pdf this one can be used with the velleman board.

For letting linux interface with the velleman board, have a look at the following 'library' : http://libk8055.sourceforge.net/


Furthermore, this thread is about adding analog/digital I/O to the asus: http://www.wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=1598

What you do is, connect the velleman board to the asus.. use the libk8055 to read out its values and use these to get the desired values you want.. (ie. convert analog input tot degrees Celcius or Fahrenheit)



Hope this helps.
(I'm using all of the above for my domotica project, monitoring gas and electricity usage in conjunction with outside and inside temperatures, all data is logged into mysql database and graphics/info is created.)

logging of electricity usage last-30-minutes:


Or the cost of electricity per day (hi and lo tarifs)



Not exactly what you want to do, but with the same stuff you'll get an-internet-enabled-temperature-meter.

Hope this helps

[darius]

What about very basic solution like
temperature LCD display image recognition from cheap weather station using web cam and remote temperature sensor ?

web cam is really a good interface if only data is visualized on LCD display.
Image recognition, motion detection with wii cam worked fine for me.

Darius

[raas]

Hi,

I don't know which is cheaper, the solution I pointed out will set you back 30-40 euro's and some of your time.

[darius]

Hi,

I don't know which is cheaper, the solution I pointed out will set you back 30-40 euro's and some of your time.

Ok.
How much time
and how can I monitor gas, electricity, water usage with this board ?
Please write more about your domotica project.

Personally I would prefer bluetooth-based remote sensors as an option.

Darius

[raas]

Darius,

How much time? I don't know once I've written it all up. research takes some time.
How to monitor gas & electricity? Have a look at my first post in this thread, the grey cursive part which tells how to do it http://www.wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=16815

I haven't thought about water usage yet, mainly because it's dirt cheap,

Wait for the how to, it's my intention to share the thing on the forum, but I haven't had the time to fine tune the gas-detection yet.
Electricity is fine and works 100% and is pretty easy to detect (if you have an electricity meter like described in the post)

just put a 1k resistor in series with an LDR and lead it to the velleman input 1 or 2 (hw counters, 16 bit)

5v-------LDR---|---1Kresistor-----GND

now at the point where the pipeline is, this is your velleman sensor input. connect the ground of the vellemand to ground of schematic above and use the pipeline to input 1 or 2, for counter, 3-5 for detection of Hi or Lo tarif.

write script to log. voila.

[darius]

Electronics is great.
One week ago visited ALDI store and asked about radio controlled electronic watch (mechanical - no LCD), trying to discover how to get radio clock signal detected and decoded for use in time server (broadcasted from Frankfurt).
Manager assured me everything was ok as I started it on to test time synchronization procedure.

And today I visited the same ALDI store and my clock is still unsold.
Time synchronization works fine, unfortunately no time zones and I get time
1 hour delayed.

I prefer to use no eletronics and get not involved into anything called I2C or the like, as my brother is a professional electronician.

I really love the way Bluetooth works and would prefer Velemann and other distributors like Conrad Electronics to start promoting wireless products.

Basic $10 weather station with remote temperature sensor works exactly wireless.

My friends started business building electronic accesories, sensors, connected to GSM phones.
Old used GSM phone is $10 and can read AT commands, can send SMS.

One global standard and it works.
Today usb is such standard

My Google query for
gsm usb temperature sensor
http://images.google.com/images?um=1...=Search+Images

http://www.comet-datalogger.hu/engli...ataloggers.htm

Hygrometer - thermometer is designed for record of air relative humidity and temperature, optionally in combination with voltage signal 0-5V. Relative humidity and temperature values are stored to a non volatile electronic memory. Data transfer to the personal computer for further analysis is performed via USB, RS232, GSM or Ethernet interface by means of a proper adapter.

As my old Motorola V3 is usb-jack enabled
I would love basic data logger software + usb temp. humidity sensors with inbuilt usb hub at $5 each, ok. at $10 total.
and no electronic , no wiring, no soldering please.

Darius

[raas]

First, Sorry Bodensee if we're hijacking the thread, but I think the information you requested is here.

Darius,
If you prefer no soldering, the velleman kit is also available completely soldered. But it's really easy to solder. the pcb is layed-out well, and there's enough space between the connections, so it shouldn't be that hard, it has taken me 45 minutes to complete.

The reason I purchased the velleman board is because it also has 8 outputs with which you can control 'stuff'. (and if you use the out puts to build an array you can controll up to 256 devices (switched on or of). and although the device has only 2 analog inputs, again with an switching array this can be expanded 4, 8, 16, .. (only you loose one output for each expansion step, because with the output setting you can control which sensors do give input on the board)

I need this because in the next step I want to let the asus control the heating of my house. This is going to be 'smart-heating' which uses some sort of timesheet and lower boundaries for heating the rooms in my house.
This allows me to have intelligent heating and have -for example- the studyroom warmed up by 7pm at a nice temperature. Or like, I have some kind of a greenhouse attached to my house where I keep lots of (tropical) plants. these plants will not survive temperatures lower than 10-15 degrees celcius. If I have an intelligent heating system I can only warm the greenhouse like when I'm not at home when the temperature dropping to ~ 11 degrees, have the asus to control all the radiatiors in the house to close, only open up the radiator in the greenhouse and let the central heating do the heating of the greenhouse so no energy gets lost while heating the house when I'm not there (I must say, I'm not that good at turning the knobs and closing each radiator when I leave a room). so with the right sensors (input) and water valves (output) I want to make a very comfortable and energy wise system. (right now there's an electric heater to heat the greenhouse when the CH is not on) also, if you log anything, it can predict trends. like.. the study has to be warmed by 7pm at 22 degrees, it's 10 degrees outside, diff=12 degrees, having the study heated multiple times, the system can predict how long it takes to heat the room and can decide when to start the heating. (and how to heat, like if you heat slowly, it will take a lot less enery than you heat quickly, if you have the setting on the CH).

Now, for wirelessly transmitting your own data have a look at the following kit from conrad.. don't know if it's bluetooth, but it allows you to transmit data from one piece of electronics to another piece of electronics.
look up product number 190939 at www.conrad-int.com or use the link (don't know if it still works because of the browser session) http://www.conrad-int.com/websale7/T...81e06%2fmd5%7d


About datalogging, I prefer my own (relational) database (currently on mysql) because I'm more flexible in what I want to do. Also, raw (pure) data is stored so it can be used later on in whatever way you like. Each minute all values are logged to the database. 1 month of logging costs about 3,5 Megabyte of storage. For logging, I have created a bash script which is fired every minute.. this reads settings from mysql, reads inputs from the velleman board.. processes all the data and insert(s) record(s) to the database, like recording the current situation. This you do every minute.. calculate differences along time and you know the fluctuations which is than in fact, gas usage, electricity usage or temperatures.

Do some research an start experimenting.

[darius]

.....


Now, for wirelessly transmitting your own data have a look at the following kit from conrad.. don't know if it's bluetooth, but it allows you to transmit data from one piece of electronics to another piece of electronics.
look up product number 190939 at www.conrad-int.com or use the link (don't know if it still works because of the browser session) http://www.conrad-int.com/websale7/T...81e06%2fmd5%7d

....
Thanks.
Ok. I visited Conrad.
http://www2.produktinfo.conrad.com/d...Set_868MHz.pdf

What about input/output signals interfacing AC/DC.
Sorry, too complicated for me.

My friend is operating electronic service shop and I try to pay him for any I2C
solution and never succedded to to get one finished.

Exactly you get sender/receiver kit/pair with any $10 weather station with remote temperature sensor.

On the other hand , bluetooth solutions, applications are not easy to use, as BT protocol is really smart and sophisticated.
So I don't expect click-n-go BT solutions frm Conrad soon.

Wish you luck with your project anyway.

Darius

[raas]

Hi,

such modules (also your weather station) typically operate at 433 or 866 mhz.
you could also have a look at 'XBee' modules.
These are good available and well documented and do wireless what you want (i think).

[darius]

Hi,

such modules (also your weather station) typically operate at 433 or 866 mhz.
you could also have a look at 'XBee' modules.
These are good available and well documented and do wireless what you want (i think).

Ok.
I can buy such weather station with remote temperature sensor
and what next.
One miroprocessor with C code does the job.
No chance to have more than one remote sensor and basic multiplexing
between them.
Too complicated.

IT was invented to replace electronics one day

I worked with multitouch projects and image processing, medical image recognition is a nice way of interfacing not interconnected systems, LCD displays and more.

It works the following way.
3G/umts phone with camera, sending images at set interval to server
and servers does image recognition (basic OCR algorithms)
to get data extrated and feed into mySQL databases for post/ on-line processing.

Ok. There is a problem to get quality image from passive light LCD diplays.
And believe me, once this is solved, there is no simpler solution to interface remote LCD displays, data loggers with remote servers.

There is no standard in home/ office utility electronics I could rely one.
Ok. MAX RS232 converter.
I have already visited, joined many home electronics/ control groups, forums
and any solution provided is for advanced electronicians and it doesn't come for free.

One open interface in many electronic devices is analog audio in/out.

Darius

[raas]

and any solution provided is for advanced electronicians and it doesn't come for free

nothing is for free, only the sun.
would be a nice waste of bandwith. to send over a picture. (lots of kb's, lets say 200kb), instead of only 1 or 2 bytes which are needed

would be like copy a dvd to vhs by placing a videocamera in front of a television, only as a last resort maybe

about the wireless transceiver I posted, if you use 2 microprocessors, like the 16F84, you can connect one to the sender and one to the receiver. use the sending side to collect data (the 16F84 has several inputs and outputs) and use the processor on the receiving part to output info to an character lcd.

check elektor.com its website and search in projects, there are matching projects there. but remember, nothing is free, so if you're not an elector subscriber you've to pay small amount of money to obtain access to a diagram.
http://www.elektor.com/magazines.467...4-91d6f3b0bec3

[wpte]

raas, I have a Atmel AT90USBkey for college wich I had to program.
I wrote a program to send data over usb (and receive it). I used the joystick on the right to send data over wich appeared in a log screen in C#, also I could turn some LED's on quite nice

well... the point is, that this little usb stick also has a temperature sensor:

The block above R27 is the sensor.

I also could make the program so it would send the temperature over with 8bits. (however the sensor itself supports 10bits).

I could programm the usbkey myself, but... I don't have any linux programming skills yet (only windowze C# and the ansi C for this usb stick).

I managed to recognize the usb stick via insmod usbserial but I dunno


and darius: IT wouldn't exist without electronics, and won't be able to exist if electronics would go away. or do you claim you have a quantum mechanical computer brain? :P
This usb key is actually quite an overkill for simple temperature logging wich only needs an IC and some other things.

[al37919]

I also could make the program so it would send the temperature over with 8bits. (however the sensor itself supports 10bits).

I could programm the usbkey myself, but... I don't have any linux programming skills yet (only windowze C# and the ansi C for this usb stick).

I managed to recognize the usb stick via insmod usbserial but I dunno

I think it's pretty easy. Actually you don't need to program anything in linux (or only a small script). There are several ways to communicate with this dongle, however, the easiest would be so called CDC. It means actually a UART emulation over USB. So you need to make a firmware for the dongle which will receive some command and send back needed data, or just send the value let say every second.

Atmel has on the site sources of demo CDC project, however, I'd recommend you to pay attention to the LUFA project: http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php

There is also CDC demo project inside and the nice thing it that it works

Don't forget that you have to start usbserial in the following way:
insmod usbserial vendor=0x1234 product=0x5678
Actual vid&pid values can be found in dmesg output

[wpte]

I think it's pretty easy. Actually you don't need to program anything in linux (or only a small script). There are several ways to communicate with this dongle, however, the easiest would be so called CDC. It means actually a UART emulation over USB. So you need to make a firmware for the dongle which will receive some command and send back needed data, or just send the value let say every second.

Atmel has on the site sources of demo CDC project, however, I'd recommend you to pay attention to the LUFA project: http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php

There is also CDC demo project inside and the nice thing it that it works

Don't forget that you have to start usbserial in the following way:
insmod usbserial vendor=0x1234 product=0x5678
Actual vid&pid values can be found in dmesg output

Yes I know the Lufa project, I tried implementing some pieces of it in the project I recently did for college. Unfortunately the pieces (of the temperature sensor) don't really work that well, or I'm doing something completetly wrong
the usb-stick is displayed as an usb-hid device, some put together program from other sources, wich works to send and receive stuff

I'll take a look at that CDC demo project