Wifi Temperature Sensors

[Angelfire]

Hiya,
The thread on weather stations got me thinking that installing temperature sensors in some key places might be helpful. I have a vacation home and would love to be able to read the temp in the crawl space or even the water line coming into the house, from long distance. As well, other applications could be to put moisture detectors under water heaters, temperature sensors in remote freezers/fridges, etc....

I see a number of them out there but was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? I could build my own I suppose but it would probably just be easier to purchase something. Ideally, they'd work with wifi so I can read them regardless of where I am.

Peace of mind can get expensive!

 

[JonnyMac]

What i use at work is a variety of sensors etc but essentially the remote viewing is done via a piece of free software called VNC viewer which views any ip address. Obviously you need to have your sensors recording to a pc thats online but it's probably the most adaptable way to do it. Theres all sorts of ways to get the sensor data to the pc. I have a multitude of thermocouples scattered around a workshop which can be seen on my phone whenever I need to...

 

[Angelfire]

So what did you use for sensors (ie. you mentioned thermocouples) such that they would connect to the web for viewing? I assume these sensors have wifi built in or did you connect them to a small arduino type board?

 

[Steevo]

I have heard that this system is pretty good:
http://www.temperaturealert.com/Wireless-Temperature-Store/Temperature-Alert-WiFi-Sensor.aspx

We used this kind from Aeroscout in healthcare settings (Stanley bought the company):
http://www.stanleyhealthcare.com/solutions/environmental-monitoring

 

[Redlunn]

I recently had the same need to remotely track temperature and humidity and I ended up going the DIY route with an arduino and humidity/temp sensor wired in. It's super simple and you can choose what to do with the data. I have it posting to ThingSpeak every 30 seconds and it will email me the current values if they ever fall below a preset level. Once the data is posted to a site like ThingSpeak or Xively, you can view it from anywhere. I often take a look at graphs from my smartphone. The biggest issue I have with arduino type projects is getting them into a finished form instead of a circuit board with wires hanging all over just waiting for my 2yr old boy to rip them to shreds.

Heres is the sensor I use
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12064

And here is this morning's temp graph from ThingSpeak (it's pretty clear when the programmable themostat kicks in the heat for morning)

 

[Angelfire]

Dammit anyway Redlun, now you've got me thinking of making my own! Yet another project......

Seriously though, where did you go to learn all the ins and outs of the arduino, coding, etc..? I've heard they are very simple to use/program etc.. but I've been out of the board level design/programming for many years.

Steevo, thanks for the links...I still may be able to resist building these things myself!

 

[inphx]

Arduino parts from DX.com if you can wait a few weeks for delivery. Dht11 is an inexpensive temp humidity sensor.

 

[Robert Hall]

Seriously though, where did you go to learn all the ins and outs of the arduino, coding, etc..? I've heard they are very simple to use/program etc.. but I've been out of the board level design/programming for many years.

Here is a free pdf book on how to program an arduino.

http://it-ebooks.info/book/2988/

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Just remember it's not rocket science.

 

[Redlunn]

Dammit anyway Redlun, now you've got me thinking of making my own! Yet another project......

Seriously though, where did you go to learn all the ins and outs of the arduino, coding, etc..? I've heard they are very simple to use/program etc.. but I've been out of the board level design/programming for many years.

I went into the project wanting to play with the electronics so the DIY route made sense but it's not for everyone. If you are primarily interested with the outcome, a purchased product will be easier and likely more reliable but you'd miss out on all the fun.

As other members have pointed out, there are numerous books with some geared for people with no electronics or programming experience. One nice thing about arduino is the amount of information and pre made library files available for almost any application. For example, the code and wiring for the temp sensor I used can be found here and example code for posting data toThingSpeak can be found here. For both of those applications you can basically copy directly from the web and have a working program. Once you get both working independently, tying them together is relatively painless.

 

[kf4zht]

Take a look at Ubiquiti mFi stuff. I use their wireless in a few hundred setups, best bang of the buck. mFi give you temp sensors, but you can also add current sensors, motion sensors, controllable power strips, etc.

 

[StevePgh]

If you are more familiar with Microsoft programming (C#/VB) or know someone that is, the ".NET Gadgeteer" platform is decent. It's designed to be simpler than Arduino on the programming and wiring side (plug and play modules). I bought a board and a couple of sensors to play around with last month.

A board with an Ethernet port will run you $40 (Bambino 200E), the sensor for temp/humidity is $23 (but that is for temp/humidity at the location of the board. You could get a thermocouple module or two for $25 each and run up to 100' shielded wire to a remote spot for temperature only monitoring. A power supply for $10 or less. Lots of other sensor options as well (including an ODB-II).

When you want to start dealing with sensors at other locations in the house, it can get expensive. The $25 XBee wireless modules (not WiFi) allow for remote boards to talk to each other, but that means you still need another main board, whatever sensors you want, another power supply, and an XBee module (plus an XBee module for the main unit). I haven't played with the XBee modules yet.

 

[JonnyMac]

We use hard wired thermocouple just because it's a requirement of our accreditation but I thinks its the most robust way to do it as they hardly ever go down. They feed into a Picologger which in turn feeds a pc. Now Picologger isn't a particularly cheap unit but it is very easy to program.
However search for Thermocouple PLC (programmable logic controller) and you should find something far cheaper. All the programming software is free these days if you search the web..