Resources for “Remote Temperature Monitoring with Linux”
February 22nd, 2006 by Steven M. Lapinskas in
University Linux Page: www.documatrix-usa.com
Excel spreadsheet for Steinhart-Hart equation: www.ysitemperature.com/tech-docs-sandh.html
Digital Multimeters with Serial Port Interface
Jameco Electronics—METEX brand multimeter source: www.jameco.com
Marlin P. Jones Associates, Inc. —UNI-TREND TECHNOLOGY brand multimeter source: www.mpja.com/productview.asp?product=14311+TE
Extech Instruments Corporation—MultiPro brand multimeter source: www.extech.com/instrument/products/alpha/MP510_520_530.html
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Another approach
On March 27th, 2006 sarunas says:
An interesting article as it touches on fundamentals.
When we needed to monitor temperature in our server room I used something that involved less R&D (on my part): semiconductor temperature sensors on 1-wire bus connected via adapter to the serial port on one of the Linux machines. Sensors like DS18S20 have more than adequate accuracy (+/-0.5°C) and temperature range (-55°C to +125°C).
It is relatively easy to assemble sensors and adapters yourself and there is plenty of info available (http://www.digitemp.com/documentation.shtml). There are also ready modules available (http://www.ibuttonlink.com/). Software to scan the bus and take readings is also free and, for example, available as a Debian package 'digitemp'.
Sarunas Burdulis
Great Article
On March 22nd, 2006 Larry DeVries (not verified) says:
Steven,
I was very pleased to see your article on remote temperature monitoring with Linux. I appreciate solutions to real world engineering problems.
I had a functional but unused Compaq Armada laptop (82MB RAM maxed out) and, following your instructions, was able to put University Linux on it even though it is running Win2000 OS. I used a Utility Disk v5.04 floppy previously made for the System Commander 2000 program I have on this laptop to boot into DOS and install UL. UL seems to work fine so far although I have not completed all of your project steps.
My next step is to Telnet into this laptop using my Dell Latitude C800 laptop now on the same wire network. I downloaded Putty. I need to get the permissions in UL correct.
After reading your article my interest would be to go directly to a wireless application using your concept. Existing wireless components are on the market from suppliers such as >> http://www.pointsix.com/cgi-bin/PointSix.cgi?Point_Sensors for various kinds of sensors, receivers, transmitters. (I am in no way connected to this company, just an example). Any experience with wireless?
For a future article - in a series(?) for Linux Journal - I would like to see a description of wireless components integrated with your Linux & UL solution.
Also, under the "when will we have more and better" aspect of any engineering project I would then suggest a next iteration to include multiple sensors (of different types) and a more sophisticated monitoring software to handle a real world application of multiple types of sensors and monitoring of multiple sensors of each type.
Thanks!!
Switching device
On March 12th, 2006 anonymous (not verified) says:
Good article. Can you recommend a switching device for multiple inputs? I've had no luck finding anything designed for multimeters.
Thanks.
loved your article in 06Apr issue
On March 2nd, 2006 bob findlay (not verified) says:
Loved your article.
I've been playing with similar temperature monitoring/control applications that you alluded to in your article using a deeply embedded appliance produced by IO anywhere Inc.
The API to this box is open source and there is a demo5.tcl in the package below that you might want to check out:
http://members.allstream.net/~fcsoft/ioanywhere/windowsHowTo.html
Although it is setup to run under Windows, it is a simple matter of commenting out the c: lines and in the environment variable lines to get it to run under Linux.
bob