Re: Web Enabled Time/Temp/Humidity and I/O Controller

["Robert Green" <robert_green1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Christopher Glaeser" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AemdnZUpo5YFYnDXnZ2dnUVZ_oydnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Anyway I can use it to monitor a vacation home 1200 miles away? I'm
> > not sure what this unit does.
>
> Yes, if the home is connected to the internet you could monitor it from a
> browser virtually anywhere.  However, you will need some hardware and
> software experience.  If you are not quite sure what this unit does based
on
> the posted description, then this may not be a good project for you.
>
> Best,
> Christopher

Agreed.  Thanks for fielding that question for me, Christopher.  It's not
for someone who's not comfortable with soldering or circuit diagrams.  As
you point out, you'd need some way to get to the internet to use it to
monitor your house remotely.  An alternative I'm exploring is using an old
laptop PC and a modem or a electronic phone dialer to have the machine
dial-out using a plain old telephone line, which many second or vacation
homes have.  Probably more of those kinds of homes have "always on"
telephone lines than "always" on internet connections.

But I'm not keen on a monitoring system that's got to establish a link v.
one that's got an internet link always available.  I think reliability would
be too low.  Another consideration is backup power.  The device draws very
little standby current, and could easily be solar powered, but to be
effective, all other devices in the access chain have to be battery-backed.

The unit is best-suited for a tinkerer with some internet smarts, some
electronic smarts and a monitoring need.  If you're not that kind of person,
I believe devices like the Sensaphone are a better fit:

http://www.sensaphone.com/sensaphone_400.php

Of course, when you find out what they sell for (or similar systems) you'll
realize why at least some of the gadgeteers among us are so thrilled to find
the "platform" for building your own version of the Sensaphone for $34.95.
Well, at least this gadgethead is.

The best way to think about the unit is as a tiny webserver that keeps track
of different conditions in the house and can take actions when those
conditions change or when a certain time has been reached or when a set
period of time has expired. The fact that it's network-enabled means that
you can buy incredibly cheap network hubs and connect the units to the
outside world or your home PCs without have to run busloads of sensor cables
all over the place.

I believe with the right (fairly cheap) gear, it will even run on a wireless
network and could be used to monitor an outbuilding's vitals without running
cable. One simple PC, netbook or smartphone could then use a browser and a
set of bookmarks to monitor each device on the net.

If my plans work out, I'll be able to access my network remotely and see the
current temps, humidity, alarm status, current power readings for the whole
house whenever I chose and have the unit send my phone an email when some
critical condition goes out of bounds.

For example, in the laundry room I want to monitor whether something's
fallen in the sink and had blocked the drain which would cause it to
overflow from running the clothes washer.  I'd also want to measure the air
temperature in the dryer vent duct to make sure it wasn't too hot - an
indication of a blocked vent (we've got birds that are *determined* to nest
in there every spring.  They've even pecked away wire screening to get in.

I'm even thinking of monitoring the washer so that clothes can presoak in
warm water for as long as the water is hotter than the ambient air.  That
way, I wouldn't be tossing hot water down the drain until I'd squeezed some
of the BTUs it took to heat it back into the laundry room.  I can also
monitor the floor drain to make sure it's not backing up, keep track of the
level in the sump pump and maybe even monitor the furnace and water heater
temperatures, too, to make sure they stay within bounds.

I think there's potential if a broad enough user community develops to reach
a broader audience as "pioneers" develop applications they are willing to
document well enough for less-capable readers to follow.  As it stands,
there aren't many examples (one, I think) on their site to make it anything
but geek accessible.  There's also the possibility of solderheads using this
board as the basis for project they could "kit out" and sell with all the
components pre-assembled and the steps carefully documented.

With that in mind, I am going to proceed slowly and write up and photograph
my projects as I create them since it's bound to make it easier for the next
person attempting to do something similar.

--
Bobby G.