For the Data Logging Crowd - Realtime Garn H2O Operating Temps via Pachube

[deerhntr]

It has been a while since I had anything worth while to add to this very informative forum until recently. I added an ethernet shield to my Arduino Board that I use to monitor a few temp points on our GARN 2000. My intention was to use the ethernet board to serve a web page on my internal home network for visualization of the temp data. In the process I found this cool web / cloud based service called (broken link removed). Basically, you can get an account for free from pachube, and then serve your account the data, and visualize the data feed, realtime, at the pachube web site. This web service really took off after the Nuclear disaster in Japan when people started building home-made geiger counters, and using pachube to feed the data, and challenge the government's claims of "Don't worry we are all safe, radiation levels are well within safe limits."

So any way, I pointed my arduino based server to pachube, and I really like the results. I can browse there anytime, anywhere and see how my system is doing. I can also, via the apps they provide, generate html code to embed my plots/graphs on a blog or a web site. It really is very easy to feed your data, basically you send csv data points to a web address, and they do the rest.

Here is a (broken link removed) to my feed. Currently, I am feeding 5 data streams: My Tank Temperature, Supply In the House, Return In the House, Garn Barn Temp, and the Difference( House Supply - House Return). Take a look and see what you think. If there is enough interest in the code, could add it to the arduino wiki here on the site. Otherwise, pm me, and I could send you a "zip" file.

BTW, I added a couple of the embedded plots to my blog, if you are interested in how that looks, just browse there from my signature.

Enjoy!

 

[bpirger]

Russ, looks great! As you say, great to be able to check from anywhere, anytime!

Do you have many sensors connected on the same bus?

Can you plot different sensors on the same plot in pachube?

I've got to sit down and decide how to get my sensors monitored. My PCsensor USB controller keeps letting out the magic smoke....maybe a little ardunio is the way to go.

 

[deerhntr]

Do you have many sensors connected on the same bus?

Can you plot different sensors on the same plot in pachube?

I've got to sit down and decide how to get my sensors monitored. My PCsensor USB controller keeps letting out the magic smoke....maybe a little ardunio is the way to go.

The temp sensors are Dallas 18B20 One-Wire devices. A one wire bus requires 3 wires, Power(5V), Ground, and DQ(Data). Many One-Wire devices can be connected to the same one-wire bus because they each have a unique 64 bit address preset at manufacture. When I trenched my Pipes, I laid some Cat5 datalines in the same trench in conduit for monitor and control needs. The one-wire stuff is great for this application.

The arduino is designed to be "Open-Source" hardware and software. The free development environment is easy to use and runs on Window, Mac, or linux. There is a very large code base to work from and the one-wire code seems very stable. Check out the (broken link removed to http://arduino.cc/en/) for all the background and downloads and yes, another forum. You can get the hardware from Sparkfun, Ladyada, or even Radio Shack.

As for Overlays, my guess is yes. I think the limit is programming skill. Goggle's Data visualization API can be used, and I know that can overlay streams.

 

[Como]

I knew that big roll of Cat 6 was going to be used, I put an extra 4" conduit in, just in case.

Now I have to do some homework...

 

[Como]

Pachube is based not that far from a pub I used to frequent, before Computers.

 

[deerhntr]

I knew that big roll of Cat 6 was going to be used, I put an extra 4" conduit in, just in case.

Now I have to do some homework...

By all means, put at least a couple of runs of that cat6 in the conduit. You will be glad you did. At the very least you could put a couple of RJ45 connectors on it, plug it into your router, and you will have a place to hide with your laptop, and read posts from hearth.com. ;-)

 

[Como]

Actually I intend moving my Satellite Internet Dish to the Garn Barn!

 

[bpirger]

I have 16 of the sensors at many are taped onto the pipes. But whenever I tried to run the PCsensor USB interface, after an hour or so, the magic smoke comes out of the USB controller....not sure why. Even with everything just sitting on the bench this happns. I thought it was a one time event, so I ordered a couple more USB interfaces from China, but they have all done the same thing!

So I figured I needed to look into a different means of hardware control.....Arduino seems like it would work easily and cheaply, I like the online access as well.

And yep, I ran Cat5e wire eveywhere in the ground as well.....

Thanks!

 

[maple1]

'magic smoke' = ?

 

[deerhntr]

I have 16 of the sensors at many are taped onto the pipes. But whenever I tried to run the PCsensor USB interface, after an hour or so, the magic smoke comes out of the USB controller....not sure why. Even with everything just sitting on the bench this happns. I thought it was a one time event, so I ordered a couple more USB interfaces from China, but they have all done the same thing!

So I figured I needed to look into a different means of hardware control.....Arduino seems like it would work easily and cheaply, I like the online access as well.

And yep, I ran Cat5e wire eveywhere in the ground as well.....

Thanks!

Bruce,

I'm not sure why your usb dongle keeps "fryin" itself. Hopefully it doesn't damage the sensors. Since they are one-wire, all you would need to do is hook them up to the Arduino, and you could be up and running. I have not had any problems with my arduino until this past September. We had a storm take out our electric for 5 days, and when the electric came back up, we had some electronic equipment damage around our house. The arduino, and all my sensors were fried. But, up to that point my board had been running almost 2 years continuously.

When you get your board I would be glad to share the code with you to help speed you project.

 

[ewdudley]

'magic smoke' = ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke

 

[maple1]

Ahh, I see....

 

[bpirger]

Yeah, magic smoke is mixture of silicon, aluminum, Boron, Phosphor, etc. but primarily defined by the smell of the burning epoxy the device is molded into!

It was always the actual USB interface chip that would burn....and it is an actual chinese designed part....and while I could get replacements from DigiKey or whatever, it just seemed to keep failing.....

I looked at buying my 6 year old son an Arduino setup for Christmas, but I figure he needs to read first. But perhaps this can be the building block for him and external control systems.....

Russ, I'll be in touch! Not sure when though....another project on the list!

 

[jebatty]

I have 16 of the sensors at many are taped onto the pipes. But whenever I tried to run the PCsensor USB interface, after an hour or so, the magic smoke comes out of the USB controller....not sure why. Even with everything just sitting on the bench this happens. I thought it was a one time event, so I ordered a couple more USB interfaces from China, but they have all done the same thing!

I wonder if any others have had a problem. I have been running these for about 2+ years now, and no problems at all, except one USB interface fell apart and I broke it when I tried to put it back together. Have you tried the interface on more than one computer? Might your USB voltage be high from the computer you are using? You could check it with a voltmeter.

After I broke one, I did order a couple of extras, just to be safe.

 

[bpirger]

Jim: Always used on the same computer, same USB port for that matter. But lots of things use that port.... I wonder the same thing, and I know you have said you don't have problems. Odd thing is that everything seems to work great for awhile, then suddenly it craps out.

I bought two extras when the first died...and now both of those have at least one dead channel. In each case, you can actually see the physical damage to the package. I wonder if one of the sensors gets shorted...but even still, it shouldn't burn up the channel like that.

So I really don't know what the issue could be, but my results have all been consistent!

 

[Como]

I am away at the moment so have ordered the Arundino kit and the cookbook.

I was just wondering if the Raspberry PI might help out.

 

[deerhntr]

I am away at the moment so have ordered the Arundino kit and the cookbook.

I was just wondering if the Raspberry PI might help out.

Dave,

That is one serious little machine. I kind of think a 700 Mhz ARM is a little overkill for polling one-wire temp sensor. I would also wait a bit for some of the inevitable bugs to get worked out. But, that is a really cool little linux machine.

 

[Como]

And cheaper....

 

[chrowe]

Has anyone looked into getting data directly from the Garn control board? Any way of getting an output from it or piggyback on the sensor at least.