[pm-h] Remote Temperature Monitoring

Fri Jul 23 17:10:40 PDT 2010

Thanks a bunch.  I did run across that
Watchport hardware in my research.  It is
considered to be a much more reliable
solution to this problem.  It also appears to
be within my price range.  I'll look into
it further.

Mike

On 7/23/2010 4:30 PM, John Ellyson wrote:
> Mike,
>
> I got a bit busy at work or else I would have responded sooner.  
> (Yeah, I know.  Strange idea to actually do some work while at work.)
>
> Anyways, I'm doing something like this for our lab at work.  
> Unfortunately, I probably can't share my Perl code (employer's 
> intellectual property rights situation), but I'll try to share the 
> concept and whatever else I can without getting into trouble with my 
> employer.
>
> The device that I used is the Digi Watchport/H sensor since we already 
> are using those for some other work.  If you're not interested in the 
> humidity readings, you might find the Watchport/T sensor to be more 
> inline with your needs.  The link below is for more details from the 
> manufacturer.
>
> http://www.digi.com/products/wirelessdropinnetworking/sensors/din-watchport-sensors.jsp#models
>
> In my implementation, I set up 4 of these sensors in each of the A/C 
> zones for our lab.  I connected all four of them to a single system 
> running Windows.  On that system, I set up a Perl script that 
> connected to the sensors using the Win32::SerialPort and used 
> Net::EasyTCP to set up a "telnet" server.  The basic behavior is that 
> when a "client" connects, this script would:
>   1) Connect to a temperature/humidty sensor
>   2) Retrieve a reading
>   3) Sending reading to client
>   4) Repeat steps 1-3 for remaining sensors and then close the connection
>
> I set this script (actually I bundled it into a self contained 
> executable using PerlApp from ActiveState) as a scheduled task to run 
> when the OS comes up.  Eventually, I probably should update the script 
> to be run as a service.
>
> There may be better and/or cheaper methods of accomplishing the same 
> thing, but that's what I used.  Let me know if you have any questions 
> about my implementation.
>
> Good luck on getting things set up!
>
> John Ellyson
>
> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 3:31 PM, Mike Flannigan <mikeflan at att.net 
> <mailto:mikeflan at att.net>> wrote:
>
>
>     On 7/23/2010 7:56 AM, Mike Flannigan wrote:
>
>         I'm looking to remotely monitor a digital thermometer
>         connected to a computer.  The computer I plan to
>         use has USB and Serial.  I have to use Windows,
>         but only because I couldn't get Unix loaded on this
>         old computer.
>
>         I need to export the temp to a location 1,000 miles
>         away.  Haven't decided if I'm using the web, FTP,
>         Telnet, or what for the data transfer.  I want flexibility
>         where I can write the Perl program to do what I need
>         to do.
>
>         I'm sending this to you guys in case one of you
>         has already grappled with this.  I can see on the
>         internet that there are about 1,000 options.
>         Please call me or e-mail the list if you can help
>         me decide which way to go with this.  Buying
>         something from a local store might be my
>         best option.  I plan to go to EPO and Fryes
>         today to see what is available there.
>
>
>         I'm think this one is what I need, but I'm to
>         lazy to do all this work:
>         http://www.riccibitti.com/pc_therm.htm
>
>
>         This one seem really good:
>         http://www.spiderplant.com/hlt/index.html
>         but that first link says they are out of business.
>
>
>         Do these USB powered units work?
>         http://www.tomtop.com/pc-laptop-usb-powered-thermometer-temperature-sensor-data-log.html
>
>
>
>         http://www.lancos.com/webtherm.html
>
>         http://www.pcsensor.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=15
>         <http://www.pcsensor.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=15>
>
>         A very interesting one:
>         http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/ibutton/products/ibuttons.cfm
>
>
>         This one will probably work, given the price:
>         http://www.americanweather.com/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=48&osCsid=686d544982fe2f42e47e0dfe239aca47
>         <http://www.americanweather.com/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=48&osCsid=686d544982fe2f42e47e0dfe239aca47>
>
>
>
>
>         Talk on a blog:
>
>         http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mcreasy/archive/2004/07/19/187554.aspx
>
>
>         Mike Flannigan
>         281-286-6869
>
>
>
>
>
>     If EPO or Fry's have these products, they
>     don't know that they have them.
>
>     I'll probably just go with a cheap TemperNTC.
>     It's a cheap device of dubious quality with
>     very bad software, but I can probably get it
>     to work for me.  If you do use this thing on
>     Windows, you probably need one of these
>     software upgrades:
>     http://www.alsgh.com/utac/
>     http://www.play-time.demon.co.uk/ThermoHID/index.html#download
>
>     It appears the Chinese manufacturer has
>     not gotten the thing in good working order yet,
>     so there is a lot of junk hardware out there.
>     In fact, I think it's probably all junk, but some
>     people have gotten it to work to some degree.
>
>
>     Mike
>
>
>
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