DIY Thermostat

[CHEWY]

My father in law loves to tinker with electronics (all self taught, he's a tailor by trade), and he's decided he wants to build me a thermostat. He's been working on it for a while and today he dropped of pieces for me to play with while he works on the next part.
At the moment, it's not a thermostat, but a really sophisticated thermometer.
Using a micro computer that he built from a kit, a board that he has wired and a program he wrote, I can now tell the temperature of 10 separate tanks to 0.1 of a degree. The temps are calculated every second, so it's not like those cheap ones that take a couple of minutes to get the right temp.
Here is the board and probes

It's controlled by keyboard and all data is display on a screen.

Once all is complete, it will monitor and control 10 separate tanks simultaneously and will change the temp according to what time it is. e.g. drop the temp at night. Changing the set temps is a 5 second job. Can't wait for the relays so we can give it a full test. So far, it's still a lot cheaper than a single thermostat.

If this works as good as we think it will, we are considering making more to sell.

Cheers JD

 

[Shotta]

wow that is so cool wish i was that good at electronics!. keep us updated on how it all goes!

 

[IgotFrogs]

thats very cool!!! i would love to hear how it turns out

 

[JungleGuy]

Thats awesome, especially if it works out as cheap as you say!

 

[Justdragons]

if you get that working all right and its cheaper than a normal thermostat and i can control my whole room off one keyboard and screen put me down for one. yay call it 'The Digital DeckaHerp'

 

[saximus]

That's fantastic Chewy. I am actually doing something almost exactly like this for my final uni thesis but it will also control humidity at the same time. Is there any chance I could get his contact info to ask him about the specs?

 

[SamNabz]

Very clever Chewy, keep us posted please.

 

[Colin]

great stuff chewy.. its a bit like a multi probe data logger in the present form. can the probes measure humidity as well as temperature? do you mind me asking how much roughly has he spent on the current setup?

 

[DeadCricket]

Arduino chips are fantastic! And not that expensive!

I've also considered using a cheap smart phone for their proCessing power

 

[GeckoRider]

Looks like something from the 80's 0.o

 

[Kurto]

I thought the screen said "Sex Monitor and Control Program"

Great idea!

 

[GeckoRider]

Make it more modern add a GUi... then add wifi to it and stream it to your laptop... and BAM your in the future ... you could even have it streamed to your phone so you could monitor temps when your out... Or even change the temps when out...

 

[ryanm]

Looks like something from the 80's 0.o

You weren't even born in the 80's Geckorider! What part looks that old?

Great set up so far Chewy!

 

[GeckoRider]

You weren't even born in the 80's Geckorider! What part looks that old?

Great set up so far Chewy!

I know what computers from the 80's look like -.- and most off it

 

[lgrattan80]

Using a micro computer that he built from a kit, a board that he has wired and a program he wrote, I can now tell the temperature of 10 separate tanks to 0.1 of a degree. The temps are calculated every second, so it's not like those cheap ones that take a couple of minutes to get the right temp.

Hi Chewy,
So far it looks great, and it will only get better, HOWEVER, when you take the next step and hook up the heat pads / lamps etc, make sure that it's FAIL SAFE.

What I mean, is that if it's using relays to drive the heating devices, you wan't to make sure that they fail open (everything off) so that if anything goes wrong, you don't over heat anything.

Another option would be to have a mechanical over temp switch just as a backup.

 

[ryanm]

I know what computers from the 80's look like -.- and most off it

Well the Monitor and keyboard are both from late 1990's (based on brands and model numbers) and for the circuit board itself, they haven't changed a lot in (looks wise) in a fair while, so technically you are right on the circuit board, but you would be right if you said it looked like something from the 80's, 90's, 00's or today

 

[CHEWY]

Cheers all,
I think it has a lot of potential, but wiring a heat lamp is the extent of my DYI ability.
So sorry if I don't know what GUi is, but all those ideas sound great. And just what people need these days, another excuse do play with their phone.

Sax- I find some details for you.

Col- These don't do humidity, my FiL said the probes were only $1, so I'm sure humidity probes would exist cheaply. Even a combine. Saximus, can you confirm?

lgrattan80- love the ideas, I'll make sure they go in.

 

[53ERX]

So when's the iPhone/Android app going into dev?
Good to see someones spare time and curiosity going into something very useful.
Keep us updated

 

[saximus]

Thanks heaps Chewy. Tell him I will even cut him in on the profits if/when I end up making them to sell .
From my research humidity probes are much trickier than temp probes. They usually work by varying capacitance whereas temp probes vary resistance. So you are stuck with either something that's difficult to measure (varying capacitance) or something expensive (someone has already built a module).

 

[GeckoRider]

Cheers all,
I think it has a lot of potential, but wiring a heat lamp is the extent of my DYI ability.
So sorry if I don't know what GUi is, but all those ideas sound great. And just what people need these days, another excuse do play with their phone.

It means graphical user interface...