Temperature recorder project?

Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
We have a problem at work where the office becomes pretty cold throughout the day.

The HVAC guy shows up and of course he measures normal temperatures.


I took in my new handy dandy multimeter that has a thermometer and I observed that the temperature varies a great deal throughout the day. As much as 5F.

Perhaps it is a bit much to chew for a first project but I thought it might be interesting to build a temperature recorder.

I know I will need a thermocouple. But what would be a good PIC to use? I will need to access this data in some way. It would need a time stamp.

Can someone push me in the right direction?
 
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Thread Starter

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Maybe use temperature sensor IC, such as the LM series from NSC. It is simpler than using thermocouple.
Did some searching. These are very cool.

Would you suggest the analog or digital variety? Digital seems easier to implement but more expensive than the analog.

I found this one here

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=245

Maybe a few more bells and whistles than what I need. But Dallas Semi Conductor provides a really easy to follow application notes.

I did not see that in the LM Series datasheet.
 

n9352527

Joined Oct 14, 2005
1,198
Yes, those are really nice parts. I've never used the one wire Dallas products. They are too expensive. Maybe for one off casual design price is not really a problem. If your micro has an ADC and the resolution is enough for your need, then the analogue type is cheaper. But if not, then find a digital one, with appropriate resolution.
 

Arm_n_Legs

Joined Mar 7, 2007
186
The Silicon Labs C8051F310 (and some other of their variants) has a built in temperature sensor in the microcontroller. The chip is just a few dollars, but you would need to get their USB-JTAG adaptor (about US$30) to start off the development with the Keil 8051 C (eval copy).
 
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