Temperature Project

First, I’m very sorry if this is covered in another post. I’m new here, and have read quite a few posts, but can’t possibly read them all.

I have a project that I’ve been wanting to do (mostly for fun). Right now I have a Fez Panda and a Thermometer in my shopping cart. I want to design something that measures the temperature of the room, and if that temperature get’s to high I have the device programmed to send off a message, preferably I’d like it saved to a SQL Database on a remote server. Also, let’s say I have 2-3 of these, how would I know which device sent the message (which room overheated). Is this something that I could program into each device, or is there some sort of unique identifier for the device so I wouldn’t have to change the code for each one? See, I said I was new at this : ).

So, can I do this with the Panda and Temperature sensor? Is there anything else that I would need? How is the Panda powered?

Another way of doing this might be to use Xbee and have a temperature sensor attached to it and transmitting at regular intervals. Maybe something like this Wireless Temperature Sensor | Project Lab Then you could have your Panda monitoring the values and transmitting them to the database.

I would stick with Geir’s plan.
It would be best to transmit data and then commit it in the database. You could design a table like this:

TEMPERATURE
log_id
dev_id
temperature
temp_time

Where:
log_id (primairy key - auto numbering)
dev_id (device ID, for multiple devices)
temperature (speaks for itself)
temp_time (dateTime of temperature)

You can have multiple pandas, which send their data. Including with the data they send a device ID (or name?).

You can then design a small piece of software which lets you manage your database. You can read out your temperature warnings, delete them, whatever you want :slight_smile:

To assign a unique ID to each device you could compile the ID into the program, which would require a separate compile and deploy for each device, or you could use a couple of detail ports as inputs and wire the ID.

Use a 1-wire temperature sensor like the DS18B20.

Each 1-wire device has a unique 64-Bit Serial Code Stored in an On-Board ROM which you could use as your device ID. That way you only need a single compile and deploy plus don’t need to do any hardware settings.

Then you would also need an Ethernet shield, or will there be a PC between the Panda and the network? Also, I don’t think SQL is supported straight on the Panda…

Thanks,
Errol

SQL doesn’t need to be supported. You can implement some simple services on your SQL server then FEZ can command it anyway it likes.

Note how panda support crypto so you can even secure your connection…not SSL but your own implementation that uses XTEA or RSA