Recommendations for Room Temperature Sensors

[Mark Johannessen]

Bob:

On 1/2/07, Bob Ober <rmober123 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Mark,
>
> I am currently using 5 1-wire sensors to track temperature around my
> home.  I use an applescript to read and record the temps.  As of today,
> my temp reading is relatively reliable, as I have uncovered most (I
> hope) of the weak spots in my programming.

What specific 1-Wire sensors are you using?  Are they mounted in the
rooms in an aesthetic way (working with SAF here)?

>One drawback to 1-wire systems is that the sensors need to by polled on
>a regular basis by the computer (I poll my sensors every 5 minutes, but
>you could do it on a shorter cycle).

If there are a significant number of 1-Wire sensors using your system,
do you think polling, say on a 1 minute interval, would be a problem
in CPU usage that might cause delays in X4X activities?  The reason I
ask is that I want to incorporate outside temperature and humidity
sensing and possibly other sensors in the system and am looking for a
solution that can easily expand.

> The wiring is simple enough, and cheap, at least if you don't include
> the cost of the computer.  The sensors run less than $5.00 each, and
> cat-3 wire is cheap enough too.  Aside from the wire and sensors, my
> system consists of an HA-7 controller and a USB-Serial converter.

Can you give me more information on the HA-7 controller and USB-Serial
converter you're using (make,model)?

Mark J