On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:33:27 -0400, "Dennis Brothers"
wrote in message :

"Marc F Hult" wrote in message
.. .

Most home automation software is not well suited for logging analog
(continuously variable) data. I'd be interested in learning about
event-driven
HA software that also manages analog data validation, manipulation,
statistical
analysis, storage, retrieval and graphical presentation _well_ (before I
reinvent the wheel yet again ..)

HTH ... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org

You might check out HomeSeer and the mcs Temperature plug-in - it does most
of what you want; dunno if it meets your criteria of doing it _well_.

I'm about to put a 1-wire temperature sensor in each room of my house, then
use mcs Temperature to gather data aimed at characterizing and optimizing
my heating system (I've also purchased five communicating thermostats that
will be controlled by HomeSeer).

Thanks for the suggestion. The mcs plug-in seems intrinsically very capable
from what I could tell.

But I poked around the Homeseer site longer than I had patience for without
finding a manual or any actual description. Did I miss it? And no url for a
mcs web site. Apparently I have to download Homeseer (yet again), install
it (yet again) and then download the plug-in on a trial basis in order to
see the manual? What I did find was lots of discussions of problems and bugs
in the forum. That's what has discouraged me from pursuing HomeSeer. For
example, it took forever to get the NAPCO security working and IIRC, in the
end they ditched the original 3rd party plug-in.

Some folks thunk what HomeSeer v2 would improve things, but that hasn't been
the case as far as I can tell...

Monitoring with undependable/intermittent data system can be very tedious.
Manual cleanup/bridging of the data set can unexpectedly consume the lion's
share of the effort. That's part of why I discontinued using 1-wire. Early
versions of the temperature sensors were flakey. Apparently they've
improved, and the problems acknowledged, so I may give them another whirl.

Out of curiosity, what thermostats are you using? I've been happy with
Enerzone/Statnet/Aprilaire which uses a straight-forward ASCII command set
that could be adapted to homebrew devices.

.... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org

Marc F Hult wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion. The mcs plug-in seems intrinsically very capable
from what I could tell.

But I poked around the Homeseer site longer than I had patience for without
finding a manual or any actual description. Did I miss it? And no url for a
mcs web site. Apparently I have to download Homeseer (yet again), install
it (yet again) and then download the plug-in on a trial basis in order to
see the manual? What I did find was lots of discussions of problems and bugs
in the forum. That's what has discouraged me from pursuing HomeSeer. For
example, it took forever to get the NAPCO security working and IIRC, in the
end they ditched the original 3rd party plug-in.

I have HS and I downloaded the mcs temp docs. Shall I send them
to you? (1.8 meg word doc)

(I should add that it's true there are many problem reports, etc,
posted in the forum, but given the scope of functionality of HS I
don't find that unusual. My personal experience with HS has
been pretty good. Investigate the plugin(s) well before buying,
as you are wisely doing).

Some folks thunk what HomeSeer v2 would improve things, but that hasn't been
the case as far as I can tell...

I'm with you on this.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

Investigate the plugin(s) well before buying,
as you are wisely doing).

Especially the ones they GOUGE for and don't support.

Some folks thunk what HomeSeer v2 would improve things, but that hasn't
been
the case as far as I can tell...

I'm with you on this.

Likewise, HS2 may eventaully be ready for prime time but it's sure got a
ways to go. Enough such that looking into CQC is worth considering...

"Marc F Hult" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the suggestion. The mcs plug-in seems intrinsically very
capable
from what I could tell.

But I poked around the Homeseer site longer than I had patience for
without
finding a manual or any actual description. Did I miss it? And no url for
a
mcs web site. Apparently I have to download Homeseer (yet again), install
it (yet again) and then download the plug-in on a trial basis in order to
see the manual? What I did find was lots of discussions of problems and
bugs
in the forum. That's what has discouraged me from pursuing HomeSeer. For
example, it took forever to get the NAPCO security working and IIRC, in
the
end they ditched the original 3rd party plug-in.

Some folks thunk what HomeSeer v2 would improve things, but that hasn't
been
the case as far as I can tell...

Monitoring with undependable/intermittent data system can be very tedious.
Manual cleanup/bridging of the data set can unexpectedly consume the
lion's
share of the effort. That's part of why I discontinued using 1-wire. Early
versions of the temperature sensors were flakey. Apparently they've
improved, and the problems acknowledged, so I may give them another whirl.

Out of curiosity, what thermostats are you using? I've been happy with
Enerzone/Statnet/Aprilaire which uses a straight-forward ASCII command set
that could be adapted to homebrew devices.

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org

I agree they don't make it easy to preview manuals. You can get a pretty
good picture of the capabilities by perusing the mcs temperature-specific
forum.

FWIW, I've been running HomeSeer 2 for about a month with no problems.

Re the thermostats, I'm using RCS, which is supported by a HomeSeer plug-in.
I've got a couple of zone controllers (a ZCV2 and a ZCV4) and five wall
display units (three TS40 and two TS16). The major installation effort is
running cable - all my existing thermostats are old-fashioned two-wire.

- Dennis Brothers

Some of our users (Girder) have had success with the Dallas one wire
stuff.

see http://www.promixis.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12956

In article ,
"AZ Woody" writes:
Sounds to me that 1-wire might be the way to go. A two wire buss could
support the sensors, and a $20 adapter for the computer. (use a full cat 5
for distance, and to provide for expandability.)

They're cheap, and if the location will be inaccessible, I would
put in two of them, each on a different pair, so that if one dies,
you can switch to the other.

Dallas provides some good sample code on their website for interfacing
Doing a "parasite" read on a sensor can be done on a single sensor in about
a second, Each sensor has a unique ID, and the bast part is, I've gotten
them for $3 each in to-92 cases. So, if you got 15 sensors, you can read
them about 4 times a minute if you want. They're good to +/- 1 degree c or
+/- 2 degree C based on the specific sensor

The DS1820's are accurate to fractions of a ºC, although it's
complicated to read them any more accurately than 0.5ºC (and
might not be possible in parasitic power mode -- not sure on that
point).

You can build sw on windows and Linux for sure (those are the only two I've
done)

I'm currently monitoring temps in my HVAC system, outside temps, and even
have one mounted in a "can cooler" near my computer that will alert me if my
beverage gets too warm.

Here's a section of logging from my system (running on Solaris x86)...
Oct 27 16:13:48 Temperature - Outdoors 18.0
Oct 27 16:14:37 Temperature - Freezer -23.0
Oct 27 16:14:37 Temperature - Fridge 4.5
Oct 27 16:15:48 Temperature - Freezer -23.5
Oct 27 16:16:21 Temperature - Loft 24.5
Oct 27 16:17:05 Temperature - Freezer -24.0
Oct 27 16:18:32 Temperature - Freezer -24.5
Oct 27 16:20:05 Temperature - Fridge 4.0
Oct 27 16:20:21 Temperature - Freezer -25.0
Oct 27 16:22:22 Temperature - Freezer -25.5
Oct 27 16:27:05 Temperature - Freezer -25.0
Oct 27 16:27:55 Temperature - Fridge 3.5
Oct 27 16:28:55 Temperature - Freezer -24.5
Oct 27 16:30:49 Temperature - Freezer -24.0
Oct 27 16:32:49 Temperature - Freezer -23.5
Oct 27 16:35:17 Temperature - Freezer -23.0
Oct 27 16:37:47 Temperature - Freezer -22.5
Oct 27 16:38:19 Temperature - Fridge 3.0
Oct 27 16:38:44 Temperature - Loft 24.0
Oct 27 16:41:01 Temperature - Freezer -22.0

--
Andrew Gabriel

wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm looking for a setup that would allow me to continuously measure air
temperature in a confined and inaccessible area by placing several
(presumbably cabled) temperature sensors in that area before it is
closed up. The surrounding material will be rock and probably
unsuitable for wireless sensors (in addition to not being able to
replace batteries). I would like to either log the data on some sort of
console about 60 feet away, and/or feed the data into a computer. I've
check out some of the online weather stations (e.g. Davis) and they
don't do this (little cabled capability; no multiple, cabled sensors)

Can anyone suggest a (preferably online) source for a setup that will
do this? I'd prefer not to build something from scratch unless it's a
kit.

TIA,

Lee Elson

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