Mine didn’t talk, but on the other hand it was actually used in the field.

(Post contains links to previous posts with more details.)

damn, I really need to get familiar with the Arduino, it seems like a good way for me to get started with programmable electronics.

apart from this being an interesting method to probe the temperature, I recently built a little circuit (of which I found the schematics at martybugs.net) for probing a DS18S20, which seems to me a cheaper way of accomplishing the same. Also the ease of wiring up an additional 1-wire sensor once you finished that tiny circuit, is astonishing :) having it hooked up to munin (using digitemp), two DS18S20 are now steadily producing graphs each and every five minutes (the resulting image is published at my blog).

Neat stuff, but I can think of so many different ways to do this…

I love the arduino, but it’s not necessary for this type of project. Use two xbee’s, one attached via a serial cable to a computer, the other hooked to the temperature sensing bit. The xbee has built-in IO. Then just use your favorite serial port capable program on the computer to post the information as often as you like.

Now, if you wanted to eliminate the intermediary computer altogether you could use an arduino (or whatever processor) with something like an xport and just make posts to a server.

And of course, wiring this to twitter is easy…

I recommend “Making Things Talk” by Tom Igoe, he covers a lot of what I wrote…

fyrebug… i check out sparkfun on a weekly basis and have a keen interest in the RF modules (low cost, hello!), but there’s one significant problem: “Only one 434MHz transmitter will work within the same location.”

Ideally, I’d like to be able to get one transmitter (with thermistor) / receiver, get the system working (prototyped). Then, get more and more transmitters to be better able to keep tabs on the heat loss in the house. (not to mention long-term security system…)

as far as those rf transmitters go, they’d be perfect (500 ft range) if i could get 20 of them working at the same time.

fyrebug, I never thought of the arduino as a $30 microcontroller. It was a 4 dollar chip with a programmer and usb interface attached. If I had a pic programming kit, and a basic usb board before that, I would have gone that route. For those only now getting into microcontroller projects, the arduino offered a cheaper route than a 70$ or more pic board. Sure, you could build a serial ICP for cheap, if you have a serial port. You could build a USB programmer, if you can program the chip to build it.

Once you know what you are doing, you just pull out a digikey/mouser catalog and get a hand full of chips for $20 (or as a sample, even better). 4$ even for a surface mount atmega 168 (aka arduino’s cpu) from . . . can’t tell if this is last year’s digikey catalog or an even older one.

An arduino is probably a reasonable choice for a first doodad. On par-ish cost wise is a pickit 2 for pics, $35 for the programmer/debugger or $50 for a board and a programmer/debugger, works with most pics, even the dspics and 24f ones for some 16-bit goodness. Also, you get to use assembly… or c or basic… if you don’t mind buying it, or using the size limited versions.

Of course, this really has nothing to do with the original post, but it just popped into my head while reading the comments, so here it it.

To continue off-topic…

An AVRISP is only $34. You can get even cheaper programmers from eBay. And they’re reusable for many projects.

And the PIC architecture seriously pales in comparison to AVR. There’s really no contest between the two. PIC has cumbersome assembly, no open-source C development tools, generally weaker peripherals, and on and one. Its only advantage is it’s slightly cheaper.

@quin the problem is the usb etc is always there. I rpefer to only pay for it once. some of my projects require 30-40 pics (objects in different areas of a room etc) so audrino just isn’t efficient for things like that or what scabby is asking about doing. it’s too expensive.

AVR though as someone brought up… which is what audrino is using… that has always sounded tast and yes, better than pic.

in the end, different tools for different projects and there’s no ‘best’ tool. just use them all!

To continue off-topic
error404
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“And the PIC architecture seriously pales in comparison to AVR. There’s really no contest between the two. PIC has cumbersome assembly, no open-source C development tools, generally weaker peripherals, and on and one. Its only advantage is it’s slightly cheaper.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

well this week I was thinking serious about switch from pics to avrs . So I did some comparison I opened

http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?module=Freaks%20Devices&func=viewDev
and
http://www.microchipdirect.com/NewProductTree.aspx?mid=14&Catalog=BuyMicrochip&Category=16bitanddsctree&TreeID=8

and start comparing one by one similar devises, after I get confused and start wondering why people saying that avr so superior to pics, looking on both websites I saw there is no point to compare atmegas to 16Fxxx family but when you look on 18fxxx family thing getting equal and when you look on 24fxx, dsPIC33 and dsPIC33 there is no point to compare them to atmegas because they clearly win by memory price and speed. So I don’t understand this phenomenon how avrs better if simple comparison show different answer, or you guys compare all avr to 16f84? well 16f84 is not only product microchip make actually microchip deserve respect only for continue producing this ancient chip.
Yes there is no free good c compiler for 16fxxx family but there is reason for that how much c code you can fit into 1-4k of memory ? not much useful program.
Also I notice in powerful category that there is more pics available in DIP package and only couple atmegas have DIP package and this is serious issue for hobby person.
And the last one is Atmel attitude to their product, I remember couple month ago they was selling themselves so do they really care about their chips? Or if something else like flash memory will be more profitable atmell will stop making microchips and start doing flash

So please someone give me good answer, should I consider to swith to avr, point on advantage.Im serious I don’t want war, I want to chose once and improve skills concentrating on one and specific device, just like I chose C++ over java couple years ago after trying both for 2 years

or all this hassle around Atmel made by funboys? just like around apple.

@Brainfart thanks for the info, no I didn’t know, so that’s great to hear. no need for the attitude though.

@fyrebug – a lot of people agree that there’s no reason to have USB on every board. There are a number of arduino taste-alikes that take the USB off the board, effectively re-partitioning the “standard” Arduino into two parts. If you check out moderndevice.com or adafruit.com you’ll find entrypoints in the $10 range.

it’s very true that embedding $30 isn’t the way to go for many projects, and these fit that need. Check ‘em out.