For some reason, computer controllable thermostats are pretty freakin’ expensive. I found a reference to a 1-wire thermostat in this(mirror) sample senior project on home automation. It turns out that Dallas Semiconductor put one together a while back as an application for their TINI platform. (web-application server on a chip). The write-up has since vanished from their site, but I found it thatnks to archive.org. The thermostat used to run about $50, and a similar model still seems to be produced. The 1-wire interface is pretty simple – Maxim’s TINI board to control it: not so much. Just using the 1-wire interface with an inexpensive thermostat and controlling from a PC seems pretty viable to me. Just in case, I mirrored the 1-wire interface schematics here.
10 thoughts on “1-wire Thermostat Control”
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Great… I love the web archive wayback machine. It is so helpfull for finding old stuff.. you might want to know that othe pages (such as the cell phone jammer) are also on there (death to the 404 :) )
I’m starting to think I should check had a little less often, this is the second time in the last couple days that I’ve caught a hack within a minute of posting…
as for the hack itself, I wonder if the tini is any more straightforward to implement than that Ethernet communication device microchip produces?
Nice.Personally I would use I2C as the communication protocol. This is a much more common protocol (nearly every PC has it) and has more software and hardware support.
You can get USB to I2C adapters for virtually nothing, and build your own for less. check out http://www.harbaum.org/till/i2c_tiny_usb/index.shtml this for a GPL USB to I2C converter, or (shameless plug) http://www.headfuzz.co.uk/USBtoI2C for the super fast high speed version.
Your mirrored source is in fact an html file with a zip extension! What you’re looking for is:
http://files.dalsemi.com/tini/appnotes/AN700/Thermostat.zip
It comes complete with a nice write-up in pdf form.
seems maxim-ic.com can’t handle the traffic of being featured on h.a.d. or maybe it’s just coincidence … anyway, at 1939 edt the site is not responding.
i did not look into 1wire but i think this is a nice hack i am pissed my self that im in my room on my comp and my thermo is in the den :-)
ROFLcopter!!!! nice projet !
no no no no no no no… you use it to cotrol A COFFEMAKER! “wold you like some coffe? * hit swich on wall* LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe I’m being a bit thick here but why use a lux9000 thermostat when maxim do an iButton temp logger that could act as an intelligent thermostat with a bit of programming and hacking via the tini
This time is not just for cleaning, but also for fixing your house heat and cool system. My family and I check the furnace filter, make sure the fan is running properly, and sometimes replace the thermostat controller. We like to use our furnace to circulate and clean the air to remove all of the pollen that is in the air. Robershaw makes some nice controlls and I’ve also found a brand called PECO that uses a custom algorithm to run the fan during the spring time. The only site I’ve been able to buy them at is thermostatlinevoltage.com there may be other sources out there though. Just some thoughts.