How to build an iButton Intranet Temperature Webserver

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Day 680+47 current treadmill total: -.-- meters! (18:10 CET)

Finally a (technical) delivery

Ordered this almost a month ago...
Today; (part-) shipment 3 of 3 came in...

The shipment of the iButton-order, the NEXT addition to the HamsterTracker(tm)-system.

The shipment of the iButton-order, the NEXT addition to the HamsterTracker(tm)-system.

Shipment one: one box,
Shipment two: one envelope,
Today's shipment: two boxes!

Then came the fun part of unpacking:

The shipment of the iButton-order, the NEXT addition to the HamsterTracker(tm)-system.

This is a USB-Temperature sensor/logging kit.

I've found these wonderfull products on www.iButton.com,
amoungst temperature sensors they've also supply a lot of other types of iButton®-s.

I've bought a Temperature sensor to include temperature measurements in Lucy's statistics.
This will require some software development... that is, to me, half the fun!

I've ordered an extra so I have two iButton® Temperature Data Loggers,
each of which is programmable, configurable and downloadable,
together with the iButton® Reader and iButton® USB connector:

The shipment of the iButton-order, the NEXT addition to the HamsterTracker(tm)-system.

Here's it all, with some manuals printed.

Have a close look at the box it is on:

The shipment of the iButton-order, the NEXT addition to the HamsterTracker(tm)-system.

The WHOLE order could be put in that small box on the right!

One more photo of the BOX that arrived TODAY...

The shipment of the iButton-order, the NEXT addition to the HamsterTracker(tm)-system.

I really need to get a hamster soon,
more fun to photograph,
although I am really happy this arrived!

And I did get the demo-software up and running!

The response of the sensor after holding it in my hand

This technology is soo cool,
it's generally used to track the temperatures of temperature sensitive shipments.
Being industrially proven and used all around the world.

I thought this would make a great side-project for HamsterTracker™ !

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Day 680+51 current treadmill total: -.-- meters! (20:00 CET)

With only 34 lines of Visual Basic code.
(Including 5 blank lines!)

I needed a design that every computer in my own intranet (home) network,
would be able to access the iButton temperature sensor's data,
using a webbrowser.

This proved easier to develop than thought...

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

Here is the iButton® JAVA application (bottom) running simultaniously
with a Visual Basic Demo program (top).

This proved I could run a webserver and use the iButton® interface simultaniously!

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

Here is the iButton® Visual Basic form,
(one of the supplied demo software)
measuring temperatures in action!

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

In Visual Basic I added the Winsock control.

Press F4 to access the Winsock's properties:

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

Enter a port number (I used my birth year 1967)

Then I needed to add a few lines of code to this demo program:

Private Sub Form_Load()
   Me.Winsock1.Listen    'Accept incomming requests
End Sub

Private Sub Winsock1_ConnectionRequest(ByVal requestID As Long)
    Dim TemperatureC As String
    Dim TemperatureF As String
    Dim TemperatureK As String
    Dim TemperatureR As String
    Dim SplitArray As Variant
    Dim tmpString As String
    
    If Me.Winsock1.State <> sckClosed Then Me.Winsock1.Close
    Me.Winsock1.Accept requestID    'Close connection before accepting a new one
    
    TemperatureC = Me.TempLabel.Caption   'format: "xx C"
    SplitArray = Split(TemperatureC, " C")
    
    TemperatureC = Trim(Str(Val(SplitArray(0))))
    TemperatureF = Trim(Str(Int(((Val(TemperatureC) * (9 / 5)) + 32) + 0.5)))
    TemperatureK = Trim(Str(Round((TemperatureC + 273.15), 1)))
    TemperatureR = Trim(Str(Round((TemperatureK * 1.8) + 0.5, 1)))
    tmpString = "<html><body><center>Indoor temperature:<br>" & Date & "  " & Time
    tmpString = tmpString & "<font size='+10'><h1>" & TemperatureC & " °C<br>"
    tmpString = tmpString & TemperatureF & " F<br>"
    tmpString = tmpString & TemperatureK & " K<br>"
    tmpString = tmpString & TemperatureR & " °R</h1></font></body></html>"
    Me.Winsock1.SendData tmpString
End Sub

Private Sub Winsock1_SendComplete()
    Me.Winsock1.Close      ' Close connection
    Me.Winsock1.Listen     ' Get ready to accept a new one
End Sub

This did the trick...
Now you're ready to run the software...

[ Check out Wikipedia on temperatures ]

Now you need to find out the IP number of the Temperature Webserver,
double click the Local Area Lan or Wireless Lan icon in the start menu.

Select the support tab:

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

Make a note of the IP adress

Next open your webbrowser, enter the following url:

http://192.168.123.158:1967

(Replace 192.168.123.158 with the number noted earlier).

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

Temperature status viewed with FireFox!

The development of the Intranet Temperature Webserver.

Temperture status viewed with Palm® Lifedrive™ !

Even though this is prototype stuff,
it IS WORKIN' !!! ;-)

Monday, June 18, 2007

Day 680+52 current treadmill total: -.-- meters! (20:00 CET)

How to build an iButton Intranet Temperature Webserver - Part II

Today I noticed that the temperature sensor was reading very hot temperatures.
It recorded 4 °C more than the (analogue) thermometer did...

As it seems my wireless router is producing a lot of heat:

Misplacing the iButton thermal sensor.

The yellow arrow is pointing to iButton temperature sensor, in the iButton-reader.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Day 27 current treadmill total: 84,505.88 meters! (20:05 CET)

The inner-geek...

After yesterdays 'bummer' (see below), I had a good night sleep after
having some fun with Lucy on the couch.
(Sorry no pictures; Lucy needs constant attention...
and I didn't want to take a risk of her getting hurt.)

So this morning, all refreshed and smiling, it came to me:

Sometimes you've gotta do, what you've gotta do!

Well, I overpaid the HamsterTracker™-Geek department today,
to go bezerk on the following little project.

Remember the HamsterTracker™ iButton Temperature Sensor (webserver)?
After playing around with it for more than a month,
I noticed the sensitivity of the temperature sensor.

When my hand comes within 5 cm (two inches) the sensor will register this!

So we at HamsterTracker™ need a:

HamsterTracker™ Modular iButton Network System

Using two modem-phone plugs; ( the one's you can extend by plugging more plugs in),
and using standard RJ-11 telephone cable. ( Didn't know you had that right? )

The HamsterTracker™-Geek Department came up with the following:

Designing a Modular iButton Network System.

" The innards of Dutch Telephone connectors ( + iButton USB adapter)" - Geek

Designing a Modular iButton Network System.

" Cut off the pins of one connector,
using iron-saw, and hooked up an extention cord" - Geek

Designing a Modular iButton Network System.

" Here it's all assembled, but not hooked up" - Geek

Designing a Modular iButton Network System.

" Because the innards of the standard telephone connector has been modified,
it's marked clearly (although photograph is blurry),
as being part of the HamsterTracker™-Modular-iButton-Network-System!

The temperature sensor is connected, using a Dutch clothes-pin.

In front is the 'official' iButton-Reader " - Geek

Lucy woke up for a moment, just after final installation:

" Where did did they put that sensor, Dude? " - Lucy

Monday, September 17, 2007

Day 81 current treadmill total: 166,797,09 meters! (18:10 CET)

HamsterTracker™ Temperature Controlled Proximity Sensor

The HamsterTracker™ Technical Department is always looking out for new improvements.
So they came up with an idea of using one of the recently bought iButton-temperature sensors,
to let the computer make an educated guess if Lucy is in her bedroom.

If there is a higher temperature in her bedroom as opposed to the environment,
we can assume that Lucy is in there (or was pretty shortly ago)...

So we need a sensor holder, to put UNDER Lucy's bedroom.
This way, Lucy never knows the sensor is there,
and there are no wires or other hardware in her cage.

Using a stack of (donated) coasters,
HamsterTracker™ started workin' on a prototype:

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

Mark the outline of the iButton (here in it's holder).

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

I used a very blunt knife here to cut it out,
a couple of times.
Note the gutter for the wire...

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

Using ( lots o' ) glue...

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

Stack all coasters properly...

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

And press firmly.

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

Test-fit...

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

This is how it will be implemented

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

Hopefully Lucy will be sleeping right on top of the sensor,
and we can measure a rise in temperature.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Day 88 current treadmill total: 169,917.75 meters! (18:30 CET)

Geekin' week'nd project

Remember the HamsterTracker™-Temperature-Controled-Proximity-Sensor?
( See, day 81, september 17^th below )

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor.

Here's the not so pretty, version I, of the proximity sensor. - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor, version II.

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor, version II.

Here's the latest build,
using aluminimum foil,
we're trying to direct the temperatures to the sensor.
We also redesigned it so the sensor will be the other side up,
Please note the 'NASA' like look of sensor - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor, version II.

Left photo: The old sensor (on the right,) covered with Duck-tape.

Right photo: Note the sensor being upside down in this design.

- HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor, version II.

Version II of the sensor! (the neat version). - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.

Then, let there be Software:

Without going into details on how it's developed,
here are some screenshots of a software module,
which will be incorporated in the HamsterTracker™-server software,
in the near future:

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor, version II.

The software reads all three sensors,
displaying measured temperature,
as well as the trend (going up/down, or staying the same). - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.

[ The second temperature-sensor was held in hand while grabbing this screenshot ]

After some modifications on the HamsterTracker™-iButton-server,
the system was Hot-Plugable,
meaning, that removing a sensor, while the system is running,
doesn't disturb it:

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor, version II.

These are REAL measurements,
while Lucy was sleeping...
26 ° C, (five degrees (Celcius) more than the surroundings! - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.

Making the iButton Temperature controlled proximity sensor, version II.

A few minutes and measurements later, after hooking up the sensor again, it was still runnin' !!! - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.

Looks like the HamsterTracker™-Temperature-Controlled-Proximity-Sensor, is doin' it's thing!!

Monday, October 1, 2007

Day 95 current treadmill total: 174,761.56 meters! (19:50 CET)

Geekin' Weekend project & Lucy

I've been working on the iButton network wiring
this last weekend.

Remember day 27, when I started
this modular project?

Using standard modem/phone jacks and wire,
modding a few ('untwisting' the cross-wire),
this is the result:

The new HamsterTracker-iButton-Temperature-network wire-in'

The new HamsterTracker-iButton-Temperature-network wire-in'

Legend:

Bedroom	This hooks up to Lucy's Bedroom sensor
USB	This hooks up to the HamsterTracker™-server
Livingroom	The Livingroom temperature sensor
Extention plug	This allows more modules to connect (using an [telephone-] extention cord)
Misc.	An unused temperature sensor, which is used as a Livingroom backup sensor.

Here's another angle so you can see the workin's of the
Extention Plug

I couldn't wait to tell Lucy

Lucy was all exited (while on the couch with me),
after I told her:

My hamster Lucy inspectin' the iButton network-work

" I don't see any wires, Dude! " - Lucy

So I moved the camera,
to try to get a HamstertTracker™-Frontal-Face-Close-Up of Lucy here:

My hamster Lucy inspectin' the iButton network-work

" Are you sure you haven't gone wireless? " - Lucy