Wi-Fi Max Min Thermometer?

[chilli_grower]

I want one now!!!!

[Martin H]

SWMBO has ordered me one as a present

I'll report back...

[Kristen]

Two thoughts:

Its a single sensor device, so if you were to need a second sensor (Greenhouse + Outdoors or Conservatory) then its same-price-again for the second one

and secondly it needs to be in WiFi range. No idea how far that it, compared to say the Arexx sensors / transmitters, but might be worth carrying your phone etc. over to the greenhouse and seeing if you can get on your network from there.

Having said that, putting a WiFi extender at the end of the house nearest the greenhouse, or even outside!, would mean that any other device could get onto the network; we already have several in our house because walls are thick etc. I resent the fact that they are all parasitic users of power, given that some/most are only only actually used for a few minutes each day.

[Martin H]

Thanks Kristen, good points.

For me, it's fine. I don't need a second sensor - I'm happy to rely on local weather forecasts for outdoor conditions and I haven't got a conservatory. For multiple sensors the AREXX stuff hits the spot.

I get a good wi-fi signal from the greenhouse from a wireless router in our upstairs back bedroom about 10 metres away with only the house wall in between. But this is something for anyone to check out before buying one of these.

[Kristen]

wireless router in our upstairs back bedroom

Sounds perfect My original one was by-the-phone-socket on wrong-side-of-house!! but we've added some more since.

[chilli_grower]

Don't blame me if its cr*p!!!!!

[Bacchus]

Without wishing to derail the thread - is it possible to to extend the communication between "person in work with a phone" and "activity in the greenhouse/polytunnel" to include a way of telling a window or door to open remotely if things get too hot? I'd imagine it is - but sounds technically tricky unless there is an off the shelf kit?

[Kristen]

You can get mechanically operating window openers - they work on expanding wax to push a rod, which opens the window. Would that do?

Bayliss is probably the best known make

http://www.baylissautovents.co.uk/

[Bacchus]

many thanks - in my case I'm thinking of polytunnel doors - which may need a little bit more strength.

[Kristen]

Expect there are ingenious answers to that problem - don't remember seeing any though, sorry.

Bayliss do make a very strong opener (Mk 7 Super Autovent) - designed for heavy roof vents - but no idea if it is up to opening a door. Also no idea how you would use the door "as normal" if it had an automatic opener on it.

[Ja9]

And an automatic lid opener for my propagator if it gets too hot when I'm at work?!!
Like all the toys above and will check them out. Have just ordered another Oregean sensor to keep me going in the interim.

[Martin H]

It arrived today!

Configuring was a doddle.

Here it is installed in the shady side of my greenhouse:



And here's the view from my computer a few minutes earlier:



Tomorrow I'll post some graphs and stuff.

[chilli_grower]

awesome, I should be on commission! So is it really good?

I want one!!!!!!

[Martin H]

An update on my new toy.

When I turned my computer on this morning and fired up the sensor software, the sensor in the greenhouse woke up and transmitted all the overnight data. It's obviously carried on unattended and so now I can show you some screen shots.

Here's the default picture when I click "View Data":



I can use the tick boxes and the zoom functions to home in on various bits of the graph.
For example, here's just temperature and dew point for the last 25 hours:



If I want to, I can look at the underlying data in table form using "Data View":



You can see I've configured it set up to take measurements every 1 minute. I've also set it to transmit data to my computer every 10 minutes. All configurations can be changed from my computer, I don't need to touch the sensor for this.

What else ... you can set up alarms for low and high temperature (which I've done) and for low and high humidity (which I haven't).

You can set it up to store data in the "cloud" instead of on your PC. That way you can look at it from any internet-capable device like a smartphone or a tablet. I had a quick play with this but it isn't really what I want. Also the software seems a bit more rudimentary. Also if you want to store more than 3 months of data you need to pay a monthlys subscription, whereas if you store it on your computer it's up to you how much data you keep for how long.

One more picture. The sensor software has an "export data" function. I exported to Excel and it generated a basic graph for me. I spent a minute tidying it up to just show temperatures and took a screenshot:



So in summary I'm very happy with it. It does exactly what I wanted and it was easy to set up.

[Kristen]

An update on my new toy

Very interesting, thanks

You can see I've configured it set up to take measurements every 1 minute

I think mine is set to take a measurement every 10 minutes, unlikely to get a 1C change in that time, and far fewer data points to have to store. I wish these things would log when the temperature changed (by whatever resolution the device has), that would be a minimal number of data points to store

Would be interesting to see a combined graph with Greenhouse / Outdoor temperature - showing how the greenhouse lagged behind outdoors and when the equilibrated. Something for tomorrow perhaps, eh?!