I want a way to monitor and log temperature and humidity in various parts of my house. I have one of these that can support up to 8 sensors and displays the current conditions on the console. However, it has no memory and no built in way to connect to a computer.

http://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-WS-10-8-Channel-Thermo-Hygrometer/dp/B00FX8ZGOO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1452263156&sr=8-3&keywords=ambient+weather

How would I go about attaching something like a Raspberry Pi to it to read the data and save it to a file? I'm drawing a blank for how I would tap in to the readings from the sensors.

I have look at devices that do this from LaCrosse and Acurite, but they both leave a lot to be desired. Anybody know of other off the shelf options?

1/8/2016 9:48:08 AM

periodically sample the display buffers maybe?

[Edited on January 8, 2016 at 10:30 AM. Reason : http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=214436.0]

1/8/2016 10:26:54 AM

what's your budget? because there are loads of off the shelf options, i'm just assuming you don't want to pay what they cost.

[Edited on January 8, 2016 at 11:23 AM. Reason : .]

1/8/2016 11:22:43 AM

We use ONSET Hobo Dataloggers at work. You can download the logger data to a CSV file.

1/8/2016 11:31:44 AM

dtownral: I dunno, maybe $200-$300. What would you suggest?

Wickerman: That looks pretty cool. I was hoping to have about 6 sensors though, and I'm not buying 6 of those.

1/8/2016 9:38:36 PM

BigMan157

Thanks! That looks promising.

1/8/2016 9:42:33 PM

Elpro, Vaisala, Dataq, Omega etc...

just not in your price range

1/9/2016 3:02:22 PM

Based on the link BigMan posted and the stuff I found fanning out from there, it definitely sounds like building my own receiver is the way to go vs. trying to tap into the receiver that came with my weather station. Initially, I figured this thing used some kind of propriety communication that would be hard to reverse engineer, but apparently the sensors are standard 433Mhz transmitters.

I found this that pretty much lays out how to do everything.

https://eclecticmusingsofachaoticmind.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/home-automation-temperature-sensors/

Does anybody have any recommendations for 433MHz receivers to use with an Ardruino?

1/9/2016 4:18:13 PM

Quote :

"Elpro, Vaisala, Dataq, Omega etc... just not in your price range"

At $12.99 per sensor, this is too tempting.
http://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-F007TH-Wireless-Thermo-Hygrometer/dp/B00C3HBRIW/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1452370466&sr=8-8&keywords=ambient+weather

1/9/2016 4:20:11 PM

The accuracy on those sensors isn't great so I hope your application isn't sensitive to that.

1/11/2016 2:10:16 PM

yea, but I think they are good enough for what I'm doing.

1/12/2016 3:08:47 PM

FWIW
http://www.ti.com/ww/en/wireless_connectivity/sensortag2015/gettingStarted.html

1/12/2016 3:45:06 PM

Damn, that's cool

1/12/2016 8:55:09 PM

LastInACC

Do you have one? Does it have any memory, ie if I use my phone to connect to it and I leave the house, is the data generated while I'm gone lost or does it all get uploaded the next time I connect?

1/13/2016 1:38:20 PM

I do not, it is in order. We are using it as a proof of concept for wireless power/sensors here at Marshall Space Flight Center for NASA. Ill update when I get to play with it.

short answer: My understanding is you can upload it to the cloud and stream live, if you mean retrieving data due to power lost then I don't know.

[Edited on January 13, 2016 at 2:24 PM. Reason : .]

1/13/2016 2:22:35 PM

Yea, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

1/14/2016 7:02:39 AM

I've done something similar with arduino. Measured and logged the temps of my fermentation. But not sure how well it would scale and connect with multiple sensors throughout your house. You need something wireless...

1/14/2016 1:05:41 PM

So the TI sensor tag (above post) came in pretty neat to work with so far.
Here's my review.

Form factor:
Very small, about size of 50cent coin.
The PCB (sensors) is encapsulate in a clear plastic casing which all is cover with a red rubber case.

Power
Runs on 3V CR2032 coil cell.
I had down to 1.8V and it still runs but not all sensors will work.
Ultralow power, supposedly designed to run for years on a single cell battery.

idle < 2mA, i.e. just leaving it on so thats really low power.

Sensors
Ambient Temperature
IR Temperature
Humidity
Barometer
Accelerometer
Magnetometer
Gyroscope
Light Sensor

I/Os (controlled using dedicated app.)
1 Red LED
1 Green LED
1 BUzzer
Left Push Button
Right push button
IOT stuff
RSSI
Firmware Download, no need to connect to cpu
Connection Control Service
Push to Cloud (heres my link to show how easy data are uploaded)
https://quickstart.internetofthings.ibmcloud.com/#/device/b0b448c83102/sensor/

Connectivity
Currently Bluetooth, Wifi otw.


Overall it's a cool device for under $30 bucks.

[Edited on February 2, 2016 at 2:03 PM. Reason : .]

2/2/2016 1:59:08 PM

neat

2/2/2016 5:06:06 PM

^^So all of those sensors are included for 30 bucks? Could this easily be used to monitor a refrigerator and have it email me if it falls out of range?

2/4/2016 11:20:48 AM

^ Good luck getting a signal to transmit out of your refrigerator. It's basically a Faraday cage. Great idea though.

2/4/2016 1:30:29 PM

^^^Yes you can. I tested it on our breakroom fridge it works just fine. So I don't know what kind you might have...

2/11/2016 2:54:14 PM

Do I have to be a programmer to make these things work or what? $30 just seems like it's too low for all of this to be useful without building your own platform to use it with.

2/12/2016 9:57:01 AM

Short answer, No you dont have to be a programmer but you do need to be a little tech savy. Data are pass via bluetooth to my Iphone app (or ipad). The iphone app then pass that data online. So the iphone acts as a data buffer. The next version will have wifi so you dont need to through the phone.

2/12/2016 4:19:30 PM