Not being sure about what direction to take on my failing shop furnace and with the next few weeks predicted to be in the teens I decided I needed a way to monitor the temperature in my shop. Couple hours work and this is what I came up with.
I have the remote temperature monitor working from my shop in it's rough state. The key to making this work is a Teensy 2.0 micro-controller from PJRC using one of the examples he posted on his web site. Same thing can be done with an Arduino and in fact the Teensy uses the Arduino programming app.
https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/
https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/tutorial4.html
Basically, have an application running on the shop computer that checks the Teensy every 1/2 hour and if the temperature drops below 50 degrees it will send me an email. I also wrote a small app that I can run on any Windows networked computer that will send a message to the shop computer asking for the temperature reading at that instant. In case someone else finds themselves in a similar situation I ziped up the 3 files and uploaded them to my web site.
http://www.public.somethinxtra.com/TempMonitorFiles.zip
The ZIP file contains 3 files...
SendMail.exe is the app for the shop computer that talks to the Teensy.
ReqTemp.exe is the app that will send a message to the shop computer requesting a temperature reading.
GetTemp.ino is the code that is running on the Teensy.
This should run on any windows computer but have not tested it on Windows 10. My shop computer is running XP and this one is running Windows 7. No warranties are expressed or implied, your results may vary etc.
The Teensy code uses the minimal example from the PJRC site with serial communications added. The exact temperature isn't critical in this application and the basic calcs are good enough. I just have the Teensy on a plug in proto board just as shown in the PJRC example.
The SendMail.exe app has the Teensy USB port hard coded for COM-5 and 19200 baud. Need to make sure your USB serial port is configured for this before trying to run the app. If it doesn't find the Teensy when it starts it will error out and not work. Once you have it running, you will need to configure an email account. Nothing fancy, your basic POP3/SMTP email settings as in Outlook Express. It has test buttons to make sure everything is working.
ReqTemp.exe queries the network (Windows peer to peer Workgroup) when it starts and loads the names of all the computers on the network into a drop down control. Select the computer that is running the SendMail app and click the Send Msg button. Wait a couple minutes for everything to happen then check your email. May take a little while depending on how fast the emails travels through the net. It isn't perfect and once in a while I have to try a 2nd time for everything to happen. This is the from a quick check just a few minutes ago.
>Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2017 5:19 AM
>Subject: Temperature Report From Shop
> Shop Temperature = 64.10
This will get me buy without fear of the water lines in the shop freezing because the pilot in the furnace is out before I decide on a permanent fix.
I have the remote temperature monitor working from my shop in it's rough state. The key to making this work is a Teensy 2.0 micro-controller from PJRC using one of the examples he posted on his web site. Same thing can be done with an Arduino and in fact the Teensy uses the Arduino programming app.
https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/
https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/tutorial4.html
Basically, have an application running on the shop computer that checks the Teensy every 1/2 hour and if the temperature drops below 50 degrees it will send me an email. I also wrote a small app that I can run on any Windows networked computer that will send a message to the shop computer asking for the temperature reading at that instant. In case someone else finds themselves in a similar situation I ziped up the 3 files and uploaded them to my web site.
http://www.public.somethinxtra.com/TempMonitorFiles.zip
The ZIP file contains 3 files...
SendMail.exe is the app for the shop computer that talks to the Teensy.
ReqTemp.exe is the app that will send a message to the shop computer requesting a temperature reading.
GetTemp.ino is the code that is running on the Teensy.
This should run on any windows computer but have not tested it on Windows 10. My shop computer is running XP and this one is running Windows 7. No warranties are expressed or implied, your results may vary etc.
The Teensy code uses the minimal example from the PJRC site with serial communications added. The exact temperature isn't critical in this application and the basic calcs are good enough. I just have the Teensy on a plug in proto board just as shown in the PJRC example.
The SendMail.exe app has the Teensy USB port hard coded for COM-5 and 19200 baud. Need to make sure your USB serial port is configured for this before trying to run the app. If it doesn't find the Teensy when it starts it will error out and not work. Once you have it running, you will need to configure an email account. Nothing fancy, your basic POP3/SMTP email settings as in Outlook Express. It has test buttons to make sure everything is working.
ReqTemp.exe queries the network (Windows peer to peer Workgroup) when it starts and loads the names of all the computers on the network into a drop down control. Select the computer that is running the SendMail app and click the Send Msg button. Wait a couple minutes for everything to happen then check your email. May take a little while depending on how fast the emails travels through the net. It isn't perfect and once in a while I have to try a 2nd time for everything to happen. This is the from a quick check just a few minutes ago.
>Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2017 5:19 AM
>Subject: Temperature Report From Shop
> Shop Temperature = 64.10
This will get me buy without fear of the water lines in the shop freezing because the pilot in the furnace is out before I decide on a permanent fix.
