mustangcoupe
Senior Member
Any chance the firmware could be updated so that these temperature channels could be updated to choose temperature or humidity?
Elk M1 Humidity sensor
- Thread starter n4hc
- Start date
Any chance the firmware could be updated so that these temperature channels could be updated to choose temperature or humidity?
mustangcoupe
Senior Member
N4HC - any updates? cost or time frame?
Todd,
We've been delayed. A lot of work and personal stuff getting in our ways.
Hardware design is pretty much done but trying to find the right packaging is hard.
I found this: http://www.instawares.com/p-o-d.big-180.0.7.htm which is pretty affordable but is large.
Any thoughts...
Thanks,
Joe
We've been delayed. A lot of work and personal stuff getting in our ways.
Hardware design is pretty much done but trying to find the right packaging is hard.
I found this: http://www.instawares.com/p-o-d.big-180.0.7.htm which is pretty affordable but is large.
Any thoughts...
Thanks,
Joe
mustangcoupe
Senior Member
what about just selling boards and letting us come up with an enclosure, that fits our look?
tmbrown97
Senior Member
I'm interested in humidity - was just talking to the wife about automatic bathroom fan control for the youngin's - and of course, I'd need a way to get humidity in. I don't care - wired or wireless; I can't retrofit wires to one of the bathrooms, but nobody showers in that one anyway.
Quixote_1
Active Member
I've done a lot of computer aided design and machining, and I think that if you find someone with the right equipment, it would be easy (and inexpensive) to have plates cut using a laser engraver. They use a laser engraver for the Insteon keypadlinc custom buttons at SmartHome, though I wouldn't count on them.
I know of somewhere that does a lot of work in plastic with various machines and I could check it out for you, if you're interested.
Another option would be to get some injection molding done in China. My brother spent 5 years there and maintains connections there, so I can ask him for advice if you'd like.
You can email me at my user name without the underscore at gmail dot com.
killervette
Active Member
also interested!
DrunkenLizard
Active Member
Seems to rather quite in here for the last couple of months, has anyone heard of any progress on this front?
michelkenny
Active Member
I'm also awaiting this anxiously! I would buy 2 in a heartbeat.
I would definitely be on board to buy (or possibly help fund development) of something that would basically act like a weather station. I'd want temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, windspeed (and direction), rainfall (can snowfall be done?) and the like. The weekend house is in an area of frequent bad weather (like tornados). It'd be really spiffy if I could pull up M1 eKeypad or a web browser and see "I shouldn't go to the country house today because it's raining like mad there" or "I should make an effort to go to the country house today because it's raining and I can see (from the dvr) that the tractor doesn't have a tarp over it". That kinda thing would be really nice.
JeremyLaurenson
New Member
Any news? Even a circuit that we could build would be appreciated. Its been almost 2 years
Well, here's a thought....
Sensirion makes a nice IC (SHT21) that measures both temperature and humidity - all digital. The sensors are integrated, as is the ADC and the I/O interface circuitry. It speaks I2C (as well as PWM, SDM/analog, and volts). It draws minimal current, does RH 0-100% and temp (F) from -40 to 257 with accuracy that's more than adequate for the DIY market. Street price seems to be about $25 bucks in small quantities.
This would get us temp and humidity both in one box. For my own use, I'd like to get windspeed and direction too, but that's another project for another day.
I could get an SHT21 eval chip and interface it to an Arduino Uno quite easily (street price also about $25 bucks, but I already have a few of them).
The only issue is how to interface that back to the Elk M1G, and I don't have docs on that spec. By using an arduino uno - we could then provide the elk pretty much any kind of signal/protocol it'd accept. I'd assume it would just need to provide a varying output voltage to the elk (arduino has that output built in), but I think someone earlier in this thread mentioned a proprietary protocol/encoding. If someone could provide the docs/specs that the Elk brand temperature device uses, I'm sure I could then make it work.
Best,
Jay
Sensirion makes a nice IC (SHT21) that measures both temperature and humidity - all digital. The sensors are integrated, as is the ADC and the I/O interface circuitry. It speaks I2C (as well as PWM, SDM/analog, and volts). It draws minimal current, does RH 0-100% and temp (F) from -40 to 257 with accuracy that's more than adequate for the DIY market. Street price seems to be about $25 bucks in small quantities.
This would get us temp and humidity both in one box. For my own use, I'd like to get windspeed and direction too, but that's another project for another day.
I could get an SHT21 eval chip and interface it to an Arduino Uno quite easily (street price also about $25 bucks, but I already have a few of them).
The only issue is how to interface that back to the Elk M1G, and I don't have docs on that spec. By using an arduino uno - we could then provide the elk pretty much any kind of signal/protocol it'd accept. I'd assume it would just need to provide a varying output voltage to the elk (arduino has that output built in), but I think someone earlier in this thread mentioned a proprietary protocol/encoding. If someone could provide the docs/specs that the Elk brand temperature device uses, I'm sure I could then make it work.
Best,
Jay
Thanks everyone for the interest. My plans have changed so at this time I can't build this as a product so I'll post what I have and make this open source. Who knows what cool stuff can be built if we open this up and let people create.
The protocol is pretty simple. It's Manchester encoded and a offset is added to the temperature to push it high enough as not to need negative numbers. The number I remember I got from the API docs. I have to dig into an old computer for the source code and I'll post it.
As for the circuit I used a simple Microchip PIC processor. The 12x series (like in the temperature sensor) is adequate. An output bit goes to a transistor to pull the Elk zone to ground. For a commercial product you would need more ESD and transient protection but for a personal product it's much easier. That's actually the part that has held me up with a comercial design. I changed jobs and don't have access to some of that technology.
The prototype I'm running with just a transistor output and it's been going for about 3 years.
The humidity sensor http://www.preconusa.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=9650716.24186*bV2iF2&xm=on&product=Humidity I'm using puts out a ratio-metric voltage that I read with the PIC ADC and convert to ELK code. Direct digital output is available as well but it's TTL serial and can be more code/work than just using ADC.
The sensor I was going to use in the final product works the same way but is made by Honeywell and is about 1/2 the cost in single quantity. See HIH series from Honeywell on Digikey for more details. Adding temperature I was going to use a DS-1820 one-wire part. You can use anything really since there quite a few good temperature sensors out there.
I'll post the code when I find it.
The protocol is pretty simple. It's Manchester encoded and a offset is added to the temperature to push it high enough as not to need negative numbers. The number I remember I got from the API docs. I have to dig into an old computer for the source code and I'll post it.
As for the circuit I used a simple Microchip PIC processor. The 12x series (like in the temperature sensor) is adequate. An output bit goes to a transistor to pull the Elk zone to ground. For a commercial product you would need more ESD and transient protection but for a personal product it's much easier. That's actually the part that has held me up with a comercial design. I changed jobs and don't have access to some of that technology.
The prototype I'm running with just a transistor output and it's been going for about 3 years.
The humidity sensor http://www.preconusa.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=9650716.24186*bV2iF2&xm=on&product=Humidity I'm using puts out a ratio-metric voltage that I read with the PIC ADC and convert to ELK code. Direct digital output is available as well but it's TTL serial and can be more code/work than just using ADC.
The sensor I was going to use in the final product works the same way but is made by Honeywell and is about 1/2 the cost in single quantity. See HIH series from Honeywell on Digikey for more details. Adding temperature I was going to use a DS-1820 one-wire part. You can use anything really since there quite a few good temperature sensors out there.
I'll post the code when I find it.
Ah, yes, manchester encoding. That's not proprietary 
Matter of fact, I think the UART on the arduino can be coaxed into "speaking" manchester by stuffing the right converted values in to it and fudging start/stop/parity etc.
Good info! On the temperature/humidity project, I'll probably continue and roll my own with the SHT21 and arduino, just because I'm more familiar with that than the PIC chips. The arduino seems to have more I/O options built in, so I suspect it would give me more flexibility for future add-ons to the elk.
On a different project/note... Now if I could just get the specs for talking to the elk via databus.... some of the plans I have in mind would be better off going the databus route. And then there's the software-based AiPhone LEF-5C project.... so many ideas, so little time
Matter of fact, I think the UART on the arduino can be coaxed into "speaking" manchester by stuffing the right converted values in to it and fudging start/stop/parity etc.Good info! On the temperature/humidity project, I'll probably continue and roll my own with the SHT21 and arduino, just because I'm more familiar with that than the PIC chips. The arduino seems to have more I/O options built in, so I suspect it would give me more flexibility for future add-ons to the elk.
On a different project/note... Now if I could just get the specs for talking to the elk via databus.... some of the plans I have in mind would be better off going the databus route. And then there's the software-based AiPhone LEF-5C project.... so many ideas, so little time
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