6 channel hub & 1-wire lan

[shadowhunter]

I am getting ready to place another order, but have a few questions. My current set up consists of a H-B V3 weather station, and a H-B Temp/Hum sensor. I am planning on adding a barometer and a rain guage to round out the basic weather station set up.

My questions(s):
Regarding the hub, how does it know which devices are connected where on the LAN? If the Baro requires +15V and the rest of the network only requires +5V, are there specific ports on the hub to connect everything to? Am I correct in assuming that no other devices can be daisy-chained off the branch that has the Baro on it?

Regarding the rain gauge, I have read in the "How-To's" that the rain guage neither requires or should it be supplied with external power. If running the 6 channel hub how do I connect this into the LAN if the hub is supplying +5V?

Would I be better off simply adding a power injector in-line before the baro? Would that pass additional voltage on to the devices after the baro?

Sorry for all the questions, it may be that I am just missing something, but want to order the right parts the first time around.

Thanks in advance,
Jim

 

[ericvic]

Jim,

No problem on the questions, they are good ones.

First off you don't have to worry where you connect the Rain Gauge. It only has the 1-Wire data line and ground connected to the RJ45 so it won't notice if there is power on the other pins or not.

Let me try to explain the wiring a bit better. The Hub or the Power Injector put out two different types of power. On pin 2 of the RJ45 they put out +5vdc regulated. That is for devices like the Dual Counter and the Wind Instrument. On pin 7 they put out unregulated dc of whatever voltage that is powering them. For instance if you use our AC Adaptor then you would have about +15vdc unregulated on pin 7. Most of our devices that require or can use external power have an on-board voltage regulator and are connected to pin 7. Any of our devices that take +5vdc or can't use external power don't have pin 7 connected internally and will be unaffected by the presence or lack of voltage on that pin. With that in mind however all of our devices that have the dual RJ45 connector have all the pins connected on both connectors so if there is voltage on the line it will pass through. That way the order you connect them doesn't matter.

Keep in mind that I am only talking about Hobby Boards devices here. Devices from other manufacturers may have different pinouts and different coltage requirements.

If you are only looking at the Hub to provide the correct power to each device but otherwise have a simple setup then the Power Injector would be an option fi you just need to provide power. If you are going to have a network that needs to be wired in a star pattern or want easy future expandability then the Hub would be the way to go.

Let me know if that answered your questions.

Eric

 

[shadowhunter]

eric,
Thanks for the fast response!!! (unlike mine )

Your explination is awesome and clears up quite a few things on how everything works together. I am going out on a limb and assuming that the jumper on your devices is what enables or disables the onboard voltage regulator for the devices :angry: so if I am running power on the LAN the jumper shoud be in place. With exception of the weather station.

I am thinking about using the 6 ch hub for two reasons 1.) supply power to the 1-wire LAN (my serial port can only muster @4.5V) 2.) future expansion of the network, planning on adding additional temp sensors and possibly lightning detector.

I will only be using hobby-boards devices from here on out. Can't find customer service like this anywhere else.

Going to place an order now

Thanks!!
Jim

P.S.- Do you have any .gif files for Hobby-Boards, I would like to add one to my website.

 

[ericvic]

Jim,

I got your order, thanks.

You are correct on the operation of the jumper.

Let me get you a gif in a few days. We just got a new logo created and we are putting the finishing touches on the layouts. What size would you like it?

Eric

 

[shadowhunter]

eric,
Sorry for the delay in response, I did not receive the normal email notification that a response was posted. How about something along the lines of 200x70 for the gif file, I think that should be good.

As for the order, just currious as if something is out of stock, per the last email I received and my account settings it shows as still processing. Just anxious to start playing with my new toys :lol:

Thanks again
Jim

 

[ericvic]

Jim,

Your order should ship tomorrow (Thursday). I don't always work on orders on the weekend and this week has been extra busy. Sorry for it taking so long.

Eric

 

[shadowhunter]

eric,

no biggie, was just currious. Can't expect you to work 24x7 now can we :lol: I am willing to wait for quality parts and applaud your AWESOME customer service. Keep up the great work!!

I just noticed the new logo on the site, I like.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[ericvic]

Yea, I have to get a few hours off :lol: I only work 23x6.5 but atleast I work for myself (and my customers of course).

Thanks for the kudos on the new logo. We ran a contest a while ago and didn't get very many entries but someone pointed out aistudio.net for logo design and they did a great job. We have been tweaking on the colors to get them to look right on the site and I'm not sure we are there but we are getting close.

Eric

 

[shadowhunter]

eric,
I recieved the hub and baro the other day, thanks agian!!

one question though, it there a ROM-ID assigned to the HUB? The 1-wire viewer is not picking one up, and apparently Weather Display needs one. Everything seems to be working okay except for the Main #1 Chanel is not lighting up, but I suspect that is an issue with weather display not seeing the whole network.

Thanks Again.
Jim

P.S. email address for the logo image when you have it tweaked is [email protected].

 

[ericvic]

Jim,

The Hub will have 3 ROM-IDs associated with the three DS2409 chips is uses to get the 6 channels. Do you see any IDs it you use the OneWireViewer?

Eric

PS. I should get the logo sent to you this evening.

 

[shadowhunter]

Eric,
I am not seeing any ROM ID's when using the 1-wire viewer :blink: I have re-done the ends of the cable running from the PC to the "Main" port on the hub twice and it hasn't changed anything. The only LED on the hub is the green power LED.

I have added the jumper back to the Temp/Hum sensor since I was adding power back too.

Jim

 

[shadowhunter]

I think I just broke the Baro :blink:, I hooked up the baro while trying to test the channels in the 1-wire viewer..... and started smelling that electronics burning up smell.... I opend the case and noticed that there is a definate burnt mark on the baro board looks to be on the 2 regulator chips... I am using an 18-24 VDC power supply with the 2.1mm inner diameter positive pin. I did have the rest of the network in place too.... I am hoping I didn't fry evrything.

Did I do something wrong with the hookup?

 

[ericvic]

Jim,

First off please check the voltage coming out of your power supply and make sure that it is not over 30v max (better if it is not over 24v). Does it look like both regulators are fried? Did you use straight through network cables or cross-over cables?

Have your tried hooking up the Humidity/Temp to the cable without the Hub connected to make sure that the cable is working?

Eric