Temperature/Humidity Probes with Elk

[broconne]

What do people use for temperature/humidity probes for the elk?
Does the elk even support humidity? I was very interested in turning on bathroom fans based on relative humidity.
I know there is an elk makes a temperature probe - but it isn't very attractive to have on the wall at least in the online pictures.
The HAI temperature/humidity probe looks more attractive - will this work with the elk?

Is there any reason to cat5 for temp/humidity or will 22/4 be fine? (Costs me $20 extra to run cat5 vs. 22/4) - which adds up on the number of runs I am planning.

 

[broconne]

Let me try this again.

Has anyone gotten an internal humidity sensor of any kind to work with the elk?

 

[fcwilt]

Sorry can't help you with humidity. I have used the ELK temp probe and a device from ControlByWeb products where I needed a go/no-go signal related to tempature but nothing for humidity. I don't know if there is any 1-wire stuff that would work with the ELK.

As far as bathroom fans go I just set mine up to run for a minimum time, so a person can hit the switch and not worry about coming back to turn the fan off.

 

[Lagerhead]

What do people use for temperature/humidity probes for the elk?

In a nutshell...
- The M1ZTS is the main choice for temperature sensing. You can get it with a short probe or a long probe. It talks to the M1 using a semi-proprietary protocol (Manchester encoding). 22/4 should be fine.
- You can also use a 1-wire temperature sensor connected via a M1KAM.
- For humidity, I think you will find you are SOL.

See other threads...
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11884
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11718
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11159

Many here would be interested to know if you find otherwise.

 

[broconne]

What do people use for temperature/humidity probes for the elk?

In a nutshell...
- The M1ZTS is the main choice for temperature sensing. You can get it with a short probe or a long probe. It talks to the M1 using a semi-proprietary protocol (Manchester encoding). 22/4 should be fine.
- You can also use a 1-wire temperature sensor connected via a M1KAM.
- For humidity, I think you will find you are SOL.

See other threads...
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11884
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11718
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11159

Many here would be interested to know if you find otherwise.

For my purposes, triggering the fan based on relative humidity is important. HAI has an attractive looking temp/humidity sensor. I was pretty much 100% set on the Elk - but I am going to take a closer look at HAI now.

 

[mustangcoupe]

What do people use for temperature/humidity probes for the elk?

In a nutshell...
- The M1ZTS is the main choice for temperature sensing. You can get it with a short probe or a long probe. It talks to the M1 using a semi-proprietary protocol (Manchester encoding). 22/4 should be fine.
- You can also use a 1-wire temperature sensor connected via a M1KAM.
- For humidity, I think you will find you are SOL.

See other threads...
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11884
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11718
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11159

Many here would be interested to know if you find otherwise.

For my purposes, triggering the fan based on relative humidity is important. HAI has an attractive looking temp/humidity sensor. I was pretty much 100% set on the Elk - but I am going to take a closer look at HAI now.

Where are you triggering the fan? Bathroom? I am planning on adding a flow sensor (already bought it) to the shower hot water feed, and turn the fan on/off depending on rules baised on that

 

[AnotherOne]

I trigger my fan using the light in the shower. When the light comes on the fan comes on a minute later (stops the fan from running when the light is turned on accidently). When the light goes off, the fan goes off 10 minutes later.

 

[broconne]

What do people use for temperature/humidity probes for the elk?

In a nutshell...
- The M1ZTS is the main choice for temperature sensing. You can get it with a short probe or a long probe. It talks to the M1 using a semi-proprietary protocol (Manchester encoding). 22/4 should be fine.
- You can also use a 1-wire temperature sensor connected via a M1KAM.
- For humidity, I think you will find you are SOL.

See other threads...
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11884
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11718
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11159

Many here would be interested to know if you find otherwise.

For my purposes, triggering the fan based on relative humidity is important. HAI has an attractive looking temp/humidity sensor. I was pretty much 100% set on the Elk - but I am going to take a closer look at HAI now.

Where are you triggering the fan? Bathroom? I am planning on adding a flow sensor (already bought it) to the shower hot water feed, and turn the fan on/off depending on rules baised on that

Bathroom fan - which flow sensor did you buy?

 

[broconne]

I trigger my fan using the light in the shower. When the light comes on the fan comes on a minute later (stops the fan from running when the light is turned on accidently). When the light goes off, the fan goes off 10 minutes later.

I have some showers that won't have lights that are only for the shower - so that may not work in all rooms for me.

I will also tie the fans into occupancy sensors in those rooms. However, honestly, all of these IMO are workarounds for a lack of a humidity sensor. The primary goal of the fan during showers is to remove humidity to prevent potential mold or other damage to the room from excess humidity. Therefore, it makes sense to monitor for that condition and run the fan until that condition abates. I am not saying these aren't great solutions to a problem. However, I am just disappointed there is no humidity sensor for the elk.

 

[fcwilt]

I checked and there are low cost 1-Wire humidity sensors, there are also combo temperature/humidity sensors. We just have to talk the good folk at ELK into supporting one of the 1-Wire host adapters.

I like this one:

http://www.embeddeddatasystems.com/Merchan...Product_Count=0

 

[murphy]

What do people use for temperature/humidity probes for the elk?

In a nutshell...
- The M1ZTS is the main choice for temperature sensing. You can get it with a short probe or a long probe. It talks to the M1 using a semi-proprietary protocol (Manchester encoding). 22/4 should be fine.
- You can also use a 1-wire temperature sensor connected via a M1KAM.
- For humidity, I think you will find you are SOL.

See other threads...
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11884
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11718
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11159

Many here would be interested to know if you find otherwise.

In the last thread, Spanky mentioned 3 choices to get temp-readings.
IMHO there is another one. I have not realized this until now, so it is only a "PBI" (a partly baked idea). But it should work:

The Zone-Inputs direct at the ELK-M1 has more options as those at the expansion-boards. So you can set such zone-inputs to "definition 34 = type 7 = analog". This way your input-voltages are changed from 0 to 12 Volt into values of 0 to 255. This should work for any voltage, whatever this voltage represents: a temperature, a humidity, anything you can convert to a voltage.

I think, an 8-bit AD-converter is better than nothing and in most application sufficient. The problem is a stable converter-output from humidity to voltage and the calibration.

In this regard the ELK-own temp-probe with its serial protocol (which is not using the offered AD-Converter) is much easier to use, much more robust and is much more reliable. But for temperatures only.

Has anyone used the AD-option inside the ELK? This should also a way for a humidity-input.

 

[Sokoloff]

I just installed one of these (literally last night) and am very happy with it so far:
http://www.bathroomfanexperts.com/product....;product=172674

It works well, is quiet (not silent, but way quieter than the fan it replaced), and you just leave it "on" and it manages itself. It comes on about 3 minutes into my shower as best I can tell. You can also cause it to run manually by toggling the switch ON-OFF-ON (think of it as AUTO-OFF-AUTO) and it runs a cycle manually.

Separate power feeds for fan, light and nightlight; NTSupply (the people who run the site above) shipped it quickly and reasonably cheaply.

I originally thought I'd try to tie the humidity sensor from that fan into my Elk, but now that it's up on the ceiling, as long as it keeps working, I think I'm done with that project.

 

[znelbok]

What do people use for temperature/humidity probes for the elk?

In a nutshell...
- The M1ZTS is the main choice for temperature sensing. You can get it with a short probe or a long probe. It talks to the M1 using a semi-proprietary protocol (Manchester encoding). 22/4 should be fine.
- You can also use a 1-wire temperature sensor connected via a M1KAM.
- For humidity, I think you will find you are SOL.

See other threads...
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11884
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11718
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=11159

Many here would be interested to know if you find otherwise.

In the last thread, Spanky mentioned 3 choices to get temp-readings.
IMHO there is another one. I have not realized this until now, so it is only a "PBI" (a partly baked idea). But it should work:

If using a 0/4-20mA or 0/1-5V device has not been mentioned then that will work as well - even on an expansion board (especially since you need to remove a resistor).

I currently have an ultrasonic level transmitter and a pressure transmitter using 4-20mA connected to the M1 where it measures the voltage across a resistor. Has been working a treat for over a year now.