I have also wanted to know when the electricity goes out in the greenhouse, because that means the heater doesn't work. I did this simply with the "normally closed" contacts on a SSR (solid state relay). As long as there is power, it holds the contact open, when the power goes out the contacts close and ring a wireless doorbell in the house. I know that eventually the relay may fail being energized all the time, but after a year I have had no problems.
Wow, I like that this type of project is getting more interest. I really like the project post by Ed, thanks Dorn. I have been going the other way and replaced my Uno with a Mega board and started to ask it to do more things. I am still running an onboard analog temp sensor along with 2 digital temp sensors attached to a single pin. I have added three relays to control the furnace, ventilator and a heated greenhouse table. The best part about my project is the wireless door bell that rings in the house when temps go out of range or the power goes out.
This winter I am hoping to get a wireless display to our house so it is easy to monitor. Should be pretty straight forward with a couple of xbees. One day I would like it all sent to my smart phone, but I feel like text messages is not the best way for me. I could easily get my Mega board a wifi signal so it would be easier to make the jump that way then over cell signals.
Let me know if you have any specific questions? I would be happy to help, although things are pretty busy on the farm right now, these are usually winter projects for me ;)
Jenna
Yup, all the rest of our greenhouse tables sit on saw horses too. I had a spot for this one to be a bit more permanent, and with 300lbs of sand in it, I didn't want to take it down. the pea gravel probably works too, for me I was trying to create a large thermal mass to avoid temperature fluctuations. To add a circuit like this to my microprocessor costs me the price of a relay and temperature probe $25 for the fancy ones, and then I can log the temperature in the table, know how long the heating coil is on under different temperature settings, and patch it into the alarm in case the temps get too high or too low. Plus I am a bit of an Arduino geek.
Post up a picture or two to help out others that are thinking about doing the same thing.
Jenna
Hi Louis, thanks for the nice words. I have revamped the temp data logger I wrote about last year, it is now based on a mega board, controls heating and ventilation in our greenhouse, as well as the germination table I also wrote about here. I have also added a wireless doorbell as an alarm if the temps go out of range or if their is a power outage. I am hoping to add an LCD display in the greenhouse and am thinking about how to get another LCD in the house, it sounds like this would be perfect application for your bee.
I am curious about your bee, it looks like it has a lot of what I want in a board, but upon first inspection it doesn't look like there are many digital pins. I out grew my Uno in the greenhouse pretty quickly with just a few sensors, relays, and logging capabilities.
I am excited about the egg mobile, for sure I will have some kind of microcontroller in it. I like the idea with the food dispensing, make it kind of like a giant gumball machine.
Jenna
Hi Geoff, welcome to Farm Hack, I am part of a cooperative organic mixed farm near Lachute, QC. I am interested in participating / organizing Farm Hack events out here. Do you have info on the event coming up in May at Jean-Martin's farm?
Comments
Simple way to monitor electricity
Wow, I like that this type of
Yup, all the rest of our
Hi Louis, thanks for the nice
Hi Geoff, welcome to Farm