Reddit mentions: The best temperature probes & sensors

Hey man, I know what it's like to make videos and get knocked on. I'm actually an 11 year manufacturing engineer who's poured molten metal on an industrial level, hundreds of thousands of pounds worth. I've Programmed and ran CNC machines, cut metals, drill welding, worked with water tools, abrasive tools, etc.

I've been trained by my grandfather who's been pouring metal since the 50's and my father who's been doing it since the 70's. Along with another half dozen men who all have a minimum of 20 years experience in industrial manufacturing. I'm going to give you some practical advice on how you could drastically improve your safety.

 

• I saw your DIY foundry once, you used cement in the slurry mix. I hope to god you aren't leaving that thing outside. Actually I hope you never use that furnace ever again. Good move using the aquarium stuff but cement is literally the worst thing you can use for anything with a flame on it. Cement is porous, it will absorb moister. If that thing ever absorbs enough and you fire it up, it WILL explode. If you are lucky it will just crack and i know you'll probably reply, "well I've been using it for ....". Ok, that's fine but what my father taught me the first time i stepped foot in our shop, "Dzuari, all it takes to kill you IS once." Don't ever fuck with mother nature or machines, you will always lose.
  
  If you are still using that furnace, please throw it out and remake it so my grandfather can stop rolling in his grave. Use one of these materials;
  
  Fine Kiln dried lapis sand
  
  Silica Sand 6lbs
  
  2200deg Rutland castable cement Fire Clay
  
  25lbs Rutland castable cement
  
  Kaowool Insulation Blanket
  
  Your best bet is to use silica sand but it's typically more expensive, however it will last the longest. The refractory is really where the durability is. I'd experiment with different types, you could even try adding in fiberglass reinforcement which may increase durability. Oh and here is a K-type thermometer. You can buy some thermocouple leads and figure out the math to accurately measure your burn temperatures so you don't over oxides your metals.
  
  And honestly, if it was me, I'd remove that video and remake it. Someone will watch that video, go out and buy cement and one day it will explode on them. That's an extremely dangerous way to make a furnace.
  
   
  
  
• Electricity and water. You can easily make your videos a whole lot safer just by distancing your water source from the electrical components with something like this for your Dremel. Pretty much apply this methodology to anything that involves electricity and water. The farther your motor and 120v input is to the water source, the better. You can make a quick plexiglass cover to help seperate it, make an extension shaft so the cutting wheel is further distanced and always wear heavy duty, insulated rubber gloves.. Hell you could even make your own retrofit abrasive water cutter with simple motor and pulley system. Matthais Wandel has a great belt sander build that wouldn't be hard at all to make your own water/abrasive wheel setup.
  
  The way you set up that cuttoff wheel.... smh. Please don't do that. Also I'm sure you already read the comments but there are times when to wear gloves and when not to wear gloves. You need to use a vice or clamp any time you can if it means avoiding using gloves when using a high-speed cutter of any kind. Especially if it's a wheel. Again, it only takes once.
  
   
  
  
• General safety. You should really read every single MSDS sheet you get on anything you buy retail or salvage. I've seen you light stuff on fire with zero respiration protection or use things that should have been done on a downdraft table or you were wearing improper clothing. Some of the stuff you work with can really fuck you up and you blatantly did not know of it's harmfulness or willfully disregarded it.
  
   
  
  Overall man I like your videos but in my opinion of everyone DIY'er i watch on youtube, you are hands down the lease safe. I usually spot something you did wrong in every video you post. Whether you feel responsible for your viewers and what they do with the information you give them, is up to you. I just figured I'd give you some pragmatic advice from someone who does this stuff for a living. I actually did a few youtube videos about 6 years ago on my Channel over industrial level green sand. I'm planning on quitting my job within the next mont or two to start my own workshop/foundry/DIY/Youtube/website marketing thing from scratch. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll gladly answer them.
  
  Here's some random tips;
  
  
  Don't use pop can metal for anything structural. It's 3000's series aluminum and it's mades specifically to be malleable. Good rule of thumb for scrap metal is, if it came from something cheap, the metals cheap. The highest quality aluminum you can get for CASTING is automotive parts. Typically made from A356-T6, very good aluminum. I see a lot of guys metal down "Aircraft" or "Aerospace grade" aluminum for casting thinking it's going to be strong. It will not be, 6000 or 7000 series aluminum is all wrought/worked aluminum. It gets it's strength from massive presses that squeeze the metal into shape. Once you heat it up it looses all that strength.
  
  T6 heat treat is the most common treat process for aluminum. If you are making something structural, heat treatment will greatly increase it's strength. But you have to use the correct aluminum for or it can't be treated (Automotive parts/A356). The process is usually 8hrs at 800-1000F then either a quench/2hrs at 300F or age hardening. With that K type thermometer you can easily set up your furnace to heat treat. Also, most aluminum age hardens once poured, usually around 21 days.
  
  Please never wear shorts ever again when working with molten metal. It's not that it will burn your leg. It's that it will hit your leg, then fall into you shoe. Then you have a burning foot and a ladle of molten metal in your hand. I've done this with high top boots and jeans on. My father would fire my on the spot if he ever saw me pouring with shorts on. I saw a guy poure about 2lbs of aluminum into his boot once. 6 years later his still on disability. Please don't ever do it again.
  
  
  Random informational videos
  
  Metallugical nature of Aluminum and crystalizing structures
  
  Grain Structure of Metal
  
  Cold work vs Hot work metal. E.I. this is wrought metal like 3000, 6000 & 7000 series aluminum
  
  Cermaic Material for Furnace Insulation
  

Note, links here with a [!] are ones not in the album.

• Starting off HERE we have a view of the entire area. On the left is my rack topped with HP 1020, semi-dead retired PS3, and Netgear R6300v2, a few parts and tools. An HDMI switcher sticks out the back waiting cable management and routing to a shelf up front, also exposing IR receiver for it for manual control although it auto switches to the latest turned on device.
  
  Off to the right is a desk which has been converted to a ghetto entertainment center. I'd rather buy servers than furniture! My apartment is absolutely tiny anyway, like 600 SQFT. Logitech 2.1, Dell S2740L. I'd not pay that much for a dashboard monitor, but, I use it for media as well, so the price of it new when I got it, nearly 450 after taxes/shipping, was worth it.
  
  
• Over HERE a second R710 sits unused while I get another iDRAC chipset for it, and maybe another motherboard for it. Maybe. It works with it's damaged RAM channel but limits it's expansion. We'll see.
  
  
• HERE is my GLORIOUS GRAFANA SETUP! This is displayed on the Pi, refreshes every 30 seconds, data is dumped every minute to InfluxDB, some graphs use ELK Stack, and the Pi in addition to showing this uses a cronjob to dump temp/humidity data. A more detailed screenshot is HERE From left to right, top to bottom, you see,
  
• Power Usage, stats pulled from OpenHAB (more below)
  
• graphs of Humidity from an AM2302 sensor. I'll release Python sources when I'm comfy with them, r/Homelab will be the first to see 'em, no worries.
  
• A bunch of single-stat charts showing "right now" data: Rack intake temp, Rack exhaust temp, C-temp INSIDE the rack, Power Draw, and firewall incoming packets rejected over the last 5 minutes. More on this later.
  
• Stack-graph of intake and exhaust temp over time. Shows me how much "heat" is being shoved out the back better, visually. And I can see when I'm doing crazy stuff on CPU loads ;) - the sensors used here are THESE DS18B20's from Amazon. So easy to get working because it's 1Wire.
  
• Then I graph "ambient"-ish sensor data from my IPMITool dumps. A cronjob runs THIS[!] command every minute, and dumps the sensor data. The data in this graph is backplane, motherboard, ambient temps, etc. Nothing "Hot."
  
• Then, I graph the "hot" data - IO Controller hub, RAM, CPU cores, etc. Unfortunately the R710 and R210 don't have any hot data? Just ambient, and that's it. Boo!
  
• Next up, fan speeds. I consider this important and bolded the lines of fans that I've swapped so I can make sure they don't fail.
  
• "Ports" blocked is wrong, it's packets. This graph is polling Elasticsearch which gets pfSense firewall logs. It then graphs ICMP (Ping) requests it's rejected, and all other Layer4 packets on a separate line.
  
• Then, another Elasticsearch graph showing packets that have passed through - I only have three ports exposed - two RDP and one PPTP for when I lab at work. I want to see when my RDP sessions are being messed with, so I graph both of them. A management VM runs on the standard port, and a "production" (file/print/dhcp/dns/iSCSI) RDP session for "emergencies" runs on a nonstandard port.
  
  The last two graphs honestly tell me a LOT. ELK Stack is WAY more powerful than I thought. Unfortunately I don't like how Kibana's dashboards look, so save the geoIP stuff, I am using Grafana all the way. TODO: Get the Pie chart plugin working!
  
  
• THIS is my OpenHAB setup. Pardon the bulges on the side, screencaps from an S7 Edge, stitched together. Top down:
  
• Scenes (off/sleep/wake/work[all on])
  
• a 2800 Lumen living area light
  
• an RGB (though locked to single color due to limited OpenHAB2 support for this particular model) bulb behind the monitor seen HERE[!]
  
• An Ikea dome lamp I ripped the mains socket out of and replaced with LED strips, powered by an ESP8266 and custom driver circuit. Communicates via MQTT with a server, Mosquitto, on a VM. Sits above my bed. Reowr.
  
• AUX Power is for my hydroponics setup. I'm a basil/pesto nerd.
  
• Server rack power "right now." updates every 15 seconds.
  
• AUX Control controls the water pump for hydroponics. It's on a 1hr OpenHAB "cron" rule to water itself.
  
• Server Control, expanded upon HERE
  
• Network devices lists me and my SO's laptop and phones, and an NZXT H440 tower I built that we share. Seen here in an old photo playing Jak X at native speed, woo!
  
  
• HERE is a view of the rack, with THIS bandana I am in love with. The 4.3" LCD is THIS model LCD panel. It's disabled as the Pi outputs to HDMI, but I'll get SNMP graphs going on it when I get a second or even more Pi's.
  
• This LCD was previously used for a DIY snake climate control system, but I had to abandon my snake when I moved a year ago :(
  
• The setup was HERE[!] - old photo showing semi-complete. Eventually had it fully coded. This is a tkinter GUI and a PID control algorithm PWM'ing a heating mat for his cage.
  
• HERE[!] is a better view. I could VNC in to change his thermostats.
  
• BOY[!] did it fucking work great or what. HERE was a primitive Apache script charting the temps stored in SQLite via PYGAL. Note that the second plots are days at a time. The first is a plot of data over weeks. The dips are me resetting the script for improvements.
  
  
• HERE is the top of the rack with ghetto-WAP and HP laser printer. Semi-dead PS3, some spare PSUs, tools, PATCHKABEL, etc etc.
  
  
• HERE she is herself! Top down of the rack as follows,
  
• 1u HP ProCurve 2810-48G. I love this thing man.
  
• 1u Cheapo Ebay wannabe NeatPatch that cost me like 20 bucks.
  
• 2u Keystone inserts with one-off stuff like the modem, NUC, Pi, jacks in the back, routed up front for easy access.
  
• Blank
  
• 1u Shelf, left: Surfboard Modem, right: Intel NUC 5i3RYH. Pardon the 1/3-unit offset! It's trashy, I know, but the NUC is too tall >_<
  
• 1u Shelf, Sager NP3260 (Clevo W25AES) laptop. Used as a media center machine. Kodi, browsers, etc.
  
• 1u empty, awaiting rails for the R210 to mount it here.
  
• 2u empty, soon to house the second "spare" R710
  
• 1u currently holding the 210 on a shelf, soon to just hold tools or cables when the rails arrive...
  
• 1/3u reserved 1u, shelf.
  
• 2u, C2100 48GB RAM, 2xL5630, 3x1TB, 2x250GB, 1x160GB internal, soon to have an additional 30GB ssd when I prep it. Runs ESXi, virtualized FreeNAS w/ HBA Passthru.
  
• 2u R710 in good condition. Both this and the spare R710 rock an X5550 with 24 GB RAM. This currently has 4x 10K drives, soon it'll be 2x in each 710 as local storage. This in addition to the C2100 will be my vCenter Server lab, with vCenter Server itself running on the R210 (along with my management VM).
  
• 1u empty
  
• 1u blank
  
• 1u times two PDUs; outlets are at a premium even though I don't even use that much power!
  
• 1u empty TODO get a UPS in there.
  
• HERE is the MESS of wiring I hide by shoving this at a wall. Why I monitor the temps lol. You also see the HDMI switcher free-floating, and an HDMI Keystone in the next image below. I intend to shelf-mount the switcher up front for access, but eh, cables are thick, lazy, haven't gotten that far yet.
  
• HERE shows the quick disconnect and patch keystone at the bottom rear. So I dont need to rip my modem out if I wheel the rack around. I built it for portability, even though it never moves. For modularity, I left the input and output of the POE injector in the rack for my work-from-home phone. Hence the 5-inch loop connection.
  
• HERE is a glory shot of the trio of cables running along the wall. 2 data to my desk, 1 coax to the wall.
  
• HERE shows the HDMI switcher which is missing one port. Pi, Sager Laptop, and soon to be VM with Passthru. It switches automatically to the newest source, but I leave the remote handy in case I need to switch it myself. So, it shows the dashboard at all times, and if I fire up the media center with the remote keyboard, it shows that. If the media center goes to sleep, back to the dash. Also intentionally using Grafana because it's gorgeous dark theme.
  
• HERE shows my zen area booting up the best workhorse a man could ever buy himself - a THINKPAD! \ o /
  
• HERE I kick it back staring at the IT equivalent of paint drying.
  
• Since I work night shifts and sometimes even from home, I have curtains to isolate this area from the rest of my studio apartment.
  
  ---
  
  Power is metered/controlled with THIS switch. Make sure you have no way of shutting this off! Else you cut power to the whole lab. So far it hasn't had any random-shutoff issues. So I'm happy.
  
  This lab has taught me A TON, entertained me during off hours, given me uninterrupted sanctuary, prepped me for exams, and everything. After I get MCSA, the R710s + C2100 will be clustered to teach me much more advanced stuff for VCP5/VCP6 study.

Hey Folks,
I was asked to provide a more detailed view on what I have done with the zirc wire.
I'm happy to provide a better view on my measuring technique.
If you can give feedback to the method or TC measuring in general, please let me know.

I first tried to measure the temp with a old and small IR thermometer i got laying around.
The values were totally confusing, so I asked what could cause this error.
Some kind user told me that IR does depend on the emissivity of different materials.
This made sense, as I got really different values for the same setup.
So I bought a real Thermometer with 4 channels and probes you could insert into coils, etc.
This helped a lot in getting "real" values for the temp which was reached on different TCR settings.

The zirc wire measurings were done with different places for the probe.
I inserted it into the coil, but noticed that the direct measurement of the coil (under the rips) was more accurate.
The placing inside the cotton "stole" some temp from the measurement, so I chose to go with the setup shown in the zirc thread.
I think this should work for most mods and wires with TC.
I would suggest to buy a thermometer with probes, as they are way more accurate than anything else I tried.
BUT the probes are slow sometimes, so you have to fire a minimum of 8sec, or fire a second time when the probe has "reached temperature".
I will have a look at "faster" probes, but now I dont have the money to buy a good set of probes to test them all.
The measuring was absolutely possible with the "slower" probes provided with the thermometer i bought.

As I dont own many mods, just a istick pico, a VTC Mini and an egrip2 with the adaptor for 510, I didnt have the need to test any further.
I have ordered some SS316 in 29 Gauge (0,28mm) from zivpf and will continue the tests with this wire.
As the TCR for SS316 is more public, I thought it would be a good idea to test something which is commonly known.
So, I will get back and post if I come to new conclusions about TC with SS316 on this 3 mods.
I also own 3 different atomizers (serpent mini22, subtank mini and lemo2), so I will do this tests with all 3 atomizers.
The best choice in my opinion is a atomizer which doesnt "hop" massively on the cold resistance in Arctic Fox.
The subtank gave the most stable "cold resistance" in the past, so I will begin with this.
Until then, I wish everybody a happy, good vape and a great time.
Cheers

OK, Im just going to list a bunch of stuff I've purchased through this process. Nothing is in any particular order.

Almond leaves (for tannin) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LKTX4VC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Moss - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035Q65TQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cholla Wood - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H4FUMHY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dried red Shrimp (Protein and Chitin) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027JCRVW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Instant Ocean (1/3cup per Gallon) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000255NKA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ultrasonic Mister/Fogger (for DIY Fogger) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PAK21WU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Digital Temp Humidity Controller - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I6BZ2IO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

LED White/Blue Light - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0191EWII2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

UTH (You may need to get a different size and this isn't the most recommended, but it works for me currently) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TR4HLEI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (This one has adhesive on the back of it, so you just stick it on like a sticker.)

Cork Bark Board - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019J1VPY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Water Conditioner - https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-116043304-Prime-500ml/dp/B00025694O

If you have any questions, please feel free. To mitigate confusion I felt just listing this as a reference first is the best approach. If you are looking for a new tank so that you can get friends, i would suggest 30 or more gallons and work towards that instead of investing into the current tank which would get changed.

Personally with the 5 i have i clearly see they need much more room than the 15 gallon they have now. I am in the process of acquiring an 85-120 gallon tank for permanency. These guys can live 20+ years with the proper care and environment. but not everyone has that freedom. 30 is a totally doable size for 3 crabs. they can grow to jumbos and be fine in there, but im sure if they reach that stage you'll be looking for another tank. Jumbos need at least 12" of substrate for molting.

1. That's fairly cheap you can find some china models on dhgate that could help you get there. If you want to deal with Auber there is http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=45&products_id=484 for 170$ they have a flat coil and nail.
   
   I can't speak for their nail; but the controller and coil is rock solid. Then you just need an atomizer (nail) to finish it off such as a D-Nail SiC Halo or an CCA Banger. You can get a 20mm coil and then get a quartz banger if you prefer that route.
   
   That controller (The RDK-300A) will handle D-Nail coils as well as Auber coils so there's no unique pinout to burn you later (like high5 does)
   
   
2. If you want to read the nail surface you need a k-type thermocouple that can handle the head. So you will need something that can give you results from the probes; so this is a pretty good device https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GFHYA8/ ... here are some probes I have used that work https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083SZC6S/
   
   
3. Get a good controller; then get the nail you want. You are free to change your mind in the future that's the joy of a controller that you can get another coil for incase you want something different.
   
   Take it slow and it might take a few paydays or months to get everything sorted the way you want.
   
   140-170 outlay for the controller with a nail is small; then you can step up after a few paydays and you know better what you want next.
   

Ok, northern lights. Day 14.
Started in rapid rooters then Planted in tupur by Gold Coast. Basically coco and perlite mixed.
Canna coco nutes currently at 1/3 recommended. Watered today after waiting 4 days.
All temps/ph is in the photo. I've ordered this and I'm just waiting on its delivery to get the temps higher and humidity in the right range via regulating the exhaust and a humidifier. So that should be fixed as soon as I get it.

Here's my problem, I watered 4 days ago with simple ph'd water(I'm only using nutes every other watering) Afterwards the two lowest true leaves started curling down. The tips touch the soil.
So I slowed down and waited 4 days, the top inch of soil (knuckle deep) was dry 12 hours later but the leaves still showed signs of overwatering so I waited 4 days. Today they were still curled but not as severely. The soil was bone dry 3" down (it's so dry the inside of my cabinet is littered with soil from the fan blowing it around)

Today I watered at 1/3 normal nute strength and the bottom leaves (only the first true leaves) are again curled down so far the tips touch the soil(you can see the tips in the picture on the left and right underside). Again indicating overwatering right?

So what do I do? Water even less? Wait 5-6-7 days?
I'm not soaking all the soil. Like I said it's super dry the next day. Just enough to soak a 5" ring around the plant and maybe get 1 cup of runoff. Which just like the water going in is at around 6.0ph.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to share all the pertinent info. This is my first grow in 6 years and I'm clearly rusty and not very confident.
Suggestions, ideas, insults, any guidance will do folks. Thanks.

I had parts laying around so I decided to build a temperature monitor instead of having multiple individual thermometers. My buddy wanted one and i thought, "these have to be a thing", but i cant find them. It seems like the only product that has multiple temperature probes is an expensive controller.

Does anyone know if these things exist on the market?

For those interested, this is just a led segment display, arduino, and i2c temperature probes. You could build this for $20 - $30. I have the code but would encourage someone to try it on their own, its a pretty good beginner project.

How much trouble are you having with evaporation water loss when the cover's off?

I use an auto heater. It has two larger heating coils and a set of temperatures gages. If the temperature spikes, a chiller kicks in, and if it drops, the heaters turn on. You never run the risk of cooking your fish, but you have way more heat available than you need. I have the heaters set up near where the water re-enters the tank, so the warm water cycles constantly.

YINGTU Temperature Controller, Pre-Wired Outlet Thermostat Digital, Dual Stage Hea... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RRXJNLP/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_i_APkiDbF5MA2ZE

This one is similar to the one I use. You can set the acceptable temperature range and differential, Determine when you want the heater/chiller to turn on, etc.

One plug is dedicated to the heater(s) and one is dedicated to the chiller. You can use it with an existing heater, or add an extension chord and plug in multiples like I do. You don't need the chiller at all if you never have trouble with your tank temperatures exceeding desirable ranges.

As a bonus, you can set an alarm to go off if your temps get out of range.

how much do you want to pay to find out?

you can buy a weather station for about 50 bucks that will allow you to record the running temperature on a computer.

or, you can buy a thermometer with an outdoor sensor for about 3 bucks, and a webcam for about 6, then set it to record a frame every 30 minutes or so to your computer with a time and date stamp. More work, but for under 10 bucks you'd have a complete history of the exact temperature inside your fridge.


edit: looks like there are a shitload of temperature monitors for USB that you can just plug into your computer, and they will do things like log the temperature for you and even send an alert to your cellphone if the temperature reaches a certain point. Certainly one to do what you are looking for straight out of the box is out there.

Make a dual op amp proportional PWM controller for temperature control.

The first op amp is the P function with set point using a lm35 temp sensor.


The second op amp is a square wave generator as a PWM function. The P function ties in to positive input of the square wave generator to get PWM. The output goes to a transistor driving a fan.

Adjust the gain just to the point of system oscillation, cut the gain in half, and you'll have a pretty effective and simple temperature controller.

Mostly Wemos D1 Mini and whatever USB supply I have at hand (have had good luck with Motorola dual-ports). I like the idea of the Feathers, but haven't run into an application yet for myself where I want to put up with periodically recharging the device.

For indoor temp/humidity sensors, Amazon seller HiLetgo (and probably others) sell a D1 Mini shield with a DHT22 prewired to D4. Between those parts and ESPEasy, it takes about 15-20 minutes to put a new sensor together.

For outdoor and remote temp, I grabbed a 5-pack of ds18b20 probes from Amazon. Each probe has a unique ID in rom which ESPEasy honors, so multiple sensors can be wired in parallel (on the same bus) and still be read separately. For ease of wiring, D3 supplies the power, D4 is the data (pulled up by the LED), and GND on the Mini is right next to D4.

All publish to Mosquitto, of which Home Assistant is a subscriber.

I have an inground pool and have been wanting to set up something like you mentioned in the skimmer, though I've wanted to add a temperature sensor as well (for "pools ready to swim in!" notifications). My rough plan is to use something like this https://www.adafruit.com/product/464 and a DS18B20 temperature sensor https://www.amazon.com/Hilitchi-DS18B20-Waterproof-Temperature-Sensors/dp/B01AJALC5M/ combined with a battery powered ESP8266. I haven't actually started an attempt but I'd love to hear other ideas.

Edit: I saw this video in another post, might fit the bill https://youtu.be/0zUp7Dia4l4

There's the same cable here just longer: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wire-Drive-3-Connector-Ribbon-Cable/dp/B0177AFC0I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1473013576&sr=8-2&keywords=80+pin+ide

Thanks for the help, I love my old Xbox but the hard drive is getting a bit slow nowadays and mod chips are like gold dust. This should help give it a new lease of life. Would any SATA hard drive work? I was thinking of using a Western Digital Black 2TB like the one I have in my PC.

Glad I could help. If you're wanting to build this as a fun project, a pi or arduino is the way to go, and there are a ton of guides out there. The device is called a temperature controller if you need to find more resources.

In the off chance you just need a solution and aren't set on building it yourself, these are a great out of the box option.

​

Edit: just saw this exact product was already posted, oops!

I have that same thermowell, there are a ton of sensors that are 1/4 inch or less that fit in it. Both the STC temperature probe, the johnson digital/analog temp probe fit in it if you want a controller with probe.

If you're just looking for probes, here are some. You don't need it to be snug in there, touching the bottom/inside of the thermowell is enough in my experience.

.236"

.2"

.2" - 5 Pack

The thermowell fit perfectly in a 3/8 inch bore, it has a flanged head so it rests nicely without falling through.

Depending on the temperature range you need you can go one of two ways. If the temps will be below approx 250F (120C) then you can go with a DS18B20 sensor based probe like this. These are really easy to use because they are self contained and uses the 1-wire interface, you can stack a bunch of them together on just a single io line.

If you need higher temps you'll need something like a MAX31855 chip based board for each probe which will convert the analog thermocouple to digital. Typically, these are SPI based but I just found this one which is 1-wire as well. You'll also need a probe that can handle the higher temps like this one.

I use the DS18B20 probes (3 of them on one rpi) to measure outside and inside temperature of my house. I have a script that collects/records data every 15 minutes non-stop and I plot them on a rolling 12 hr graph I can see from any web browser anywhere. Rpi should be able to do exactly what you need with a bit of tinkering.

Nothing yet. I've been toying with the idea of doing a quick DIY on RX8Club.

I've got a pair of modified banjo bolts tapped with 1/8 NPT fittings in them. I have a K-type thermocouple intended for EGT measurement installed in the bolt on the front cover and a 150 psi pressure transducer in the return line. A second 150 psi transducer is installed in an Aeromotive fuel line adapter. A MAX6675 thermocouple analog-to-digital adapter lets the Arduino Uno measure the temps. A 20x4 LCD displays the values numerically.

I taught myself how to code the Arduino and make everything work in about 6 hours on a Saturday. The hardest part was trying to figure out the LCD and MAX6675 connections. I can upload the libraries and sketches somewhere if you want to copy my work.

Edit: look at that, it was already on my google drive... https://drive.google.com/open?id=19xV31SIuhSC76IQSWpr959vSRQg1Xekv

​

Edit2: Wow, looking at my code... I even documented things like what each line does and where to connect wires. I don't remember doing it but if drunk me wants to be a good programmer, I'm okay with that.

If you can afford it (say $70) - don't get a Thermapen, get a K Type thermocouple brain and a food-grade submersible probe.

The brains are universal and cheap (and read up to two probes independently)

https://www.amazon.com/Signstek-Channel-Digital-Thermometer-Thermocouple/dp/B00FFYEPVQ/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1483083745&sr=8-9&keywords=K+type

The probe looks like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Atkins-50360-K-Thermocouple-Stainless-Temperature/dp/B00DYC9ZUW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483083631&sr=8-1&keywords=K+type+thermocouple+food

Apart from these two pieces, you need a 9V battery. Some 3M foam tape is also good if your dad does Sous Vide. These thermocouples allow for constant probe readings the way you'd use an old fashioned roasting probe, except you can use this under water, in oil, in a smoker, on a grill, in a fridge, or in a pan. For things that overcook quickly or are blind cooked, this is the best thermal tool you can get right now.

I will find the script in a bit but basically you take a DS18B20 temperature sensor and hook it up to the GPIO pins. In some part of whatever Raspberry Pi distribution config utility you're using, will be an option to enable I2C connectivity.

Basically you run the cat command to get the temperature of the sensor, have a script to write that to a file with a timestamp, and make a cron job to run that every minute. You can then have another script to alert you if the temperature gets above a certain level. Some temperature logging tutorials want some sort of SQL but you can do this without it.

edit: here's the pastebin with the two scripts. The cronjob entry looks like this:

> * /root/thermcron.sh

I found these waterproof temperature probes. I'm thinking of putting together some electronics that would use them to collect temperature at a couple different locations every 5 minutes or so for the duration of the fermentation. Having all the data in a couple of files would make it very easy to look at the difference in temperature over the course of the brew.

I don't have a way to control fermentation temperature yet (or anything to ferment for that matter...still putting things together) but do you think this would be useful to share for those who can control fermentation temperature?

Word. I might wait till like 1-2 before you plan on flipping to 12/12. For humidity I started spraying the walls of my tent periodically. Also small a humidifier might be worth looking into. Could even do a fairly cheap climate control system hooking up a IFTTT sensor to smart switches connected the humidifier.

I've been looking into getting something like this for my setup.

Hey using the exact same setup as you for a veg tent at the moment albeit I used 200W 6500k CFLs for bushier growth during first 10 days. I have a 240 CFM 6 inch inline fan I am using without any fan speed controller, I have all 3 flaps open for passive intake and my plants are thriving:

Proof: http://imgur.com/a/fMR5X

Trained 4 of them last night and here's a pic of one: http://i.imgur.com/gWDOjJL.jpg

I am using

https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Plug-n-Play-Humidifier-Dehumidifier-Temperature/dp/B01I6BZ2IO/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1481767548&sr=1-1&keywords=temperature+and+humidity+controller

and after you calibrate it to the AccuRite Humidity/Temp Monitor it'll work perfectly.

I plug in for temp when lights on (outlet 1) and humidity with lights off (outlet 2) for my exhaust fan. But unfortunately, since the tent is in a closet, it tends to get humid so fans are always on during lights on or off.

Yes, of course! I have a waterproof temperature sensor that I'd love to be able to connect to USB somehow so I could plug and unplug.

 

>I'm curious why you're suggesting a WiFi module or Raspberry Pi in #4.

Up until reading your comment, I had previously thought that the only way to transfer a file from a Raspberry Pi or Arduino was via WiFi. I wasn't keen on relying on WiFi; I just thought that there was no alternative.

Now that I've learned that I can transfer the data directly over USB, you have my attention with this Arduino concept.

 


I watched this "How to Set Up the Humidity and Temperature Sensor on an Arduino" YouTube video. I found this Stack Overflow post that explains how to communicate between an Arduino and a Mac OS X Python script. While being entirely foreign to me, it doesn't seem as impossible as I thought.

 

Do you mind informing me exactly what I need to buy to create a running Arduino temp and humidity sensor that communicates to my Mac?

I understand that I need to purchase the sensor itself, but I don't know the other parts that he used in the video. An Amazon search for "arduino" brings up dozens of variations; I have no idea which to get.

Many thanks for your help.

 

I'm using:

MAX31855 Thermocouple to Digital Converter

Arduino Due

Vakind 2M EGT Thermocouple K Type Temperature Probe

I think the total for everything was about $100.

Once this was all hooked up, I just plugged it all into my MacBook and Choose the Arduino input at 9600baud and everything worked as expected. I did have a friend help me out with getting the right code/sketch loaded onto the Arduino board as I was not familiar with it, but it took all of about 5 minutes on that side of things.

Few photos from roasting

Hope this helps? I can answer more or shoot some more photos if you need help.

*edit formatting.

I'm just about to leave town for a few days, but I'll link you what I have so far. Here are the various parts I am using:

This pump for water

This power supply for my 12v items

This relay board to control valves and the pumps

And these valves

an esp8266 for wifi connectivity with main control computer

Several of these ds18b20 temperature sensors

And these water level float sensors

Beyond that, its just arduino stuff and glue logic, like shift registers and whatnot.

EDIT - also the usual electric brewery stuff, ie water heater elements. Those I've wired to relays to be controllable by the arduino as well.

I'm a fan of the DS18b20s, I don't use the land line in my house so I disconnected the phone line at the junction box outside, put Rj-11 connectors on the end of some ds18b20s and viola whole home temperature readings for about $10! One wire for the win! Vktech DS18b20 Waterproof Temperature Sensors Temperature Transmitter (5pcs) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CHEZ250/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_um4Gyb2TX32HQ maybe a little more than $10...

I think good temperature and humidity controller is also important. It can maintain the value what you need.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I6BZ2IO

I would say about $25-$30 with parts and everything. Once you have the code for one, putting it on others would be quick and simple. It would be a good option for future projects as well since you could just add other things to the board.

Screen

Temp sensor

I'm currently working on a solution using a Particle Photon but basically the same idea. I'm going to open source my code once I'm done but it's really not that hard with some coding experience, an RPi GPIO Python library, a couple of cheap themocouples, and thermocouple amplifiers like the AD8495.

You could find a USB temperature sensor. Here is just the first one I found in a search: http://www.amazon.com/Soondar%C2%AE-Powered-Thermometer-Temperature-Sensor/dp/B0054U4YKI

Seems like a lot of them support writing to a text file which you could read from a C# application.

Lots of suggestions below already for different devices to use and all are good choices. Just to add what you can do with an RPi: get yourself a DS18B20 temperature sensor (for example: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DQQPR2A) and a 4.7kΩ resistor and you're pretty much set. We use several of these to monitor server room and lab temperatures ("startup" on a budget) and they run collectd to send data to a grafana/influxdb server.

Adafruit has a tutorial on how to do the wiring. I soldered the resistor and thermistor directly onto the RPi Zero W and call a very simple shell script from collectd to parse the data from the w1-gpio device file.

That said, I also use the weather station/wireless thermometer/hygrometer/barometer + RTL dongle + rtl_433 route on an RPi Zero at home and the little guy has been collecting data for over a year with Zero problems. This would be the route to take, if you don't want to worry about soldering or wiring up hardware yourself, and/or if you only have a single RPi flying around that's already doing other things. Obviously, you can use any other computer with USB to collect the data from the dongle as long as they are in signal reach of your sensors.

Canada Amazon

[sata to ide $4.15] (https://www.amazon.ca/HDE-SATA-Drive-Interface-Adapter/dp/B00JVUXMRI/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1469560306&sr=8-19&keywords=sata+ide)

[2tb $89]
(https://www.amazon.ca/WD2003FYPS-Western-Digital-7200RPM-SATA/dp/B00MG2BBVM/ref=sr_1_61?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1469560713&sr=1-61&keywords=2tb+hard+drive)

[cable12.76]
(https://www.amazon.ca/Wire-Drive-3-Connector-Ribbon-Cable/dp/B0177AFC0I/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1469560767&sr=1-6&keywords=80+pin+ide)

$105.91 CAD im sure you can do better in price but thats a real quick what you need list.

I used this temperature probe from amazon attached to an old laptop with an old free piece of software called ThermoHID

Yes it's called a thermocouple. I used one on my meat smoker.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00843IKWK/ref=pd_aw_sim_328_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1618N45Y447RQH3YWE4Z&dpPl=1&dpID=61BQu%2BqepOL

Get one of these to hook it up to your arduino.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0100A7SS6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

On the cheap I bought this thing and piped it into Nagios in my server rooms:

http://www.amazon.com/Powered-Thermometer-Temperature-Sensor-Data/dp/B0054U4YKI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341135926&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+temperature+sensor

Now I'm switching to an environment sensor that runs through my new UPS. But honestly that USB thing is a trooper and never gave me issues once I got the script for it running.

https://www.amazon.com/K-Type-Thermocouple-PK-1000-Temperature-Insulation/dp/B0083SZC6S

That one goes to 1000c, 1832f.

They exist. How they engineer them must be interesting.

Yes, I will post a link. Red breadboards are just for convenience. One has 16 resistors. You need 1 resistor for each relay because relays are 3.3v and board is 5v. 1K to 3K seem to do the job. And the other board only has 3 connectors for DS18b20 Waterproof Temperature Sensors along with 10K pull down resistor.

I feel like measuring temperature is a big deal.
Would this work (2 Thermocouples and a microcontroler):
http://www.amazon.com/K-Type-Thermocouple-PK-1000-Temperature-Insulation/dp/B0083SZC6S
http://www.adafruit.com/products/270
https://www.adafruit.com/products/269

Amazon says they are $15.23 after shipping. $15.23 x 60 = $913.8

Ouch!

I did some research and it is possible. However, it requires you to have third party software running 24/7 in the background. I didn't like that idea.

I used DS18b20 Temperature Sensors. I tied them down to each component. It's difficult to see in the gif, there is a small aluminium cylinder on top of the CPU heat sink. That's the module.

You need some K type thermocouples sir. Most come in waterproof housings.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0142HFA06/ref=pd_aw_sim_79_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=78VK726FEHSSH2C6MRX3

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0142RXG84?psc=1

> The humidity controller is an Inkbird

By the way, Inkbird does a combo controler that controls both temperature and humidity with the same sensor

These plus a resistor take about 10 minutes to setup..... I have an old pi 2 running a pair so they tell me the air temp and water temp of an aquarium

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QGN0LKY/

MAX6675 + K-Type

Opinions on this thermocouple and matching pid?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00843IKWK/ref=pd_aw_sim_60_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41z8BY2mhvL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C100_&refRID=B7T8HP79JBGN34KF85TR

If you're after quick and cheap, then you could do worse than the Ds18b20 sensors in the waterproof housing ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CHEZ250/) - they use the 1-wire protocol so are easy to get working with the devices you're looking at using.

If you want something a bit more substantial and industrial, DM me and I'll contact some of our suppliers to get some options for you.

Why didn't you just go with a pre-made and cheap option? Waterproof DS18B20's are all over the place. I use these for the monitor on my reeftanks which would arguably be a much more harsh environment than a greenhouse.

DS18b20 Waterproof

The issue with those temp guns is that they are garbage for any kind of reflective surface, even with adjusted emissivity.

If you want to know the REAL dish temperature, i suggest you get a contact thermocouple and sit it directly in the bottom of the dish, touching it. You'll get a MUCH more accurate read. My emissivity adjusted temp gun reads about 75 degrees out (higher or lower) than a contact k-type does. It's also a pain in the ass to know if it's really looking at the bottom of the dish, or just some heat radiating off the side. Those lasers aren't lined up well.

Somthing to this effect, usually they can plug into a nice multimeter or a standalone device:
https://www.amazon.com/K-Type-Thermocouple-PK-1000-Temperature-Insulation/dp/B0083SZC6S