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[on:]

Guys, I have not posted to any forum before, though I have been tinkering with Arduino for a while in isolation.
I am puting a project together for my own interest, It will be based on Arduino pro Mini [5V for now] and XBee.
I am asking if there is any interest in what I am doing or if it has been done to death. If there is an interest I can make the details avaialble, if not I wont bother anyone...

Basically I am developing a remote sensor unit that will use the DHT22 Temp and humidity sensor and the TEMT6000 lght sensor, It will use a solar rechargable power supply [MPS430] of 3V3 and step it up to 5 V, monitor the 3V3 supply and the step up 5V supply and report back wirelessley to a central unit. Ideally there will be many remote sensors to a central unit and each collection [or site] will have a unique id to distinguish it from other potential sites.
I have used onewire devices previously and may include them, though undecided at this stage.
I am currently looking into designing a simple wireless comms protocol at the moment and am working through a few options.

Eventualy  the central unit will update/manage a local web page with the resulting data. Not sure yet what platform the central unit will be on.
The idea is a local environmental monitor that can be accessed from your home PC or ITouch. I don't intend to accomplish this in the next few weeks as I have a family, and a day job that can extend into a night job from time to time but I wont let it drag on forever either.
Any suggestions, requests, hints or comments welcome.
FYI I source the major components from Little Bird Electronics in Sydney, though they are likely available elsewhere.

[Reply #1 on:]

Basically I am developing a remote sensor unit that will use the DHT22 Temp and humidity

Written a small library for that one - http://arduino.cc/playground/Main/DHTLib - and I am interested to hear if it works on the proMini (should work in theory but ...).

For the light sensor I only found a link to the datasheet - http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet2/1/037uup9lyrzdh1ayjsxwl5epueky.pdf - no Arduino sketches so you might be the first

How large is the area you want to cover with the sensors?

-- update --
check - http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8688 - for some easy tutorial how to use the light sensor.

[Reply #2 on:]

Thanks for the reply robtillaart. Currently I have the DHT22 running on the mini using the library from Ben Adams:
  DHT22.cpp - DHT22 sensor library, Developed by Ben Adams - 2011
This Library does have a lot of possible error and return codes and restrictions on polling rates which your library does not seem to have. I will put it on my list of things to check out.

The area for the sensors was basically aroung the house [inside and outside] and yard, though there are different XBee modules to choose from depending on your needs. I was going to start with the low power version for now, thus a few hundred feet. I was going to allow a nice binary number of sensors in the design, say 32 [5 bit address] to talk to a single control unit.

Thanks for your suggestions, I know I am not breaking new ground here just thought it might be interesting for some members.

[Reply #3 on:]

DHT22.cpp - DHT22 sensor library, Developed by Ben Adams - 2011

Do you have an URL?  I want to learn more

[Reply #4 on:]

I believe it was  "https://github.com/nethoncho/Arduino-DHT22#readme"

[Reply #5 on:]

Thanks looks good, Ben Adams lib has indeed more tests and return values. Very usefull.

[Reply #6 on:]

tdrew,
   Just wanted to let you know that I'd be interested, I don't think there is such a thing as to many examples or tutorials. I learn a lot reading over how other people did stuff.

Thanks,
 -Matt

[Reply #7 on:]

Matt. sorry I have been a bit busy else where but trying to get back to my project.
I have all the sensors collecting data with an Arduino pro mini + Xbee, I hooked in an I2C RGB led just for fun and am running a second serial port for debug, while the first talks to the Xbee. It is getting there but needs work still. It also talks to the Dallas OneWire temp sensor.

I am also starting on an EtherTen with an Xbee to collect the stats and the idea being it will act as a  web server for the results. I haven't got all of that look/feel stuff worked out, just trying to get the functionality all there. I had visions of grandeur in creating an iPhone app to display the results but it might just be too much for me at the moment.
I have some issues getting the SD Card on the EtherTen to work.

[Reply #8 on:]

I have sorted my issues with the SD Card, just downloaded sdfatlib20110702 and all is good now. Full steam ahead ....
Time permitting 

[Reply #9 on:]

Now I have performance concerns for the main coordinator device [EtherTen], so I am considering changing to the NetDuinoPlus. I have bought the book, The Internet Of Things, and  I am working my way through. I hope it will have sufficient grunt to look after a few remote sensors and serve up web pages with reasonable performance once I get the hang of the .net development environment.