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[on:]

Hello all, I've just got my hands on a Duemilanove and I'm looking at buying an SD logger with the intention of recording temperature, light and humidity in my greenhouse. Which of these two do you think is better value for money and, as a complete noob, am I going to be able to cobble the code together without too much difficulty (and not a little help from you lovely lot  )?
BlueSmokeLabs (ebay) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280705662013
OpenLog (SparkFun) http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9530

Thanks in advance,
Le Scare

[Reply #1 on:]

  The ebay logger might be good but, I don't know. The sparkfun Openlog is said to have very little room for storing your data.

 I have this http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9802 and it fits my Uno nicely. You will need a memory card and stack-able headers as it doesn't come with those. If you want RTC it will also need to be purchased separately.

 Here is another choice you might want to look at. http://www.adafruit.com/products/243


Mark

[Reply #2 on:]

Here is another choice you might want to look at. http://www.adafruit.com/products/243

I second that one,

The added value is it has a RTC (RealTime CLock) which is very usefull when logging data. At least then you know when the samples haven been made. A RTC (with battery) will continue to keep time when the Arduino is shut off.
IMHO it is an advantage you can use both standard size SD cards AND microSD with an adapter. Both worked fine for me.
Other link to same shield - http://www.ladyada.net/make/logshield/ -

Rob

[Reply #3 on:]

Thanks for the replies guys. Having read the comments I'm not going to touch the SparkFruit microSD shield with a barge pole. There's a lot of bad reviews of it and I don't feel happy about a mountain of trouble shooting to get the thing up and running. Now I think about it I'm also deterred by the microSD format of the OpenLog as I want an SD card to pop straight into my laptop's card reader. I've got an adapter somewhere but its just another thing to lose, IMO.
I like the Adafruit/LadyAda one due to the benefits of the RTC, however the BlueSmokeLabs shield has one too and also comes with all of the sensors I'm wanting right now so I reckon I'm gonna go for that one. I messaged the guy and he reckons the code's all online for it so sounds like it should be pretty straightforward  . I'll post when I've got it up & running I get stuck.

[Reply #4 on:]

There is no risk of damaging the SD shield due to ambient humidity?

A deported sensor would not be better?

[Reply #5 on:]

Its definitely a consideration, marmelade. As the shield needs to be assembled I plan on putting the sensors on the outside of an airtight tupperware container and running wires in through holes plugged with sealant. The wires will only need to be a few centimeters long to allow all the circuitry to be kept safe inside.

[Reply #6 on:]

simply I'm really noob

[Reply #7 on:]

The bluesmokelab-one does look promising and not to expensive.
I guess the humity/temperature sensor is a DHT-one. I use my dht11 for humidity only, the temperature's wrong more then a degree (C).

Personally I bought all items separately, no EEPROM and added a better temperature sensor. I saved... just a few bucks, If I would have known this shield then I probably would have tried it.

Recently bought an SD-module like this one, http://cgi.ebay.nl/SD-Card-Module-Slot-Socket-Reader-for-Arduino-ARM-MCU-/180706722552?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a12f5c2f8. Got it for $4,00 and it functions perfectly.