Remote TMP36 Temp Sensor?

Other Hardware Sensors
1

Hi there,

I need to measure temperatures at a distance of 6 to 10 feet from the arduino.

Will the TMP36 be accurate at that distance?

Is there anything I should do to improve accuracy or to adjust my calculations to account for the distance?

Or, is there a better temperature sensor I should be using for something like this?

Thanks,
Pete

2

Maybe. But you'd have all sorts of potential noise issues on a relatively small signal. So how much time do you want to spend fixing potential interference from nearby power lines, motors, and other things? It may work without issues, but I have transitioned away from using TMP36 in 'remote' applications.

For robustness' sake, I'd recommend either a DS18B20 digital temperature sensor ($5) or a DHT22 temp + humidity sensor ($10). Both have libraries for the Arduino so someone else (thank you!) has already done all the heavy lifting. Both are very accurate.

3

Thanks for the reply and recommendations. I didn't realize line noise would be a problem and in the environment where I need to measure tempertures, it will be very EMF noisy. Using these in my EV project.

I'll find something else for those TMP36 sensors to do... meanwhile, I went to Adafruit and Hacktronics looking for a tutorial on this subject. Adafruit didn't have any but Hactronics did. However, on the Hactronics site they mention the current software isn't compatible with the current version of the Arduinio software. Not certain I know what that means so I sent them a question about compatibility.

Do you happen to know if the OneWire.h and DallasTemperature.h headers are compatible with version 1.0 of the arduino software? I'm working with a new arduino uno board for this project.

Thanks,
Pete

4

I'd second that about using 1Wire - I struggled with both TMP36s and PT1000s before settling on 1Wire, which seems to be very simple (to use) and reliable in comparison, for a beginner like me. No issue with noise, having to amplify etc.

I have done some tests with 1.0 and Uno without any issues, but I have read there are some, but with fixed libraries around. Here's some good info:

http://milesburton.com/Main_Page?title=Dallas_Temperature_Control_Library