Hello, at my university I am doing summer work for which I may use an Arduino board. The job at hand is that I need to take temperature inputs (measured in milli-volts) from 2 thermocouples and translate that into temperatures to feed into a hand held tablet, which would then display this data in a couple ways, such as instantaneous value and a plot of the temperature profile over time. It was recommended to me that an Arduino board could do what I need, however I have limited time and money so would like to ask the feasibility of this before I begin, as well as what board I would require?
EDIT: thank you to the replies so far, to answer things that came up, I will be using Bluetooth to send the information to the tablet, the thermocouples shouldn't really deliver measurements up to 1 volt, I do need to use thermocouples.
There are two things that would be the most important for this project. The first is, what voltage do the thermocouples give you. If they can range from 0 to 5V, you need to make sure you get a 5V board. Another consideration is how you plan to get the data from the Arduino to your tablet (perhaps bluetooth). Whatever you decide, make sure that the board has enough RAM so that it can operate without stressing its memory capacity. If you plan on using IoT to transmit the data, make sure to get an IoT compatible board.
The thermocouple produces millivolts indeed, you need an amplifier board for them, which in turn connects to the Arduino.
I don't have specific boards in mind - a quick search on a this forum should turn up lots of info on thermocouples. It's something that comes back every now and then.
Changing the subject of your topic to something more descriptive, such as mentioning it's about thermocouples, may also attract more people that are much more familiar with the topic to read and reply to this thread.
Any Arduino can be used, but I doubt any can do what you want by itself. If you really just want to do what you say you want to do, a Uno should suffice, and it is easy to use and popular. You will need some sort of amplifier for the thermocouples, like that at openenergy.org, or you might consider using the an intelligent sensor like the DS18B20. The latter is a lot easier to use than the former so, if you haven't already got a good reason for using thermocouples, don't bother looking for one.
You can send the data to the tablet via Bluetooth, and thereby get the opportunity to use God's gift to the world of Arduino datalogging - Bluetooth Graphics Terminal. You might consider adding an SD card to the rig, and a clock, unless you are sure that you will be in attendance for all events.
Bluetooth, SD, and clock will add about $10 to costs.
If you can change to using a suitable digital temperature gauge and your device will have Wifi access then maybe something like the ESP8266 will do the job. If you sign up for one of the free cloud based services like Ubidots/Cayenne/Thingspeak then you can post the data to them and they will graph the results for you and also maybe store the results in the ESP storage space, as this saves on needing SD storage.
jremington:
Then you also need thermocouple amplifiers and, of course, the correct type of thermocouple for the amplifier.
Using the amplifier you linked will work with the ESP8266 or ESP-32. Both will allow you to connect to WiFi and the ESP-32 will also do BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) so could connect to a tablet/phone using this method.
Hi,
Please do not go back to early posts and update them, this will be confusing to anyone wanting to use this thread to help with a problem they have.
It is best to write a new post when you want to answer questions and give extra information.
Riva:
Using the amplifier you linked will work with the ESP8266 or ESP-32. Both will allow you to connect to WiFi and the ESP-32 will also do BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) so could connect to a tablet/phone using this method.
Thermocouples are hard. If there is any way to avoid using them you should do it. The DS18B20 is great but it has a limited temperature range. Thermistors are available in ranges from cryogenic to melting metal.
"The professor said so" is not a sufficient reason.
If you must use thermocouples then check out the MAX31865. It is available on breakout boards from Sparkfun and they sell thermocouple accessories that are difficult to find elsewhere. Be aware this chip is very sensitive to E-M interference. If there is a radio transmitter in the room it may not work at all.
