What Temp Sensors?

[DougLorenz]

I have been looking initially at mcsTemperature, and I believe that it will be helpful for a few projects that I would like to do. I would like to wire up my house for temperature sensors both inside and outside. I'd like to be able to add other sensors as well down the line.

I am looking for a system that is reliable, and I have no problem hardwiring connections. I would prefer that any sensors be as inconspicuous as possible, or even fully hidden if that is an option. I don't want any X-10 devices. I am not currently running xAP, but I may do so someday if I ever get around to learning more about it.

What is the best choice for such a system?

[DougLorenz]

By the way, the HA7Net looks really appealing... Does anyone have experience with it?

[toddgraham]

Midondesign has the temp08 unit that you can easily connect DS1820's to. I run these via CAT 5 to each room in the house and have connected to a standard rj45 jack. I use the 4 port leviton covers for most areas and use one of the ports for the temp sensor.

[Michael McSharry]

1-wire technology is the most flexible and many interfaces to a PC exist for it. The wiring architecture for 1-wire is more like wiring for telco than it is for wiring a LAN. A Cat5 is snaked everywhere you may want a sensor of some type and then the sensor is connected very close to main cat5 wire. When you run many home runs then you tend to create problems for yourself. The home run solution to put a 1-wire hub at you home for all the runs. This solution, however, limits your number of PC interface choices. xapmcs1wire is one of the few and it is free as well.

I looked at the HA7Net awhile back and found it was much more work to interface sensors than with use of the DS9097U or DS9490. It was also more expensive. The Temp08 is another choice that provides a limited number of sensor types, but again at a higher cost. I use xAP nodes for my Temp05 and DS9097U interfaces, but it could be done just as easily with mcsTemperature plugin if you do not mind loosing your data collection capability when Homeseer is being cycled. You could also use the free 1-wire plugin for HS2 with a DS-type adapter to a serial or usb port.

I would read some of the threads dealing with wiring architecture for 1-wire. There are many discussions on this subject. There are several ideas for mounting in a stealthy manner.

If your needs were modest and a wireless rather than wired sensor would better suit your needs then the RFXCOM sensors would be good choices. They can be read by xapmcsW800 or Jon's ACRF plugin. You are limited to very few sensor types if you go this way and the unit cost is 10x higher.