By "normal" I meant the physics governing those particular devices.
If you want to keep it to yourself, then don't be dropping breadcrumbs and then shunning people with, 'I wanna keep it to myself'. That's asinine.
Ok guys, got some updates!!!
So I got everything roughly working lol
I have the DHT11 working well, I have the DS18B20 recording just as accurately as the DHT11 (both just recording air temp as of now). I have the GFCI lighting receptacle wired up to the 5V relay.
I ended up buying a 2ft 3 prong extension cord from Home Depot for $2, I used the cord and it had a White (Neutral), Green (Ground) and Black (Hot) wire. I wired the white and green directly to the GFCI outlet, I then took the black wire and connected it to the COM(Common, Middle Post) on the relay and the NC(Normally closed, Left Post) to the Live side of the GFCI outlet. This allows me to send a signal to the digital pin 5 (Hight,Low) on my arduino and activate/deactivate the relay. The relay turns the outlet on and off, I connected a lamp to test it out and it worked as expected.
One thing about the 5v 4Channel Relay board is that it has a jumper to power form the arduino or from an external source. I am powering it with an old iPhone charger brick (5v @ 1A) with an old mini-USB cable harvested and using the 5V supply to give the relays their own power source instead of pulling that power from my arduino. I did this because I have sensors and other relays to control from my board.
I purchased all of the parts for this at Home Depot for less than $15
GFCI outlet ~$11
Plastic Outlet Box ~$.75
Three-Prong Cord ~$2
USB Brick ~$Free
MircoUSB Cord ~$Free
I was wanted to log data from the serial monitor since my arduino is hooked up via USB to my computer. There didn't seem to be any native support for this, so I ended up doing some searching and found a nice little program called CoolTerm and it allows me to record the serial monitor and save it to a file. I plan on logging this info and creating some nice graphs.
1.Light turned on
2.Everything wired up temporarily
I am using Windows 7, and haven't had any issues compiling or running anything. I left the serial monitor open and running while I went to work, I also started CoolTerm. The program displayed exactly what the serial output displayed but with the options to save the data. It was pretty easy to set up and use for me, I don't even think I had to select a port to monitor. There is an option to save directly to a text file, that automatically saves the data in a folder with a date stamp.Hey, I guessed I missed it, what operating system are you running?
No native support, although Heckler again recommended I check out the "Processing" progam on Arduino....interesting program that I only have taken a quick look at....for future reference....
http://learning.codasign.com/index.php?title=Beginning_Processing_and_Arduino
Also:
gobetwino
hyperterminal
Labview [since your a student] http://rollitup.org/t/lets-make-a-lux-meter-bh1750-arduino-labview2013-erection.824186/page-2
You could also build a python script to output as well....http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=6464.0
I ask because have been running on Xp, W8 was ultra wonky, fucked up in fact....I got past most of the workarounds found online and still couldn't get the compiler to load...haven't tried since....
but on XP is the Hyperterminal program....but not available on W8. Hyperterminal will output a text file. I need to read up on how to interact with .cvs files....it works though....
Thanks on the coolterm tip, I missed that one....Please post up at least your experiences running coolterm.... one thing I noticed is that you cannot monitor your port, while running Coolterm.....I am going to download a copy tonight and mess around
I then graphed the data out and was going to post them lol My environment however did not change very much and the graphs were relatively straight lines..soooo you get the idea.
Or you can use ethernet shield, Google Charts API and have Arduino print charts into your browser over LAN. Totally standalone. There's so many various API's that you can do a powerful design with Arduino and Ethernet shield.I was able to go thru coolterm last night as well as hyperterminal using a soil moisture probe, then graphed my results in excel...check it out if you are interested
http://rollitup.org/t/small-spaces-led-organics.849178/page-6#post-11542016
On "processing" a note: this is an entire OS basically, the "visual" equivalent of Arduino's ide....As of right now, the limitation I see from Coolterm and other simple emulators/terminals, well frankly my skills don't allow the "real-time" work-around.....but using it to graph data from a txt file or an SD card is great, easy, No hassles...
But "processing" allows you to grab it in realtime and even graph it in realtime, in addition to just storing it into a .txt file as well...the code is floating around up there in the links....I urge you to check out "processing" especially for the wifi portion...
that is where I am at tonight...Keep up the good work on your project
I will mark that down and read up....there are many and I there are more I haven't even listed...
Processing is nice ofc. This is kinda different approach -- computer is not required at all.
When you get a chance Alesh, could you elaborate...I think this would be great info for the thread...I have a slight handle on what is needed for communication, but only vaguely aware of what each [that I have read up on] different program actually offers or what platforms software wise they use for communication....
I get a feel you and church too, have a real good feel for micro electronics or at least how they function
Basic concept is that Arduino is running whatever you want it to run and storing data on the SD card AND also running a simple webserver. When you try to connect to Arduino's IP, the request is handled by the webserver, you're served a page from the SD card with the data and link to whichever API you like. Your browser downloads the API and all the data processing and fancy, computing-difficult stuff is done in your browser. A downside is that you've to be connected to the internet in order to load API(s).When you get a chance Alesh, could you elaborate...I think this would be great info for the thread...I have a slight handle on what is needed for communication, but only vaguely aware of what each [that I have read up on] different program actually offers or what platforms software wise they use for communication....
Could you expound on any of that
There's a few vids of people using plot.ly for a few projects and there is an aquaponic site that uses plot.ly in their api and you just click and choose your sensors even...don't even have to code your arduino manually...I will try and dig that out....Anyone know anything about Plotly. It says it is a real-time graphing program that is for the arduino, there is a tutorial for using a DHT22 Sensor w/arduino. All of the sketches are written, it is well documented. There were a lot of remote sensor examples and the graphs had no indication of what they were monitoring, so maybe security wouldn't be an issue as long as there aren't any video/picture feeds
Links? Curious about the probe manufacturerI can't wait for my parts to get here so I can get it all set up and logging, that is the first step lol At that point choosing a way to easily graph them should be pretty easy considering all of the suggestions on here.
I know the EC sensor and PH sensor are pricey >$100 each. What are your thoughts on this? Which would you buy first and why?
