Temperature Monitoring

[desperate]

I'm sorry to be such a plank, but could someone explain in words of one syllable or less how i can monitor the temperature of various pipes/cylinder surfaces and display them in my office/spare bedroom. I need to monitor say 12 different temperatures, I don't need to store any data, just real time read out is fine. I wandered into our local Maplin shop today and was greeted by a very helpfull youth whose hair pointed at the ceiling, and after smiling at him for 5 minuites,- I realised there must be a discontinuity in the space time continuum at the door, hmm this must be a different planet, I didn't understand a word he said..................so KISS.............Pleeeaase.

Desperate

[Greenbeast]

Actually i'm interested in a similar thing, so will be grateful of any info too.

[JamesGreen]

"I didn't understand a word he said" - he probably didn't either 

Did you want an off-the-shelf thing ? i.e. you buy some boxes.
Or did you want to get into microcontrollers, sensors , RF and LCDs ?

[desperate]

Hi James, good point

Preferably off the shelf, but I dont mind getting some components and fixing stuff up myself, BUT I've no idea what all the jargon means in electronics, so I need a simple circuit diagram showing all the bits and what gets nailed to what.

As you probably can guess, you are dealing with a total electroplonker here

Thanks

Desperate

[wyleu]

Sadly a little soldering will probably be required.

One-wire is what most people seem to be doing.

[Greenbeast]

Is there a good beginners guide to one wire stuff anywhere?

I don't mind a little soldering but don't know where to begin

[desperate]

Soldering is no problem, I have a lamp of blow is it possible to post a complete novices guide to One Wire?

Desperate

snap

[wyleu]

I'll try to put something together tonight.

[desperate]

Thanks Wyleu, you're a leg end.

Desp

[Greenbeast]

excellent that'd be great

[Jonathan]

Here's an intro, and they sell the parts to the UK at a reasonable price

http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/howto_basics.php

[ericw]

www.homechip.com is an alternative UK source of 1 wire parts, especially the (USB?) computer to 1 wire adaptor you will probably want to use.
DS18B20 are also available cheaply from Hong Kong on Ebay.

If you are running Windows then LogTemp is probably the best choice of software, it's free and easy to install and use.
For linux there are several programs available, search the forum posts for advice on setting up.

[Greenbeast]

i'm in the middle of reading that guide posted by Jonathan

Ideally i'd like something independant of a computer, just to give temp readings to a display, i understand the need to program a chip via the computer but wanted to make sure we were on the same page

[Alan]

For about as simple as it gets for direct read out on a P.C.

http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3145-ds18s20-computer-serial-temperature-data-logger.htm

Regards

Alan

[wookey]

You can't have 1-wire without some sort of computer. But by 'computer' I expect you mean a big one that runs a web browser. A little computer with a diplsy on the fornt that shows 1-ire temps would presumably suffice? Would showing the temps on the web satisfy you?

The opnode1
http://sites.google.com/a/usapiens.com/opnode/products/opn-one
is almost what you want, except that it doesn't have a display on it, so you'd need to fire up a web-browser somewhere to see the numbers. (I see they have a load of new products there too  - sensors, an NSLUs pre-fettled for the technophobe, etc. All looks good).

There are 1-wire displays. hobby-boards do one. You could probably plug that into an opnode and have an autonomous system.