My yearly post about environmental monitoring devices

Thu Dec 2 16:54:23 UTC 2004

I don't know if they're here yet, but, PICs with builitin Ethernet are
definitely on the way.  I'm not that much of a hardware geek, but, some
of the hardware geeks I know have bee talking about these for a while
in terms that make me think they're expecting samples any day.

Owen

--On Thursday, December 2, 2004 11:42 AM +0000 Michael.Dillon at radianz.com 
wrote:

>
>> I am looking for a device that meets the following criteria.
>> a) Reasonably small. This probably wouldn't be rack mounted; it'd be
> wall
>> mounted, desk mounted, celing mounted, etc.
>> b) Powered by PoE.
>> c) Is SNMPable over Ethernet. NOT RS232 or serial, or anything archaic
>> like that. Not MODBUS. It's 2004, people.
>> d) Provides Temperature and Humidity.
>> e) Has 4 or so input contact sensors (connections to AC units, etc.)
>> f) Has 4 or so output contact sensors.
>
> Sorry Alex, but I think you are barking up
> the wrong tree. A cheap simple temperature
> and humidity sensor would be built around
> a PIC chip and would use a serial bus
> to communicate status. Since this is 2004
> that would be an I2C serial bus, but in
> reality an RS-232 daisy chain would suit
> this application just fine.
>
> When you add Ethernet as a requirement
> then you are asking for an I/O interface
> that is more complex and more expensive
> than the basic temp/hum recorder on the
> PIC. However, it definitely is possible
> to do this and many people have done so.
>
> I suggest that you go to a company like
> http://www.edtp.com and tell them what you
> want and how many you would buy in the
> next year as well as an estimate of how
> many they could REALISTICALLY sell to
> other companies in 2005. When you look at
> the prices on his website, remember they
> are single unit hobbyist prices. I think
> that a PIC board built around his packet
> whacker Ethernet would do what you want
> and could easily be powered with PoE
> and be installed in a box with flexible
> mounting options. If you can't get what
> you want from this company, then start
> looking for people who do PIC development.
>
> You might even be able to get a college
> sophomore to design and manufacture these
> for you for some spare pocket money. The
> PIC code including TCP/IP stack, is readily
> available through googling. The only area
> where you might have to compromise is
> SNMP since I think most people who do
> this are trying to make PIC web servers.
> But it's simple to run a custom SNMP proxy
> on a server if you need to hook this
> into your management system.
>
> Please report back on what you find.
> I think a lot of people would be interested
> in this type of unit.
>
> --Michael Dillon
>

-- 
If it wasn't crypto-signed, it probably didn't come from me.
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