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[chris]

I was wondering if anyone knew of an X10
temperature sensor I could use to put in my
hot tub housing. This unit doesn't have to
be water proof but I was hoping it would
work with the Active Home Pro from this
site. I was looking at one from smart
homes  http://www.smarthome.com/1625.html
but I am not too familiar with X10 and
would like to make sure it works before I
spend the money from smart home.

Any ideas would be great.

Cheers

Chris

[roger1818]

Chris:  It depends what you want to do with
the temperature sensor.  The 1625 can be
used in several different modes some of
which are compatible with AHP and others
which are not.  If you are wanting retrieve
the exact temperature, that function won’t
work with AHP, but you can program the 1625
to send an on and off signals when it goes
above or below a specified temperature.
You can use that signal to trigger macros.
I hope this helps.

[chris]

I would like to know the temperature.. Any
other Ideas??

[Steve in SWFla]

I have had a similar desire, only to know
the temperature of the pool water coming
back from my solar panels.

I started to research this and recently just
lost time to finish it.

My wife is a weather nut and I had planned
on getting one of the wireless weather
stations. There are a bunch of them out
there. You can get a two channel model and
you can buy various types of secondary
sensors. The one I was looking at had a
small wire type thermocouple that I was
going to strap to the pipe and insulate. Not
rocket science, but good for what I want.

Just go to Google and look up wireless
weather station. Good luck.

[roger1818]

Chris:  What exactly do you want to do with
the temperature information?  Do you want
to read the temperature when the PC is
off/disconnected from the CM15A or will you
have the PC on and connected?  The CM15A
has limited capabilities to interpret
commands received on its own.  The type of
processing needed to read the temperature
requires software to be running on the PC.
To my knowledge, there isn’t any software
out there for the CM15A that will work with
a temperature sensor.  If you are so
inclined, you could use the SDK to write
your own software.  Since you wouldn’t be
using the AHP software for this, you should
be able to use all of the features of the
1625.

[chris]

I would have the temp sensor connectioned
to a computer so I could remote into the PC
and check to make sure the hot tub hadn't
failed and was still heating. I would like
to be able to tell the exact temperature.
The PC will always be on...

Regards

Chris

[roger1818]

Chris:  It can be done, but no matter what
module you use, you will have to write the
program yourself if you want to use the
CM15A.

[bob]

Hi,

The problem I am trying to solve is.  I have
a Dock in the NE.  I use De-icer pumps to
keep the water circulating so it does not
freeze and cause dock damage.

One issue is, at times there is no water and
the pumps cannot run when there is no water
being the tide is out.  The other is I don't
want to run the pumps if the temperature is
above 32 degrees.

I saw this post re; the 1625 and AHP.  I
just purchased the 1625 and a control link
tabletop controller.  The tech from
smarthome said I would need the controller
to set the House and unit code for the
1625.  He wasn't sure if AHP had that
capability.  I am new to AHP.  and do not
have the smart macros.

Question 1.  Do I need to purchase the smart
macros plugin.

Question 2. How would I accomplish this.
even if I have to purchase the smart macros.
Is it more or less cookbook ?  I'm assuming
I will use the 1625 as a trigger to the
receptical on or off based on two variables,
Time and Temperature.

any help would be appreicated.

[poursha]

It should be pretty easy to create a
customer thermistor circuit, with a 741 op
amp for comparator.  Such a simple circuit
would only give ON/OFF signal if the tub
dropped to a low enough temp, but that is
essentially what you want to do.

Then, you just send that signal to a power
flash.

Other option is to buy a wireless
thermometer setup.  They often come with
hot tub sensors.  I think that last one I
bought had one, but I never used it for my
hottub.

Rob

[roger1818]

Bob:  You should be able to program the 1625
using the latest revision of AHP.
Alternately you could use the SDK to program
the 1625, so the tabletop controller
shouldn’t be necessary.

How are you planning on determining if there
is water?  Are you going to use a float
switch or will you use a tide table?  If
using a float switch, will it send an X10
command or will it manually disable the pump?
Also, so you want the pumpt to run
continuously (assuming there is water and it
is below freezing) or will it cycle on and
off? The answer to your questions depends on
the answer to these questions.