Probe Thermometer To Pc

[Wax]

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has posted on this site. As a new brewer Ive found your discussions to be very informative and entertaining.

Now down to business. Im a bit of a techo geek and want to get digital with my brewing. The first thing I want to do is be able to display a nice clean graphical representation of temperature changes throughout fermentation without constantly monitoring and manually recording it.

I figure I can do this with a digital probe thermometer that would plug into the USB port of my PC. The PC will record temperature at any interval I set and hey presto a complete and accurate record of fermenting temperature. But blowed if I can find one.

Has anyone come across something like this before?

 

[Batz]

What about
http//www.altronics.com/cat.asp?cat=11&grp=431&id=K6110

 

[Batz]

www.altronics.com/cat.asp?cat=11&grp=431&id+K6110

 

[Doc]

Hi Wax,
Welcome to AHB.

Check out this topic here.
It discusses how others including me have done similar stuff.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Doc]

The thermometer sensors I built are connected to a notebook on the serial port.
Here is the design.

If you wanted to immerse the sensors in your wort these would be no good as the chip itself is the temp sensor.

However I have a multimeter that does temp and has an RS232 logging interface. That could be an option. You can get multimeters from JayCar that have this function.

Beers,
Doc

 

[joecast]

hey wax,
sounds like a great idea. would love to see a pic of that graph when you're done. interesting to see the temp changes at different times of day and maybe see how well your heating system works when needed.
joe

 

[Wax]

Thanks a heap for that. Exactly what I was after. Hopefully I'll have it all set up in time for my next brew. I'll send send you the graph as soon as I have one Joe.

 

[wardy]

Hey guys,

You might want try Omega website. They deliver from the US or UK in around 2 weeks, sometimes less and with the current exchange rate, some of it's a pretty good buy.

http://www.omega.com/temperature/tsc.html

I'm using a non-contact infrared sensor myself for hygiene sake. Connected to a data loger, it will even SMS my mobile phone should my temperatures exceed my set parameters. Alernatively it can activate a heat source and act as a thermostat. just an idea.
loads of companies in Oz that sell smart data loggers

 

[Gout]

where do you guys buy these dallas sensors?
I have wanted one for a while, normally i'v used LM331 national sensor because i am unsure of where to buy te dallas. I might have to get some samples sent to work

 

[Goat]

Interesting stuff Wardy- do you have any photos of your setup?

 

[Doc]

I bought my Dallas chips for RS Components.
I created an account and ordered them all online. They turned up two days later.

Beers,
Doc

 

[wardy]

No problem Goat, i'll take some pics and upload them soon (once i work out how!!)
cheers

 

[Gout]

sweet i (work) have an account with them at work, there dam expencive but hey not my problem