VK011 Driver Temperature Sensor available for testing

[zaccari]

Attached is a driver for the VK011 Temperature Sensor kit. The documentation for this is located at QKits (http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/VK011.pdf). The cost is $39.95 for the VK011 assembled or $29.95 unassembled. They come with a single DS18S20 temperature sensors, but additional sensors are available for $7.95.

Make/Model/Version/Connection
1-Wire VK011 V0.1

Description
Reads data from the VK011. Stores the current, low, and high temperatures for each of up to 4 probes (in both fahrenheit and celsius).

The driver collects readings from the device as often as the VK011 is set to retrieve.

Limitations
The only way to clear the low and high fields is by removing the driver and doing it with HyperTerm.
The device must be set to extended messages in CSV with celsius and fahrenheit enabled. The interval can be set as desired (the fastest it was tested was every 15 seconds). Do NOT leave the interval set to 1 sec. The driver will not be happy.
Does not handle CRC errors.

Driver Fields
Note that X represents the 1-4 probe number.

Debug, String, ReadOnly
TempXReceiving, Boolean, ReadOnly
TempXc, Float8, ReadOnly
TempXf, Float8, ReadOnly
TempXHighc, Float, ReadOnly
TempXLowc, Float, ReadOnly
TempXHighf, Float, ReadOnly
TempXLowf, Float, ReadOnly

Good Luck,
Russ...

[zaccari]

Just FYI, the next version will set the VK011 into the correct mode and allow resets of the high/lows.

Russ...

[IVB]

Driver still working fine, I hope?

I needed another temp sensor for the attic; rather than plunk down $50 for a big elk one, I just ordered 4 of these for $75 to the door. I'll pull the fugly Elk one off the wall in the MBR, put this nice tiny one in it's place, then use the Elk in the attic.

[zaccari]

With 100' of cable, you can use one of those sensors in BOTH places.

Russ...

[IVB]

meaning 1 VK011, and 2 of the tiny bits, right?

[zaccari]

Yes, the sensors can each be 100' from the module. You'll likely want to stop at an electronic's shop to get a project box to mount the thing in. This is a pc board after all. As for the remote location, I haven't decided what I want to do with the sensors. I hadn't thought of it before just now but I may just mount this on a male RJ45 and use a patch cable to connect the thing and see how it performs. I'll get my camera and take a picture of the pieces so there's a frame of reference. Be back in a bit.

Russ...

[zaccari]

Ok, not the best pics as the p&s doesn't do closeups well. Each of the pics is a link to a bigger copy. In case the first 2 pictures aren't obvious, there's a sensor inside the RJ45 connector. I'll let you all know how it works out.

Russ...
http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0112s.jpg (http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0112.jpg)
http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0113s.jpg (http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0113.jpg)
http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0114s.jpg (http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0114.jpg)

[IVB]

how in gods name did you accurately get that sensor *inside* the RJ45?

[zaccari]

lots 'o bending. I still haven't done the other end yet to see if it works though so don't be too impressed. It's one of the best ideas I've had to deploy it though.

Russ...

[zaccari]

ok, lets see how visible this picture is.

http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0116s.jpg (http://www.zaccari.net/russ/private/IMG_0116.jpg)

I'm concerned about pin8. It isn't as straight as I'd like it to be. I do believe with more work it should be very doable.

Russ...

[Sendero]

Ouch. High shipping on these from Ontario. ~$11 for just one. Looks like if you get 10 there is a 10% discount and shipping is still only ~$13. If people here are interested, I'd be up for buying 10 (fully assembled), keeping 2 for my use, and re-shipping 8 out to people for cost ($37.21) + shipping ($3.85 for priority mail on 1 unit, can do combine quotes if needed) making the total $41.06 for a delivered assembled unit. Can I get 8 takers on it? If committed at that price, post here instead of PM so that we can easily keep count of if we get to 8 (or more)

(mods, apologies if this is not allowed, just figured it was worth a shot)

[IVB]

Would you need more than 4 temperature sensors? Each VK11 can support a total of 4 sensors.

I just bought the VK11 and 3 extra sensors for $74 shipped.

[Sendero]

The 2nd one is for one of my friends who I think I have almost ready to jump into CQC. His starting point would be thermostat & lighting control with some Fujitsu 3500 panels for remotes around the house, so having 4 temp sensors in addition to the RCS thermostat would be very tempting to him.

[Sendero]

btw, you can get the DS18S20 from Maxim-IC.Com for $2.57 ea in quantitys up to 24 and $2.57 for 25-99, but again $10 shipping. If we had people who wanted to do the group buy on the VK11s I'd also be up for doing a bulk purchase on the DS18S20 from maxim-ic and including those in the shipments. I doubt that 3 of those would add much weight at all to the shipment.

So, if all 8 people wanted 3 additional sensors to fill out the VK11 that would add on $8.96 to the above total. I already have some DS18S20s from another project so I'm set.

So, if we get 8 people, and all want 3 additional sensors, the price is $50.02 (assuming I did my math right). Not bad to get 4 zone temp reading for about the cost of one Elk temp sensor.

[jdmontague]

For those people that aren't in too much of a hurry (can wait to see if I actually get it working), I am starting on a driver for the DS9097U-009. This is a 1-wire -- RS232 interface that will allow many temp sensors to be hooked up to one wire. As time and interest allow, I may add support for more than just the temp sensors.

See:
The DS9097U product page (http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/2983)
A place to buy the unit (http://www.embeddeddatasystems.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=EDS&Product_Code=DS9097U) (Note: I make no recommendations about this company. I am using a DS9097U-009 that I have had laying around for a while.)

.... Jim

[rdf]

Ok, not the best pics as the p&s doesn't do closeups well. Each of the pics is a link to a bigger copy. In case the first 2 pictures aren't obvious, there's a sensor inside the RJ45 connector. I'll let you all know how it works out.

Russ...

What a great idea!! Nope, they're not obvious at all ... I can't believe you got it lined up in there. Do you build ships-in-a-bottle, too?

Nice work, and thanks for the idea. I just wish these buggers would support > 4 sensors .... I keep looking around and thinking hey, I'd like to know the temp there, too ... Guess I can get > 1 VK011, eh, and just run two copies of the driver?

EDIT: OK, I'm stupid, but I'm not THAT stupid. jdmontague posted while I was typing.

[zaccari]

Guess I can get > 1 VK011, eh, and just run two copies of the driver?
The driver has no limit on running multiples on the same machine.

Russ...

[rdf]

Cool! Thanks, Russ.

[rdf]

btw, you can get the DS18S20 from Maxim-IC.Com for $2.57 ea in quantitys up to 24 and $2.57 for 25-99, but again $10 shipping. If we had people who wanted to do the group buy on the VK11s I'd also be up for doing a bulk purchase on the DS18S20 from maxim-ic and including those in the shipments. I doubt that 3 of those would add much weight at all to the shipment.

So, if all 8 people wanted 3 additional sensors to fill out the VK11 that would add on $8.96 to the above total. I already have some DS18S20s from another project so I'm set.

So, if we get 8 people, and all want 3 additional sensors, the price is $50.02 (assuming I did my math right). Not bad to get 4 zone temp reading for about the cost of one Elk temp sensor.

Sendero,
Your prices are the same for up to 24, and 25-99. (I know that was deliberate, to see if we were paying attention.) :-)

Another place to look is hobby-boards.com ... only 6 bucks for shipping 11 sensors, but their price per is 3.75, so that doesn't help. They do, however, have some cool looking stuff.

And finally, the gist of the matter: I'm in for two VK011 fully assembled, both with 3 additional sensors, if the group buy thing goes. Thanks for offering to do that. In fact, I'd like more sensors than that, if you wind up with extra.

What the hey, my brother would like one of these, too, so if one more VK011 gets us there, I will take three full sets. (If, however, demand is high and you start running out, I'll go with two.)

[Sendero]

rdf - If demand is higher then its not a problem. The discount applies for 10+ units so if we do get a group buy with more than that then we're still set.

Looks like we already have 5 sets accounted for, we're halfway there :)

Oh, and the price for 25-99 qty of the DS18S20 is actually $2.28. I just did copy/paste and didn't realize I hadn't copied the correct column. Thanks for pointing that out.

[lpott6]

Put me down for one VK011 fully assembled, with 3 additional sensors. One more item on my HA list checked off, well at least it's purchased.

Thanks for offering to do this.

[rdf]

rdf - If demand is higher then its not a problem. The discount applies for 10+ units so if we do get a group buy with more than that then we're still set.

Looks like we already have 5 sets accounted for, we're halfway there :)


Sounds great, Sendero. If the sensors group buy goes, I'd also (in addition to the 3 extra with each VK011) like to get ten more sensors. I'm sure I'll mess some of them up, and I'd like to have plenty of spares. Would that be ok?

I'd heard they were small, but until I saw the RJ-45 pic that zaccari did, I had no clue HOW small.

[rdf]

The trouble that Insteon and Z-Wave folks had with polling makes me wonder about the polling load if I put several (8, maybe 12) sensors on one PC. Does this seem like a valid concern? One of the sites that makes ancillary devices for 1-wire makes a big deal about their controller taking the timing load off the PC.

Is there a way to control the polling interval? Anybody running lots of DS temp sensors and can offer some input?

[IVB]

My issue with polling & zWave wasn't the load on the PC, it was that it had to round-robin the switches and there was a lagtime.

My AMD2500 CQC/SageTV server didn't have much in the way of load issues. Now that i've upgraded to the blindingly fast 2.8GHz P4 for CQC/CCTV, it's insulted by how little i'm doing on it.

But, for something like temperature, it doesn't really matter if it takes 1s or 5s to poll all the sensors, cuz the temp won't change that much that quickly.

[MikeW]

I'm in for one assembled VK011 plus three additional sensors.

[jkmonroe]

count me in for 1 assembled + 10 additional sensors.

[IVB]

Can I get just sensors? Zaccari's RJ45 makes me wanna try to do that, but i need some spares. Perhaps another 3-4 spares would be good.

[zaccari]

I'll take 1 VK011 + 10 sensors. For those planning on trying the RJ45 temp sensors, I'd plan at least 2 spares EACH for each unless you're really patient and good. It took me a good while to get what I did and I still haven't come up with a good way to test.

Russ...

[Sendero]

Ok, here's where I think we stand right now:
Name VK011 Sensors
Sendero 2 0
jkmonroe 1 10
MikeW 1 3
IVB 0 4
zaccari 1 10
rdf 2 16
lpott6 1 3


So we're at 8 units on the VK011 and 46 sensors. That brings the price per sensor to $2.28 + $0.21 S&H to me ($10/# sensors ordered).

We still need to get 2 more people signed up on the VK011s though to get to the 10 minimum.

Also, one more thing that i just realized on the prices. I need to add the paypal fees to each one so please bump them by 3% + $0.30 ($51.82 instead of $50.82 in previous examples) to cover my paypal fees on receiving the funds. Before ordering I'll need a 30% deposit from everyone and the rest due before I re-ship the units out to everyone.

I don't know how long the shipping of the units from Ontario will take. Once we have the 10 units order we can decide if we want to pay for expedited shipping.

[rdf]

Sendero,

Getting pretty close. I'll take (total) 3 VKs and 20 additional sensors. (vs the 2 plus 16 you already have listed)

(One sensor is already in each VK, correct?)

[zaccari]

Those units are light so a padded envelope with stiff cardboard should easily make First class or Priority for cheap.

Russ...

[Sendero]

Those units are light so a padded envelope with stiff cardboard should easily make First class or Priority for cheap.

Russ...


Good point. As long as the pkg/envelope wt is under 8 oz (i think that was the limit?) we can do First Class.

Only need one more VK011 to get our minimum...

[MikeW]

I'll up my order to two assembled units plus 6 additional sensors total.

[Sendero]

Cool. Thanks MikeW, that puts it over the 10 min. Can the below listed members send an e-mail to AutGO (att) hotmail I'll send a bulk mail out to everyone (bcc'd so as to not redistribute your e-mail addrs) with the forum member names and each persons total as well as deposit amount and paypal account to send to. Once I get everyones deposits I'll place the order. If any other forum members want in on this, let me know very soon.

Name Vk011 Sensors
Sendero 2 6
jkmonroe 1 10
MikeW 2 6
IVB 0 4
zaccari 1 10
rdf 3 24
lpott6 1 3

[lpott6]

Looks like we are over the top. If its not too late, please bump me to 2 assembled units and a total of 15 additional sensors.

[noworries]

Nice, and thank you: I will take 2 and 15 myself if possible.

Its too bad they're not located a mere two hours west at the other end of Lake Ontario in Toronto where I happen to be through today.

[Sendero]

OK, so far I have confirmation from jkmonroe, rdf, MikeW, and noworries.

Still need to hear from IVB, zaccari, and lpott6.

[IVB]

sorry, phased, just sent email.

[lpott6]

Me too. Email sent

[Sendero]

ok, just sent mail to everyone. check your bulk mail if you don't see it.

<edit : Decided not to do express shipping, just going w/ground>

[rdf]

Paypal sent. Nice timing; caught me at the computer. I rounded up a little for all the packing materials and such.

And, if everybody else wants to go with express shipping, I will send the Paypal differential for that. I'm okay with either mode of shipping. Figured I'd get the main part done right now, while I'm here.

Thanks for doing this, Sendero.

[Sendero]

I just noticed that the Maxim-IC site has a DS18S20 and a DS18S20+. Seems like the only diff is that the + version is lead free. Does anyone know if there is a func diff on them? I'm guessing we should go with the + version for the bulk order.

[reagentmel]

Hi Sendero... did you already send in your order?

[Sendero]

Hi Sendero... did you already send in your order?

Sorry, placed it last night. I can e-mail to see if I can add in one more if you want.

[MikeW]

I would be willing to give up one of mine if someone else wants in on the order.

[Sendero]

Hi Sendero... did you already send in your order?

I was able to get one more added to the order. Can you send me e-mail at the contact addr listed above and let me know how many sensors you want? I'll let you know the total after that.

[rdf]

For those people that aren't in too much of a hurry (can wait to see if I actually get it working), I am starting on a driver for the DS9097U-009. This is a 1-wire -- RS232 interface that will allow many temp sensors to be hooked up to one wire. As time and interest allow, I may add support for more than just the temp sensors.

.... Jim

Jim,
Sounds interesting. What's your plan for distributing the sensors around? Daisy chain on phone wire or CAT-5? Can you branch the line after it leaves the DS9097, or does it have to be a single continuous line?

I'm going to use some VK011s, but there are a couple of places where a single continuous line would work well. Please keep us posted.

[jdmontague]

Sounds interesting. What's your plan for distributing the sensors around? Daisy chain on phone wire or CAT-5? Can you branch the line after it leaves the DS9097, or does it have to be a single continuous line?

At this point I am planning to use some of the telephone wire in my house and hide sensors behind the plates of the phone jacks.

The long answer is: see the section "1-Wire Network Topologies" for a description of setting up 1-wire networks in this AppNote (http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/148)
The short answer is that star networks are least reliable. A single line with branches no longer than 3 meters is the most reliable.

Also, here (http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=25_27&osCsid=7a8e35c5b64da34d43734e0c2687dea6) are some more sensor setups that can be attached to 1-wire networks. You can buy these as assembled boards as well as kits.

Please keep us posted.
Will do.

[Sendero]

Just a quick update - The VK011s are in, sort of. UPS tried to deliver yesterday and I'm going to pick them up today. The sensors have not yet arrived but should be in soon. I'm going to wait to ship all as one and will let everyone know when everything is in.

[Sendero]

Looks like the sensors shipped on the 11th and should be in early next week. Once they come in I'll send out the remaining amounts to everyone and get them shipped out.

[Frank Mc Alinden]

Hi Guys

A UK based HV User installed the temp sensors inside a spent bullet cartridge and inserted the cartridge into the drywall..he also inserted some of them into furniture...I thought they looked preety good...

HTH
Frank

[IVB]

Hey now - only us americans are supposed to be trigger happy!

Was the sensor completely enclosed within the cartridge? Wouldn't that affect the actual reading?

[jdmontague]

Was the sensor completely enclosed within the cartridge? Wouldn't that affect the actual reading?

I think the copper conducts heat quickly enough that it wouldn't really affect the reading. More likely to affect it would be the epoxy or whatever other material was used to glue the sensor into the casing.

[rdf]

I'm wondering about this, too. I was considering just spackling the sensor into a small hole in the wall, especially if I'm lucky enough for that wall to be unfinished in the back .... but that would give me the temp of the wall. Wonder how far out into free air the sensor has to extend? And how often somebody would hit it, thinking it was a bug? heh. Maybe behind the phone jack plate, as someone suggested previously, is a safe bet.

[jdmontague]

I wonder how long it takes for the wall temp (especially interior walls) to follow the air temp in the room?

[IVB]

Honestly, i'm not looking for perfectly invisible, as that's an unreasonable goal - if we had a thermometer mounted, that would be visible and yet our wives would be quasi-ok.

Anything smaller than that big honking Elk temp sensor with the flashing LED is fine by me.

[klindy]

Honestly, i'm not looking for perfectly invisible, as that's an unreasonable goal - if we had a thermometer mounted, that would be visible and yet our wives would be quasi-ok.

Anything smaller than that big honking Elk temp sensor with the flashing LED is fine by me.

Without seeing the pictures of the 'bullet' idea, I suspect part of the reason for putting the sensor in a metalic 'case' is to transmit the room temperature more accurately. A sensor inside a telephone jack box will take the temperature of that box and not necessarily the room the box services. There are more likely more holes and other means for air to infiltrate the wall cavity side of the plate than the room side.

Putting the sensor in a metalic case (brass obviously conducts heat well as does copper and aluminum) would all the room temp to 'get inside' the box easily without a hole in the plate. One of the reasons I like Russ's "sensor in a jack" idea is that it's clearly exposed to the room.

The sensitivity of the sensor will be affected by it's ability to 'access' the changes in the room itself. Think of it this way, if you put the sensor in the air duct you're going to sense the air temp of the warm or cold air blowing INTO the room and you'll only get the real temp of the room if the fan is off for some time.

I would think that epoxying the sensor to the INSIDE of a brass (or other metalic) wall plate would also provide a pretty good solution as long as it's not an outside wall. Or how about putting it in the smoke detector case? I'm sure there are other ways to achieve the same results.

I have one of these kits at home, I'll try the wall plate idea with a second sensor in the room itself and I'll see if there's a difference.

[jdmontague]

Maybe I'm picky, but my goal IS invisible. It's worth the husband points to me, plus I can be a perfectionist at times. Which is why I suggested behind the phone jack plates (plus the fact that I probably have extra wires there).

I think ideally though, they would be at about the height where thermostats are usually located.

[klindy]

Maybe I'm picky, but my goal IS invisible. It's worth the husband points to me, plus I can be a perfectionist at times. Which is why I suggested behind the phone jack plates (plus the fact that I probably have extra wires there).

I think ideally though, they would be at about the height where thermostats are usually located.

I'm picky too for these types of things and invisible is my ultimate goal.

While T-stat height is probably ideal, I'd think that an 'adjustment' to compensate for the temperature difference would work well enough unless there are some really unusual air currents in the room. I also wouldn't expect the adjustment to be too severe.

[jdmontague]

I think any severe adjustments would generally be of a temporary nature. Such as a kid leaving a door open in the winter. Which brings an idea to mind! I think I will set up some checks so that if the temperature differences are too great between rooms I will sound an alarm.

.... Jim

[rdf]

I think any severe adjustments would generally be of a temporary nature. Such as a kid leaving a door open in the winter. Which brings an idea to mind! I think I will set up some checks so that if the temperature differences are too great between rooms I will sound an alarm.

.... Jim

Great idea, Jim. AND ... if you had your RFID tracking system going, you'd know which one left the door open! heh. "I think my sister did it." "No, I don't think so."

Seriously, that is a good idea. I'm wondering how I'd set a midpoint number, and say "if sensors 1, 3, 9, 12 or 14 are more than x degrees away from y value, let me know." (Cause I figure the attic temp, the garage, and outside temps won't play in this scenario.)

[jdmontague]

Great idea, Jim. AND ... if you had your RFID tracking system going, you'd know which one left the door open! heh. "I think my sister did it." "No, I don't think so."

That hits home. I've got a teenage son and almost-teenage daughter.

Seriously, that is a good idea. I'm wondering how I'd set a midpoint number, and say "if sensors 1, 3, 9, 12 or 14 are more than x degrees away from y value, let me know." (Cause I figure the attic temp, the garage, and outside temps won't play in this scenario.)

In my 1-wire driver, I'm putting high, low, and current fields for each temperature sensor. You could watch those for a while and get reasonable values for your range.

[rdf]

That hits home. I've got a teenage son and almost-teenage daughter.

har har. Yeh. I bet you hear the "it wasn't me, Dad" song a lot.

In my 1-wire driver, I'm putting high, low, and current fields for each temperature sensor. You could watch those for a while and get reasonable values for your range.

Sounds great. Will we be able to clear the hi/low fields if we want to thru the driver, or is there other 1-wire mgt software we'll need to use?

RE the 9097U: Is there an RJ11 jack on the back of it? If so, will you just run phone wire from there and wind it thru the house, with no branches > 3M? I'm trying to visualize the geography of making this one continuous line. Max is like 200ft, correct? I wonder if branch length accumulates into that total.

Are you going to log, chart, track, the data somehow?

[jdmontague]

I feel like we are hijacking this thread.

My reply is here (http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?p=58382#post58382).

[Frank Mc Alinden]

Hi Guys

Not sure if this link will work as its linked to a UK Forum but if it does it shows the pics of the "Bullet Sensors"

http://tinyurl.com/3yx7ju

HTH
Frank

[klindy]

Frank that link sends me to a Yahoo group. I've signed up but I'm waiting for approval to join.

I hooked my VK011 up last night with 4 temp sensors attached directly to all 4 terminal strips directly. I had approximately a 1 degree F difference all the time consistantly across the 4 sensors. There were slight variations in the temperature of the room (which I expected) and all 4 sensors moved in temp together (but remained about 1ºF difference all the time).

Touching the sensor with a cold aluminum can quickly dropped the temp reading as expected (~30 seconds to lower the temp to something stable)

Tonight I'll try to separate the sensors somewhat and put them behind some wall plates, etc. to see the difference.

[zaccari]

The specs on the DS sensors said 0.5degrees accuracy and I always saw a variance within that 0.5degrees.

Russ..

[rdf]

Russ,
Was that spec for degrees C or F? I remember reading some stuff on Maxim's site that was listed in C.

I'm assuming you read your sensors in F, anyway .... hope that doesn't mean that they've either relaxed the spec, or gotten looser on QC. (OK, one degree isn't a huge deal, but who doesn't want as much accuracy as they can get?)

Hopefully most of the sensors will reflect the accuracy that you experienced.

[klindy]

The specs on the DS sensors said 0.5degrees accuracy and I always saw a variance within that 0.5degrees.

Russ..

Yes, I see that in the spec and that is in Centigrade so using the Fahrenheit scale that's actually more close to a whole degree @ ~80ºF so I would agree it's within spec.

I have the spec if you want to see it. Send me an PM with your email since it's too large to post.

[Sendero]

Looks like the sensors shipped on the 11th and should be in early next week. Once they come in I'll send out the remaining amounts to everyone and get them shipped out.

Sensors are in. Figuring out the amounts now and will e-mail everyone tonight. Still waiting on my freebie USPS priority mail boxes but hoping those come in tomorrow so I can get these out to everyone.

[rdf]

Sensors are in. Figuring out the amounts now and will e-mail everyone tonight. Still waiting on my freebie USPS priority mail boxes but hoping those come in tomorrow so I can get these out to everyone.

Thanks, Sendero. Got your email, and Paypal sent.

[IVB]

Finally plugged mine in, as soon as i realized i had to use HT to switch the settings of the VK011 it worked fine.

But I gotta harass you in public about one thing: You named the driver "Temperature Monitor"! It took me almost as long to find the driver as it did to get it working.

How about changing the name to "Qkits VK011 Temperature Monitor"?

[zaccari]

It's already submitted to Dean for the next release. I'm ok with whatever he changes it to. Sheesh. It IS a temperature monitor :)

Russ...

[beelzerob]

Are these those super small sensors that ivb was all giddy about replacing his Elk sensors with?

[zaccari]

Yup, now to see what he does to conceal them :)

Russ...

[IVB]

Actually I was about to post asking folks what they were doing, cuz i'm having a helluva time coming up with something that'll sit in a wall at 60" up but still be concealed. Esp given that i need a 1/3" or so hole to grab the 22/4 wire.

[zaccari]

The best one I've heard so far is the light switch box just outside the compartment. I intended mine to be in the attic, garage and rack so most of them really don't matter how they're mounted.

What I want to know is how you're going to hook one to all of the occupants in the house so you can monitor their temperature in real time.

Russ...

[rdf]

What I want to know is how you're going to hook one to all of the occupants in the house so you can monitor their temperature in real time.

Russ...

I think he'll connect the Dallas temp sensors to each person's RFID transmitter, and modulate the transmitted signal with temp info for that person. :)

[IVB]

FYI - the way the driver works, if it loses a connection to the VK011, it still shows as connected to device, and the temp & debug fields will show the last known value.

I didn't realize my cable came loose 2 days ago, thought it was odd that I had the exact same temp down to the hundredth's of a degree for 36 hours.

[klindy]

I had the exact same temp down to the hundredth's of a degree for 36 hours.


Pretty good A/C! :cool :-D

[brotsten]

Actually I was about to post asking folks what they were doing, cuz i'm having a helluva time coming up with something that'll sit in a wall at 60" up but still be concealed. Esp given that i need a 1/3" or so hole to grab the 22/4 wire.

I soldered one onto the end of a Cat5 cable. I put heat shrink tubing onto each leg and then the entire assembly. Then I encased the whole thing with epoxy. I repeated the process two more times.

Next, I told the tile guy to bury them next to the thermal sensors that came with the radiant floor heat mats in our bathrooms.

The mats are connected to my Centralite system. With luck, I'll be able to control the temperature and the optimum time to heat/not heat.

How's that for hiding them? (Could be a real problem to replace them)

Brian

[jdmontague]

Next, I told the tile guy to bury them next to the thermal sensors that came with the radiant floor heat mats in our bathrooms.
Brian

I think you are going to want sensors at 60" off the floor as well so that you can measure the air temperature. I think the air temp is going to be at least as much of interest as the floor temp.

[zaccari]

It's a one way driver as there's really little purpose to making it two way. I had thought about tracking time since last msg. Hmm.

Russ...

[brotsten]

I think you are going to want sensors at 60" off the floor as well so that you can measure the air temperature. I think the air temp is going to be at least as much of interest as the floor temp.

These are strictly for regulating the floor heat. This is not a "heat the house" type of radiant, it's a "keep the floor warm for your feet".

I have a six zone heat pump for the house. I will be able to access the thermostat temperatures as soon as I have a driver.....

Brian

[beelzerob]

So, these little nifties are definitely on my shopping list...but first a few Q's..

What kind of wire is required for these? Simple 2c wire (or even 1c??)

How much luck have you guys had in concealing these things when they're installed in public places. Granted, they're small, but they're not invisible...

[klindy]

So, these little nifties are definitely on my shopping list...but first a few Q's..

What kind of wire is required for these? Simple 2c wire (or even 1c??)

How much luck have you guys had in concealing these things when they're installed in public places. Granted, they're small, but they're not invisible...

I'm pretty sure the sensor requires 3 conductors. I can verify tonight unless someone beats me to it.

It appears you can hide them pretty well. They are about the size of a small pencil eraser. I've seen interesting ideas ranging from crimping them into a RJ-45 plug to using silicone/epoxy to adhere them to a wall plate, etc. What I haven't tested is whether the accuracy is effected by coating part of the surface with anything.

The sensors are rated at a +/- 1 degree (I forget if that's F or C) and I can confirm they routinely produce temps which are within 10% of the tolerance or each other (i.e. - +/- .1 degree).

[beelzerob]

Sooo...1wire devices require 3 wires? :shock: Or are these not 1wire devices?

If they require 3 conductors, then sounds like I'll just be running cat5 to each location for these things.

[zaccari]

Ok, at the bottom there are several references. First, "The 1-wire system uses a capacitor and diode half-wave rectifier to provide parasitic power for a line of products, including identify... This technique can eliminate the cost of extra wires or remote power supplies." There are several things going on here. First, the wires required are data and ground and the ground is not included in the count. Second, the VK011 wires components that interact on the 1 wire bus. That doesn't mean that they only need 2 wires between the, but rather the communications between them require 2 wires. There's something between many of the components and the bus. The Wikipedia entry says it all with "ystems of sensors can be built by wiring together 1-Wire components, each including all of the logic needed to operate on the 1-Wire bus."

Russ...

--
Dallas Semiconductor article in Sensors: The Journal of Applied Sensing Technology entitled Transmitting Data and Power over a One-Wire Bus (http://pdfserv.maxim-ic.com/en/an/onewirebus.pdf)
Wikipedia's 1-Wire entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Wire)

[beelzerob]

Well, I read the wiki, but the easiest question then is....what did YOU guys use to run wire to your devices?

[zaccari]

The VK011 is a 1-wire bus. It has a serial port out. It has a 1-wire bus controller and a serial controller and the guts to link the two together :)

Russ...

[klindy]

Well, I read the wiki, but the easiest question then is....what did YOU guys use to run wire to your devices?

Each sensor has 3 "wires" sticking out of it. I haven't extended them to be spread around the house but I am going to run 3 wires from the PC board to the sensor.

[IVB]

I ran 22/4

[beelzerob]

I ran 22/4

Ah, clear guidance!! :-D

Ok, I'll go with that then. I love the idea of these (relatively, right?) cheap little sensors distributed throughout the house. We're going to have a heat pump, and from what I understand sometimes it's hard to feel the heat coming out of it, so I'm going to put a sensor right on the vent output...then I'll be able to see what temp is coming out. A nice display of the house and it's various, color coded temps will be great.

Somehow this is important to do.....not only incredibly cool.

[zaccari]

Heat pumps output air at a MUCH lower temperature than other warm forced air devices. For example, a heat pump generally outputs between 75 and 110 degrees fahrenheit and a furnace is between 130 and 140 degrees fahrenheit. As such, if you've had anything but a heat pump, you may not like it.

Russ...

[beelzerob]

Ya, I've been warned about the low heat output already. That's kinda why I want to put a sensor there....so I can look at the screen and say "See! It IS putting out heat!"

But don't worry about me....not only do we have a wood furnace also...but I just moved here from AZ. Feeling heat at any level coming out of the vent will feel weird....

[zaccari]

I think you're going to be wasting sensors for something that's going to be pretty constant. I put a professional thermometer in grills when I want to see what's coming out. I took a paperclip and with a little bit of creative bending it works great.

Russ...

[beelzerob]

...you mean this whole HA thing is more than playing with nifty sensors?? :confused:

[zaccari]

I can't think of a good reason to hook any sensors to monitor temperature other than logging (and display but not at more than a single register). It's not like you can change the temperature that's coming out and once you know the variance between register 1, 2 and 3, you wouldn't need to monitor all of them again.

Russ...

[robolo]

Please bear with me as I struggle to get a handle on this.
Just connected a newly purchased VK011 and loaded this driver. When I communicate with the VK011 through hyperterminal I get correct information. However in CQC I cannot seem to get a text or numeric widget to display the data from any of the available fields. I only get "0.00" displayed. Additionally the widget intermittantly shows "???" presumably while it is polling the device. How have you set up CQC to display the data?

[lpott6]

Please bear with me as I struggle to get a handle on this.
Just connected a newly purchased VK011 and loaded this driver. When I communicate with the VK011 through hyperterminal I get correct information. However in CQC I cannot seem to get a text or numeric widget to display the data from any of the available fields. I only get "0.00" displayed. Additionally the widget intermittantly shows "???" presumably while it is polling the device. How have you set up CQC to display the data?
If I remember correctly, someone will jump in if I don't, you need to make some setting changes to the VK011 while in hyperterminal before the device will work with the CQC driver. Check back thru this thread for the "How-To".

[robolo]

It's official...I'm an idiot

Thank you Larry. Even though I read the first post describing this driver dozens of times I conveniently missed the 2nd sentence:

"Limitations
The only way to clear the low and high fields is by removing the driver and doing it with HyperTerm.The device must be set to extended messages in CSV with celsius and fahrenheit enabled. The interval can be set as desired (the fastest it was tested was every 15 seconds). Do NOT leave the interval set to 1 sec."

After making the adjustments it works perfectly.

[lpott6]

It's official...I'm an idiot

Thank you Larry. Even though I read the first post describing this driver dozens of times I conveniently missed the 2nd sentence:

"Limitations
The only way to clear the low and high fields is by removing the driver and doing it with HyperTerm.The device must be set to extended messages in CSV with celsius and fahrenheit enabled. The interval can be set as desired (the fastest it was tested was every 15 seconds). Do NOT leave the interval set to 1 sec."

After making the adjustments it works perfectly.
You are definately not an idiot, I made the same mistake the 1st time around. Or does that mean we are both idiots? No way, just a case of didn't RTM enough times for it to sink in.

All's well that ends well, glad to hear you got it working.

[zaccari]

Unfortunately, many of the drivers require details like that and they're usually in the description page. At some point I'll revisit this and put in the driver to change the settings including resetting the values.

Russ...

[brotsten]

Russ, any chance you can make a version that will load in the current CQC version?

Brian

[zaccari]

Russ, any chance you can make a version that will load in the current CQC version? God, too much to do. I have to get the changes I want to make and get this submitted to Dean. The first message has a new package for 2.3 (I'm only running 2.3.3 but it should work on the lastest version). Let me know if you need something newer. I'll likely replace it this weekend as I already intended to do the upgrade tomorrow.

Just an informal check, how many folks are using this driver? I have a couple changes I'm giong to make (first to get settings, second to allow them to be changed) and I'd love to know who else can test.

Russ...

[klindy]

Just an informal check, how many folks are using this driver? I have a couple changes I'm giong to make (first to get settings, second to allow them to be changed) and I'd love to know who else can test.

Russ...

I'm using it. But I haven't fully distrubuted the sensors yet.

[lpott6]

I have two of them with 6 sensors deployed in and around the house.

I am on the latest beta.

[IVB]

yep, here too. On whatever is in the release.

[brotsten]

Thanks Russ, the new one loaded fine.

I embedded three sensors under the tile floors in our bathrooms that have electric radiant heat when the house was under construction, all three survived and work!

Brian

[robolo]

I'm using it as well

[AceCannon]

None of the pictures mentioned in this thread seem to be alive anymore. . . Anyone care to share a few of their implementation?

[bjkiller]

Just FYI, the next version will set the VK011 into the correct mode and allow resets of the high/lows.

Russ...

zaccari (http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/member.php?u=406), this message from 2007 :roll: i just installed few sensors! that cool!
but still no way to reset high/lows from the interface?

[zaccari]

I never was able to reliably solder the sensors onto longer wire to spread them around the house as I anticipated so I never put any additional effort into the driver. I have had a couple projects brewing so I haven't even gotten to the point where I could consider it.

Russ...

[bjkiller]

zaccari, I just installed one into the pool device, and show temperature on Grand Concerto Screen ;)

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/9919/img4234.jpg

The white glue is "FUJIK Silicone Thermal Glue (50ml Grease-Like)"
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4579

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/3221/img4235.jpg
My outdoor Grand concerto PAD closed to the pool.

[Dean Roddey]

That's pretty slick.

[zaccari]

Clearly they're a nice little package all around. I never thought I would wish they were a bit larger :)

Russ...

[bjkiller]

zaccari, you do not need them larger, just stick it to something, with such termo glue like i did.

[brotsten]

I embedded three under our heated tile floors, all three still working ~20 months later....

Brian

[zaccari]

I mean the soldering part. I never was very good at soldering.

Russ...

[jrunde]

My outdoor Grand concerto PAD closed to the pool.


Do you have the keypad in a covered location or is out open to the weather?

[sic0048]

BJKiller - can you give a little more detail on how you installed that sensor?

Is the sensor in direct contact with the water flowing through the pipe? How much of the sensor, etc.

Thanks.

[bjkiller]

BJKiller - can you give a little more detail on how you installed that sensor?

Is the sensor in direct contact with the water flowing through the pipe? How much of the sensor, etc.

Thanks.

i asked my poolman to install thermoter pipe insert (he charge me for $25) for insert and installation.
i was not in home when he installed it.
i only put the vk011 sensor inside and the thermic glue.

sensor has direct contact with methal that has direct contact with the water.

soon i will install one on sun water heater...will connect to to water pipe to check temperature if not enought - to heat with electricity.

i will make middle photos.

[AceCannon]

Any word on whether this driver is still functional with 3.0?

I purchased CQC back in Feb 2008 during a sale and am just now thinking about getting serious about activating it, diving in.

[bjkiller]

Any word on whether this driver is still functional with 3.0?

I purchased CQC back in Feb 2008 during a sale and am just now thinking about getting serious about activating it, diving in.

i use 3.0, with this driver, it's work fine.
only bothering issue that driver has no property to clear all max/min values.

[zaccari]

Unfortunately, the high/low are in the device so resetting it means getting into the whole menu task. That is a major thing given the way the VK works.

Russ...

[potts.mike]

What type of wire/enclosure/ connectors are people using for this? I was reading about the sensor in a male rj45 but the pics are missing.

[robolo]

What type of wire/enclosure/ connectors are people using for this? I was reading about the sensor in a male rj45 but the pics are missing.

I did the RJ45 trick and it works great. Just have to align the sensor leads with the contacts properly before crimping.

[potts.mike]

I went by radio shack today and found a project box to put it in and then was also thinking about using 3 conductor phone plug wired into some cat5 to make everything clean. It might be a month or so before I am able to really put things together but I will try and post pics when I do.

[potts.mike]

IS there any trick to get this working? have the VK011 connected to and edgeport usb serial adapter. I can talk to the VK011 with hyperterminal fine and their software works as well. The CQC driver just cycles between not connected, waiting for comm resources, etc. The log file is attached
-Mike

[sic0048]

It looks like it is connecting to the driver, but probably gets a response back it doesn't like and therefore restarts. The common thing to do in those situations is to open up the driver test harness and run the driver in it. It should allow you to see the inner workings of the driver and where it is failing. Then with that information, hopefully someone can help or modify the driver.

[potts.mike]

Where is the driver test harness documented? It does look like its disconnecting every time the temperature is updated. Something is clearly up because the qkits app show over 150 F but hyperterminal shows the correct temp.

[potts.mike]

One other thing I was just thinking of, I haven't supplied power to the vk011 hoping that the edgeport could power it. Maybe thats why every time it tries to take a temp reading it goes offline?

[potts.mike]

Something is clearly up because the qkits app show over 150 F but hyperterminal shows the correct temp.

I emailed their tech support and apparently their software only works in celsius mode so that is why hyper-terminal didn't agree. That being said everything seems to be working fine outside of cqc. Does anyone have this attached to an edgeport? I can throw this into the driver test harness but I am not really sure how to use that. The error that I am getting is on line 71 if that helps.

Edit: Spelling

[zaccari]

My guess is that you haven't followed the directions in the instructions. This driver expects certain settings as spelled out in the first message in this thread. Connect via hyperterm and set it up:

The only way to clear the low and high fields is by removing the driver and doing it with HyperTerm.
The device must be set to extended messages in CSV with celsius and fahrenheit enabled. The interval can be set as desired (the fastest it was tested was every 15 seconds). Do NOT leave the interval set to 1 sec. The driver will not be happy.
Does not handle CRC errors.

Mine's been running pretty much without a flaw for over a year now. I guess I should send this to Dean to be included. I don't see myself doing the work to reset in the near future. The menus required to traverse to reset temps is extremely cumbersome for little benefit.

Russ...

[potts.mike]

Your guess is correct. I still need to learn how to read.

[zaccari]

I'm glad it was something simple.

Russ...

[robolo]

Your guess is correct. I still need to learn how to read.
Don't feel bad. If you go way back in this thread you will see I did the same exact thing as you!
Robert

[AceCannon]

Limitations
The only way to clear the low and high fields is by removing the driver and doing it with HyperTerm.


Could not you instead stop the CQC service briefly, then connect with Hyperterm to reset the fields?

[zaccari]

Yes, that's essentially the same thing. At some point Dean has said he'll put in driver pausing etc but for now, the driver has to be down. I prefer deleting the driver as I don't want to stop everything else going on.

Russ...

[Trioxide]

Looks like it has been a couple of years now that some of you have been using these sensors and I am wondering how they are working out for you. Interested in purchasing myself. Like the price and only need 4 so this seems the option for me. Anyone using these sensors with the datalog file to track the temperature over time? Any input would be appreciated.

[sic0048]

Anyone using these sensors with the datalog file to track the temperature over time? Any input would be appreciated.

I don't have these sensors, so I cannot speak to the reliablility of them, but you can certainly track the temps over time using the Datalog DB driver (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web/Support/Drivers/Miscellaneous/DataLogDB.htm). There are a couple of threads on how to set up the driver.

I use the driver to track indoor and outdoor temps at my house. I then use a graphing program to create a graph that I can display in my CQC IVs. I have 1 day, 1 week, and 30 day graphs.

[Trioxide]

you can certainly track the temps over time using the Datalog DB driver (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web/Support/Drivers/Miscellaneous/DataLogDB.htm).

Yes, I am using that driver for some other things and like it. That is what I had meant when I said anyone using the datalog file.

[potts.mike]

I use the datalogdb driver with these sensors and it works great. The only annoying thing is that when i reboot a zero is logged that makes the graphs look kinda odd.

[Trioxide]

Okay, I purchased this, installed it and trying to get it setup in CQC. Imported the packages at the beginning of this thread into the Admin but when I go to add a Driver I can not see it listed there. Am I missing something. Please help.

Thanks

[potts.mike]

Its listed under 1wire/vk011

[AceCannon]

Trioxide, please let us now how this goes. I've had the VK011 on my radar for a long time.

[Trioxide]

When it lists the drivers I do not see 1wire or VK011. I went throught the whole list trying to find either of these. Nothing. I can import VK011-2.3.CQCDrvPack but not VK011.CQCDrvPack as says invalid for this version of CQC. Do I need this driver pack imported to see this driver in the Drivers list? I am on ver 3.1.0.

[potts.mike]

Sorry,

Try "Temperature Monitor"

The Make/Model is 1 wire/VK011

[Trioxide]

Sorry,

Try "Temperature Monitor"

The Make/Model is 1 wire/VK011

That explains why I couldn't find it. Now I see it. Looks like it is offline so assume that cause I need to add an external power supply as not getting the power it needs through the serial cable. Tried this but still saying Offline. Anything else I need to do to configure this? I tried making this PC with minimum Windows XP so is there a Service I need running to make this work?

[zaccari]

Actually, it won't come online unless you use HyperTerm or some other comm program to set the formatting appropriately. It is detailed in the first post of this thread. The menu system designed to make this sucker "easier" to use has steered me away from changing the driver to do it automatically. What a pain.

Russ...

[Trioxide]

I think I have a bigger problem then that. The Power LED is not coming on even when I take the jumper off. So I am wondering if it is working at all, even with external power.

[Trioxide]

Well for some reason it started working today and I didn't even touch it. Have it working but not in CQC. What settings do I need to change on it so CQC can read it? I am getting a Debug with Sensor 1,+22.81, DegC, Low,-1.25, etc but nothing in the other fields for any of the 4 Sensors and receiving is False, yet if I go into Hyperterminal I can see the info fine there.

[potts.mike]

This is what gave me trouble:

"The device must be set to extended messages in CSV with celsius and fahrenheit enabled"

[Trioxide]

Thanks, its working now. Weird thing though is I have 3 connected to the board right now and they are all giving me different readings, within 1.5 degrees though. Thought it was more accurate then that.

[Trioxide]

I am still having problems with the VK011. A lot of times I am not getting any readings from the CQC driver but if I log into Hyperterminal then I see it is working fine so am confused. Why is it intermittent. Just upgraded to CQC ver 3.3 but was the same before that also.
Wasn't working a minute ago and then just started getting readings again, with me not doing anything.

[zaccari]

I'd suggest that you put the free serial monitor on the box the VK011 is connected to and see if data is being transferred while CQC is not getting data. I've been running with no issues for a VERY long time. I haven't upgraded to 3.3 yet but that's on my list for this week. I can't believe there's anything that has changed since the 3.2 beta I'm on.

Russ...

[Trioxide]

That is what I am saying. I log in using Hyperterminal and I can see the data fine but going into CQC all I am getting is zeros and Receiving is False. So I know the unit is working. So CQC driver will get nothing and then all of a sudden it starts working. That is what is weird.
I was having the same problem when I had CQC Ver 3.1.

[zaccari]

The Free Serial Monitor will display data received from the device while CQC is running. It's really not the same as running HT. If there's data coming in from the VK011 and CQC isn't showing it, then we can suspect the driver. If the device stops sending at random points, then it is likely the hardware (which could be a bunch of different things, ie the VK, the actual DS chips or the serial hardware for example).

Russ...

[Trioxide]

So where do I get the Free Serial Monitor?

[zaccari]

So where do I get the Free Serial Monitor?
http://www.serial-port-monitor.com/

[Trioxide]

Been working fine now so have not tested this out. Still takes a couple of minutes when the computer reboots but otherwise fine. How soon does yours start logging after you reboot?

[bjkiller]

anyone experienced with problem when VK011 show wrong number time to time...results around 90C instead of 30-32C pretty frequently.

[Shaky]

anyone experienced with problem when VK011 show wrong number time to time...results around 90C instead of 30-32C pretty frequently.

Yes, I have been seeing this on my setup lately although it seems to effect only 2 of the 4 sensors I am using. I was assuming a hardware issue.

Power cycling the VK011 and waiting a few minutes sorts it out for me temporarily. Do you have the VK011 plugged directly into your PC, or have you extended the connection of the serial port at all? I have, and suspect that is the cause of my issues, although it used to work fine for me in the past this way.

[bjkiller]

Yes, I have been seeing this on my setup lately although it seems to effect only 2 of the 4 sensors I am using. I was assuming a hardware issue.

Power cycling the VK011 and waiting a few minutes sorts it out for me temporarily. Do you have the VK011 plugged directly into your PC, or have you extended the connection of the serial port at all? I have, and suspect that is the cause of my issues, although it used to work fine for me in the past this way.


i do not power VK011 from external power supply, it's work from rs232 power.

[bjkiller]

i powered vk011 from external 1A 12volt PS. it's resolved the problem.
update: still have this problem with strange numbers....

[AceCannon]

. .along with 3 extra DS18S20 sensors.

I am planning on an exhaust fan setup for my server closet and want to monitor temps in several places. We will see how it goes!

[Trioxide]

Still having issues with this. When I first got it a couple of years ago I had problems with getting zeros for my values in CQC but with Hyperterminal I was seeing the correct temperatures. Been working fine and then it started giving me zeros again. Went and looked at settings and everything fine in Hyperterminal but getting zeros in CQC. Then all of a sudden it started working again after a couple of days. What is going on here? Any suggestions on what is causing this?

[Trioxide]

Still having problems with this and seeing zeros in CQC but working fine when I log into Hyperterminal. Anybody have any suggestions? I do have an external power supply for it.

[zaccari]

You can include the output you're seeing in hyperterm but I would bet that you have the wrong settings on the sensors.


Limitations
The only way to clear the low and high fields is by removing the driver and doing it with HyperTerm.
The device must be set to extended messages in CSV with celsius and fahrenheit enabled. The interval can be set as desired (the fastest it was tested was every 15 seconds). Do NOT leave the interval set to 1 sec. The driver will not be happy.
Does not handle CRC errors.

Russ...

[Trioxide]

Nope the settings are the 1st thing I check. They are fine. And like I said it does start up again in CQC but sometimes it is a couple hours or a couple of days, without me touching it. So this verifies that it is not a setting. Problem starts when I reboot the server. Once it is running I have not noticed a problem.

[zaccari]

Once the problem occurs, stop the driver and connect with hyperterm and include the data coming across. I believe if you turn logging up to max, it'll put every message received in the logs. I know that driver is simply a listen and parse so if it works once, it'll keep working forever unless something bad happens. My guess is that the data is stopping due to a problem with the VK. I have been having occasional problems where it goes offline and won't send or respond. Mine is powered also. I believe it's just the hardware. The other thing you could do is look for the serial monitor program (I'll see if I can find where I got it from) and turn it on. That'll log the data transfer while the driver is connected.

Russ...

[Trioxide]

Any help would be appreciated. I tried the Serial Port Monitor. First when listing com ports it did not show my ports so had to manually enter. Then when tried to connect to that port it was denied so I could not get working.

Since I have an external power to the unit I recycled the power when I rebooted the computer. Have unit set to 15 minutes and within that time I had readings. So is that the issue? Will try recycling power again the next time I reboot my computer to see if that helps.

[zaccari]

Stop the CQC Application Shell and start the monitor or pause the driver. Then restart the shell again or restart the driver and it should start up normally. Just like you would do if you're doing HyperTerm.

Russ...

[RichardU]

So where is the latest driver for the VK011? I don't see anything in the latest CQC distribution. Do I need to download it from this thread?

Also, QKits offers the VK011, the VK011P, and the QK105. Which is preferred?

[Shaky]

So where is the latest driver for the VK011? I don't see anything in the latest CQC distribution. Do I need to download it from this thread?

I seem to recall going through this when I decided to order one a couple years ago. I'm pretty sure I just used the driver in this thread and it's been working fine.


Also, QKits offers the VK011, the VK011P, and the QK105. Which is preferred?

Not sure about preferred, but I went with Item No. VK011 and DS18S20 sensors. I would imagine as long as the protocols are the same that the others may work. The VK011P it sounds like it may require the driver to send a poll command which may not be done today (or it's just an extra option available, I couldn't really tell). Probably better to stick with the plain VK011 as I know it works.

[RichardU]

I'm pretty sure I just used the driver in this thread and it's been working fine.
Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[zaccari]

This driver will definitely not support the VK011P.

Russ...

[bjkiller]

extending cable...without errors...
i used 100 meters and got errors like -1.65C or 85.00C....

i found on internet way to extend cable with DS18S20 sensors
zipped .pdf enclosed... with schema.

[bjkiller]

somebody can fix the driver to handle CRC errors?

[zaccari]

CRC errors? The device spits out plain text.

Russ...

[bjkiller]

Yes. But its show garbage numbers...like -85C when errors

[zaccari]

What do you see when you bring up a terminal emulator? There are no CRCs in the driver because the board spits out formatted data which is parsed.

Russ...

[Shaky]

Hi Bjkiller,

I don't think the driver could ever reset itself from those errors you see where the temperature says -85 etc. I was having this issue for the longest time too and was caused by me using marginal wiring (Hardware). To clear the errors I had to physically reset the power to the VK011, then the CQC driver would pick up the correct values again for a while once power cycled. Simply reloading the driver would not help at least in my case.

I used a power switch controlled by CQC to automatically reset the VK011 when I detected the errors with a triggered or timed event, can't recall exactly. (if the values were out of whack..reset power). Certainly not an ideal solution but worked for me until I uncovered my wiring problems.

Like mentioned the best place to start is looking at what the terminal emulator is spitting out for data as the driver basically just passes that through I believe.

[bjkiller]

Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.68 , DegC, +72.83, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.62 , DegC, +72.72, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.68 , DegC, +72.83, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.62 , DegC, +72.72, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.62 , DegC, +72.72, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.62 , DegC, +72.72, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,-01.25 , DegC, +29.75, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.73 , DegC, +72.92, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.56 , DegC, +72.61, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.62 , DegC, +72.72, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.56 , DegC, +72.61, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.56 , DegC, +72.61, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.56 , DegC, +72.61, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.50 , DegC, +72.50, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.56 , DegC, +72.61, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.50 , DegC, +72.50, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.74 , DegC, +72.94, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.56 , DegC, +72.61, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.56 , DegC, +88.81, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.56 , DegC, +72.61, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.50 , DegC, +72.50, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.50 , DegC, +72.50, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.50 , DegC, +72.50, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.50 , DegC, +72.50, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.50 , DegC, +72.50, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.43 , DegC, +72.38, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.56 , DegC, +88.81, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.43 , DegC, +72.38, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.81 , DegC, +80.26, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.43 , DegC, +72.38, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.43 , DegC, +72.38, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.43 , DegC, +72.38, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.37 , DegC, +72.27, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.43 , DegC, +72.38, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,
Sensor 4,+22.13 , DegC, +71.84, DegF, Hi,+127.74, DegC, +261.94, DegF, Low,-127.25, DegC, -197.05, DegF,
Sensor 1,+31.50 , DegC, +88.70, DegF, Hi,+85.00, DegC, +185.00, DegF, Low,+21.68, DegC, +71.03, DegF,
Sensor 2,+26.75 , DegC, +80.15, DegF, Hi,+126.16, DegC, +259.09, DegF, Low,-120.25, DegC, -184.45, DegF,