Video How To - Monitor your Refrigerator

[hyla]

Well done, thanks Pete!

The freezer actually was one of my reasons for starting with the homeautomation stuff: Left the door open twice and was literally "fed up" with having to eat all the stuff :)

But guess which project I haven't finished yet. Yeah, You've got it ...

One thing I realized with the tests I've done so far: even the small wires I've used for
the internal temperature sensors will keep the silicone isolation in the door frame from sealing off the freezer. So after some time there's always some condensation around the entry point of the wires which can't be good. Something I'll have to look into yet. And I still haven't quite reached the cellar with my MySensors network (maximum distance, 2 and a half floors below) :)

Christoph

[petewill]

@hyla Thankfully our freezer wasn't left open that long but it was long enough to warrant a sensor :)

I have had my internal temp sensors installed for over a month and haven't had any condensation yet. Maybe I just had lucky placement of the wires? I used the wires from a usb cable (I actually cut it off a broken computer mouse). They are incredibly thin. Maybe you can try that?

As for the distance, can you place a relay (repeater) node somewhere in the middle? http://www.mysensors.org/download/sensor_api_15#create-repeating-nodes

[sneaksneak]

Thanks for a nice project.
I am trying this but I always get Fahrenheit temperatuers in Domoticz.
I have change this line in the code.

From
boolean metric = false;

To
boolean metric = true;

Something else I should do?

[mfalkvidd]

That should be enough. What value does the gatway log say it received from the sensor?

[Igor]

Thank you for one more interesting solution. Just want to suggest useful thing which might be more simple and durable as contact pair. I mean "Switch Reed" http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PC-Recessed-Magnetic-Window-Door-Contact-Security-Safety-Alarm-Switch-Reed-/310770552546?hash=item485b5e4ee2:g:eGcAAOSwNSxU2BfU

Best regards!

[petewill]

@Igor The reason I didn't use these is because most of the time my fridge door would stay open just slightly but enough that a reed switch would still register it as closed. Normally I like to use reed switches though.

[mbj]

A nice project.

I had a similar problem with a freezer located in the garage.

As I already had other temperature sensors and an energy meter running there (based on MySensors stuff) I just added one of these waterproof DS18B to the setup, drilled a hole through the fridge wall and stuck it in.

I use OpenHab and can see the temperature on any browser or at the cell phone client. OpenHab also emails me when temperature raises above a certain temperature.

Not as sophisticated as your solution but it works :-)

[sneaksneak]

I have now solved this problem with Fahrenheit instead of Celcius.

I had to change to this --->
float temperature = static_cast<float>(static_cast<int>((dallasTemp.getTempCByIndex(i)) * 10.)) / 10.;

From this --->
float temperature = static_cast<float>(static_cast<int>((gw.getConfig().isMetric ? dallasTemp.getTempC(dallasAddresses[i]) : dallasTemp.getTempF(dallasAddresses[i])) * 10.)) / 10.;

Now it gives me celcius.
Thanks for nice example.

[petewill]

@mbj Cool, thanks for sharing. I'd love to check out OpenHAB some day.

@sneaksneak Interesting. I wonder why you had to do that...? Oh well, glad it's working for you now!

[Stric]

When I arrived at work today and started checking mails, I had received a bunch of them saying that the temperature in the fridge was too high, so I had to drive home and close the door. I would have gotten a notification earlier through jabber if the server software we use for jabber wasn't acting up :(.
MySensors stuff was not involved in that particular sensor (esic sensor + tellstick + perl + perl), but the need to monitor this stuff was definitely there.

[petewill]

@Stric Dang. Glad you caught it in time! The need to monitor is definitely real. I also want to get my house outfitted with leak detectors at some point...

[Krieghund]

I'm sorry to ask a seemingly dumb question, but what do I need to do to get a third Dallas sensor to work? (I have a top/bottom fridge and a deep freezer).
I edited the following lines:
DeviceAddress dallasAddresses[] = {
{0x28, 0x29, 0x4F, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0, 0x80, 0xBB}, //Freezer Address -- Modify for your sensors
{0x28, 0x22, 0x53, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0, 0x80, 0x1E}, //Fridge Address -- Modify for your sensors
** {0x28, 0xA6, 0x58, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0, 0x80, 0x58} //Deep Freezer I added**

// set the temp resolution
for (uint8_t i = 0; i < 3; i++) { //i changed from 2

// Present temp sensors to controller
** for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // i changed from 2**
gw.present(i, S_TEMP);

// Read temperatures and send them to controller
** for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { //i changed from 2**

I'm not sure what I'm missing. Thank you in advance for your help and great project!!!

[Krieghund]

@Krieghund
Ok, I think I found it. I needed to have the door sensors start at a higher ID:

int doorChildren[] = {3, 4}; //i changed from 2,3

Thank you

[petewill]

@Krieghund Glad you found it! Sorry, I couldn't respond sooner.

[CrankyCoder]

any chance this has been updated to 2.0? I am having issues getting the internal pull up for the temp sensors working.

[petewill]

@Jason-Brunk Sorry for the delay. What's the problem? I don't think that would be related to v2.0 but I could be wrong. Have you tried an external resistor?

[CrankyCoder]

my 4.7k resistors showed up today. So i will try with the external.

I have been able to get basic arduino sketches to work with the internal pull up and the temp sensor. but as soon as I put mysensors on it, it doesn't pick it up any more. That's why i figured i would see if you updated your sketch to 2 without the need for the external

[petewill]

@Jason-Brunk Interesting. I haven't updated it yet. I need to get a spare weekend to make the jump to 2.0 but I don't know when that will be. I have so many sensors in my house it will take me a while to get everything up to date.

[CrankyCoder]

I can only imagine. I have seen your youtube channel. jealous

[TXSpazz]

This is my first sensor so be nice if I'm missing something obvious. :smile:

Your sketch has #include <MySensor.h>

In the mysensors library it is MySensors.h with an s

If I change it to #include <MySensors.h> with the s then on the line with MySensor gw; I get the error: 'MySensor' does not have a name type.

I'm trying to figure out how everything works together but can't figure this out.

For reference, my programming background consists of an 8th grade computer class where we learned to make something go from one side of the monitor to the other and yes, it was all green.