Hardware hackers rejoice!

[Gabriel Dragffy]

On Mon, 2007-05-28 at 14:02 -0500, Brian Fahrlander wrote:
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> (Or, "More fun things to do with Ubuntu")
> 
>     I have a 'life project', http://CounterMoon.org, where I'm building
> a trailer in which I intend to spend the rest of my life on the road.
> And ya just KNOW I'm not going there without Ubuntu Linux...
> 
>     So I'm working on the controls; there are questions that will
> naturally arise while on the road:
> 
>     How much time is left on the batteries?
>     How much 110V power am I pulling?
>     Doesn't it seem [hot|cold] in here?
> 
>     Rather than blow thousands on an A/D card (and the expensive cabling
> to get those values the length of the trailer without noise or loss) and
> [shudder] using anything with Microsoft, I found the 1-wire system from
> Maxim/Dallas Semiconductor.
> 
>     You start with Ubuntu, Feisty and Dapper both work. Then get a
> handful of parts from http://Hobby-Boards.com that connect to your USB
> or serial port, add the One-Wire FileSystem (OWFS), and start reading
> values and writing to relays!  It's fun, challenging, and useful.
> Cheap, too.
> 
>     The OWFS provides directories like /sys where you can read and write
> to these devices as easily as reading and writing kernel parameters.
> The code to check on things can be in anything you're comfortable with,
> I chose Perl.
> 
>     Here's a clip:
> 
>   # Polling sensors
> 
>   # Interior ambient temperature
>   $temp = &getvar("/var/1wire/10.BB434D010800/temperature");
> 
>   # Interior ambient relative humidity
>   $humidity = &getvar("/var/1wire/26.AFBBA8000000/humidity");
> 
> 
>   # Making changes
> sub vent_fan {
>   # Given 0, the fan is off. 1, the fan is on.
>   open(FAN, ">/var/1wire/1F.38C704000000/main/05.880032000000/PIO");
>   printf FAN ($_[0]);
>   close(FAN);
> }
> 
>     Just turn on the fan (the relay for it) with: vent_fan(1).  Turn it
> back off with vent_fan(0).
> 
>     We all like our systems; but at the end of the day they don't *do*
> many things.  Here, we can direct the air conditioning to the warmer
> rooms, turn on the sprinklers when they actually _need_ it, create
> keypad locks, or turn on the dehumidifier on in the NOC when the server
> room's steamy.
> 
>     Enjoy!
> 
> - --
>  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Brian Fahrländer                 Christian, Conservative, and Technomad
>  Evansville, IN                              http://Fahrlander.net/brian
>  ICQ: 5119262                         AOL/Yahoo/GoogleTalk: WheelDweller
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I want a 1-wire also!! Any ideas where I might get one in the UK?
I don't really know what I'm searching for on Google, and doesn't seem
to be anything on ebay.co.uk :(

-- 
Gabriel Dragffy FdA BA(Hons)


Websites by Gabe:
http://dragffy.com
http://andrew-norman.com

On-line CV:
http://dragffy.com/gabescv