Temperature monitoring (but not what you're thinking...)

[AJWhite1970]

Opposite problem to most at the moment given the heatwave but...

 

The kitchen manager has asked me if I can rig up a solution to monitor the temperature of the walk-in freezer and walk-in fridge and send an alarm (either SMS or email) to the kitchen manager to warn her if there is an issue over the summer. They had a company in to quote but it was £4k install and £20pw for monitoring!!!

 

I'm thinking something like the rack bars we all use for our comms rooms but in this instance I can't run any cat5 in, would have to be wifi and would have to work at -20C

 

Anyone know of anything that would fit the bill?

 

Cheers

Andrew

[mikecain]

Sounds like a good Raspberry Pi project there, there are quite a few resources available for monitoring temp, just needs a bit of thought to setup.

[synaesthesia]

Ubiquiti mFI temperature sensors with an mPort would work - the mPort will run wirelessly, put the mPort in the kitchen and run cat5 from the mPort to the sensors. Cheap too. As with most Ubiquiti gear the interface is a piece of cake and setting up alerts via email is easy. You can also run scripts to carry out actions should something go wrong whether it's tell a computer to turn off or something else.

[fairm010]

Just this morning I am ordering the bits from this page

 

Raspberry Pi Temperature & Humidity Network Monitor

[fairm010]

Just seen @synaesthesia 's post. I'm going to do that instead!

[localzuk]

Some of the parts on the Raspberry Pi aren't rated below 0 degrees.

 

Also, how are you going to power it? I can't imagine a walk-in freezer having any outlets?

 

I'd be looking at something like this: Battery-Powered Wireless RTD Temperature Monitoring Solution - oleumtech.com connecting back to one of these Ethernet Wireless Gateway

 

The Ubiquiti MFI-TH temp sensor only goes down to -10 degrees.

Edited July 1, 2015 by localzuk

[mikeprice]

How about an old laptop somewhere near the freezer with a long usb cable connected to something like this in the freezer

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ZJchao-Powered-Thermometer-Temperature-Sensor/dp/B009RETJIO

 

I had something a while ago that could run some software called UTAC that could send email alerts - actually used it for the server room but same concept

[AJWhite1970]

Thanks for the replies. Just checking, is the Ubiquiti mFI temperature sensors with an mPort completely wifi? From the diagram I picked up on google it looked like the sensors were attached to the mport by cat5 with the mport being wifi or cat5 enabled tot he LAN?

 

Has to be wifi from sensor to monitor in this case as not allowed to drill into the freezers to run cat5...

 

Cheers

Andrew

[AJWhite1970]

Also, how are you going to power it? I can't imagine a walk-in freezer having any outlets?

 

Quite true, it's battery or bust. Fun little project though and perfect for numerous site visits all day to check the icecream hasn't melted etc

[synaesthesia]

You can connect custom sensors to the mFi kit, so theoretically you could run a very thin 2 core cable to a temperature sensor capable of very low temps if that helps get around the issue of running cat5; I dare say you could probably run flat speaker cable or similar, although I don't know if cables would be temperature sensitive in a bad way. It's not wireless still, but might negate the need of batteries.

 

* edit: for walk in freezers or larger chest/door freezers there is nearly always a temperature sensor inside anyway; could well be worth hijacking the cable if it's not otherwise used!

Edited July 1, 2015 by synaesthesia