Re: New thermostat from the man who designed the iPod

[Simon Haslam <simon_haslam@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mmmm - a bit like this: http://arduino.cc/playground/SmartGPU/SmartGPU
?

One other nice thing about Nest is they have sensors in the front for:
* temp
* humidity
* near proximity
* far proximity

So I have in mind a module that has at least temp sensor, up/down/on/off
bu=
tton(s), LED showing whether zone is on or off - I'd want one of these in
e=
ach main room. "Nice to have"s would be an LED showing if heating
is below =
setpoint, or even a 2 digit display of current temp/set point/minutes to
re=
ach setpoint etc. I could connect via my existing 1-wire network (which
has=
aux power) though I wonder if that's not very forward looking.


Proximity would allow you to do some clever stuff too - the sort of thing
C=
ortex probably already offers.


My home grown HA currently just uses PHP to produce the web pages, running
=
on a LinkStation which is connected to a 1-wire network for sensors and
zon=
e control. The web interface is very basic but is surprisingly versatile -
=
I can change the heating from my office, TV, kitchen computer, smart phone
=
and even my Logitech Squeezebox Radio (via an admittedly grotty RSS feed
ha=
ck!). So I think a central web server is the way to go with relatively
dumb=
room controls.


Anyway, just a bit of lunchtime dreaming... if I could just get DS18B20s
so=
mewhere in all the main rooms that would be progress!



Simon


________________________________
From: Andy Davies <dajdavies@xxxxxxx>
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, 26 October 2011, 13:04
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] New thermostat from the man who designed the iPod


=C2=A0=20
On 26 October 2011 11:12, Simon Haslam <simon_haslam@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> One thing that the Nest video makes a very good point about it that
most =
(90% I think they reckoned) people don't programme their thermostat
properl=
y. I can believe that. Multi-room zone systems are far harder - so much so
=
that you really need a web page/app etc to make it easier. So I expect
ther=
e is some appeal to the general public for a control that you just set by
t=
urning there and then, though I too worry about what if you forget. The
oth=
er thing it presumably relies on is a regular routine every week.
>
> The display on the Nest looks beautiful too - they have taken
something a=
nalogue & digitised it and in this case that seems to work, especially
with=
the control ring around the edge. That would make a very nice GUI for the =
heating component of HA systems, and if you could have room sensors like
Ne=
st (costing < $249 each of course) that would be even better.
>

I suspect I wasn't the only one wondering how you hack something like
this together with an arduino and a small OLED display

I've also wanted a heating controller than I can program via a browser
for a while it's just the cost is too prohibitive for what they are.

Andy

=20

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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