Cheap serial thermometer ?

[chilly_charly]

I'm looking for a really cheap thermometer/thermocouple unit, accessible through a serial port. It doesn't need to have a display since LV with do the job. The destination use is the monitoring of a refrigerator/food temperature, as student lab project.
Any hint ?

[Watermann]

hi CC,

what's cheap for you? 😉

found two different things in online stores:

1. Link1
(not really cheap...)

and this:

2. Link2
(think this is more likely what you're looking for...)

Greets!

[chilly_charly]

Watermann,

thanks for the links. You were right : Link 1 is not my idea of a cheap thermomoter ! Price should stay aroud 100$ (or less :D)
Link 2 seems to provide more affordable products, but since I forgot my german even before being born, I can't figure what's what 😉

[Watermann]

perhaps you can look for this module

I just "googled" for "rs232 thermocouple", for this I'm sure you will find more information in your language/country 🙂

I also found modules cheaper than 100,- EUR on german stores/pages...

good luck! 😉

[chilly_charly]

I feel stupid! I was searching the web with thermometer and serial as key words. I didn't think to replace serial with RS232 😠
Now I have ten's of results to compare...
Thanks for the help.

[Matthew_Williams]

http://www.itwatchdogs.com/duckdetails.shtml

Serial _powered_ C, F, light, %RH, airflow and a couple of uncommitted I/O. Around $150 ea/q=10.
Very simple and published protocol. We're using them with good results.

Matt

[LV_Pro]

Charly,
When you do go to those sites that are in German (or several other languages) that you might have forgotten, try:
http://world.altavista.com/ ("babel fish" as in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
-or-
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=fr

(http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en) for those of us who are more comfortable in english.

The translations, particularly of technical information, can be very funny, particularly if you translate back and forth a couple of times, but sometime they actually can help determine the underlying meaning.


P.M

[Michael_Munroe]

If you need a serial device, I recommend 1-wire devices from Dallas Semi (www.dalsemi.com).

The parts are under $5 and they are serially powered from the 5V communications line. If your budget goes up to $100, you can easily get an evaluation kit that includes either an RS-232 or USB to 1-wire adapter.

Look at this kit:
http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/2820/ln/