12 port Temperature Hub with Fibaro UB sensors (project)

[AutoFrank 372]

Hi Folks,

I wanted to share a project I completed recently in case it may be of interest to others. I wanted to capture temperatures from the various rooms in the house but I didn’t want to place a temp sensor in each location. I created a central solution using Fibaro Universal Binary Sensors.  I have network cables running from my utility room to each room in the house and the paln was to centralise the ‘temperature hub’ in one location and snake all the temp probes out across the cat cable running to each room using patch leads in my patch panel

 

I purchased a patch panel box with 12 ports/keystone ports. The plan was to wire each RJ45 port so I could plug in a separate temp sensor. I used 3 UBS and each supported 4 ports. I wired the 4 ports in parallel using pins 6, 7 & 8 for the temp probes and I also wired pins 1 and 2 as the relay inputs for the UBS. I repeated this 3 times and used heat shrink tubes after I soldered the connections to have good isolation as there was going to be a lot of cables in the box. This meant that each port could be used for a temp probe and that each port could also be used to connect to one of the 2 relay inputs that each USB supports.

I planned on using these to detect water leaks using an open/closed sensor but that’s another project.

 

I modified standard DS18B20 temp probes to have an RJ45 on them and I also created small probes but inserting a DS18B20 thermistor directly into an RJ45 plug. I’ll use these smaller probes where I don’t have any place to hid the temp probe and cable as I would behind a TV.

I finally got it all wired up and tested on the bench with the HC and all is functioning. Next step is to install it in the utility room, patch it into the patch panels and place the appropriate probe in each room 

 

I’ve attached some pictures to give a better idea of what I’m talking about

 

-F

 

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Edited April 24, 2017 by AutoFrank

[rsjabbens 1]

This looks very nice! So with a binary sensor from Fibaro you can read actual temperatures? Should it somehow also be possible to do this with a distance meter?

[AutoFrank 372]

yes, the UBS can support a 1-wire bus with max 4 devices. The temp sensors are DS18B20 either by themselves (

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or in a temp probe (

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It also has two inputs and 2 relay outputs (550mA I think) My 'hub' is simply a convenient way to run 12 temp sensors over the cat cable I have running around my house in a plug and play fashion

 

Its very versatile... but not sure what you mean by a 'distance meter' ??

[AutoFrank 372]

I intend to try and use of the UBS inputs to to read from a water/flood sensor and see if I can get it to change the input state..

This is the sensor I bought...

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[rsjabbens 1]

yes, the UBS can support a 1-wire bus with max 4 devices. The temp sensors are DS18B20 either by themselves (

Please login or register to see this link.

or in a temp probe (

Please login or register to see this link.

It also has two inputs and 2 relay outputs (550mA I think) My 'hub' is simply a convenient way to run 12 temp sensors over the cat cable I have running around my house in a plug and play fashion

 

Its very versatile... but not sure what you mean by a 'distance meter' ??

I am somehow wanting to measure the presence of my motorcycle in my garage. I think this should be possible by something like an ultrasound sensor. However I have no idea how to arrange this. I found some information about connecting an ultrasound sensor to a raspberry pi, but your solution seem to be easier, when you can connect a Fibaro binary sensor directly.

[AutoFrank 372]

That's a tricky one alright...

Do you always park it in the same spot , could you use a magnetic contact sensor a pressure sensor that could be placed under one wheel. Another option might be light beam that could be broken with the bike when it is parked.

Its not. Y speciality but I'll give it some more thought ....

[Guest fat]

I am somehow wanting to measure the presence of my motorcycle in my garage. I think this should be possible by something like an ultrasound sensor. However I have no idea how to arrange this. I found some information about connecting an ultrasound sensor to a raspberry pi, but your solution seem to be easier, when you can connect a Fibaro binary sensor directly.

Someone on here did that using RGBW and an ultrasonic sensor and led strip lighting. As you got closer to the sensor the LED strip lighting changed colour

[rsjabbens 1]

That's a tricky one alright...

Do you always park it in the same spot , could you use a magnetic contact sensor a pressure sensor that could be placed under one wheel. Another option might be light beam that could be broken with the bike when it is parked.

Its not. Y speciality but I'll give it some more thought ....

 

Pressure could be done, i place my wheels on the same spot

 

Someone on here did that using RGBW and an ultrasonic sensor and led strip lighting. As you got closer to the sensor the LED strip lighting changed colour

 

I found some information on that, but this involves a Raspberry PI, for me it should be nice if it can be done with a more or less direct solution, just as AutoFrank has created with a Fibaro binairy sensor.

[AutoFrank 372]

Take a look at these - 

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These look like they work like a magnetic contact (ie. 2 contact wires NO/NC and 2 tamper wires)

if this is correct you could simply connect them to one of the inputs of the UBS and work from there.

 

You could place the pad under a bit of carpet to protect and hide. If it has two tamper wires you could connect these to the second input as an added bonus

[rsjabbens 1]

Take a look at these - 

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These look like they work like a magnetic contact (ie. 2 contact wires NO/NC and 2 tamper wires)

if this is correct you could simply connect them to one of the inputs of the UBS and work from there.

 

You could place the pad under a bit of carpet to protect and hide. If it has two tamper wires you could connect these to the second input as an added bonus

That could be interesting, thanks! I will look into that.

[Desmo 5]

On 2/1/2016 at 10:48 PM, AutoFrank said:

Take a look at these - 

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I bought one of these just the other day on Amazon for about £10. Works well with the Fibaro Door/Window sensor.

 

It's not working well for it's intended purpose which was to keep a cat out of a certain area as the cat just isn't heavy enough to make it work but I'll be using it for parking my car in the garage and stopping on a certain spot. The pressure mat will make my garage light flash when I'm in place.

[AutoFrank 372]

7 minutes ago, Desmo said:

I bought one of these just the other day on Amazon for about £10. Works well with the Fibaro Door/Window sensor.

 

It's not working well for it's intended purpose which was to keep a cat out of a certain area as the cat just isn't heavy enough to make it work but I'll be using it for parking my car in the garage and stopping on a certain spot. The pressure mat will make my garage light flash when I'm in place.

 

Thanks for sharing - good to know it works for any future projects 

 

[diedvdyk 9]

for cats you should use a more sensitive pressure mat like this one :

 

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It use this one under my mattress to detect whether someone is in bed or not, a normal pressure mat didnt work.

You can wire two of these to an fibaro binair sensor.