Coalpail.com Forum

coal bob wrote:WOW you guys just got me lost

It's no longer just shake and load. Welcome to coal burning in the 21st. century.

This is what happens when the younguns get hold of old timey heat. We try to modernize it for our video game minds.

:b

Been lost a long time ago, keep me in line as still a possible depending upon final desicions and costs. Great to see the minds going like this though, definatley looks like some serious talent in here.

Just waiting for wiiliams input on this one, should be interesting

The more complicated you are trying to make it, at the start anyway, the less likely it will ever be. I would rather wired than wireless. I would be happy with usb that I could hook up a junk winxp laptop to log data. Speed is irrelevant. There are people all over doing this, maybe not with coal but controlling heating in their house.
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,80946.0.html
http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/thermal-management/
The MS4515DO pressure sensor is 100 pieces $29 each

RHarhen wrote:
The CO sensor itself is relatively inexpensive ($6) and I think it would be a meaningful feature at that price... Scenario in my head is you're at work and no one is at home, CO alarm goes off. Pets obviously wouldn't be able to get out of the house, but an alert email could allow you to call your local FD or neighbor and have them check it out hopefully saving yourself a really bad experience when you arrive home 8 hours later with the CO alarm still going off.

That being said, if you wanted a device as inexpensive as possible I think I would make a kit version available where you'd get the PCB with the surface mount stuff pre-soldered and whatever sensors you picked out. IE you might want to leave off the LCD display or something.

That makes complete sense on the CO sensor and also seems like a good idea to have it as an included feature.

I don't think any of this will make my life easier I just think it would be great to play with the little gadgets. The stove I have now is very predictable and I really have no neat for any control or monitoring. It is just something awesome to put in my wall and look at and fool with I think most men's idea of relaxing or "winding down" is tinkering with things.

"The CO sensor itself is relatively inexpensive ($6) and I think it would be a meaningful feature at that price... Scenario in my head is you're at work and no one is at home, CO alarm goes off. Pets obviously wouldn't be able to get out of the house, but an alert email could allow you to call your local FD or neighbor and have them check it out hopefully saving yourself a really bad experience when you arrive home 8 hours later with the CO alarm still going off. "

This is what I have been looking for, other features are nice but this is the most important in my search. been looking on line for a smoke/co detector system that would call/text/e-mail me if something went off. I don't need much more then that, so unless I find something, I would be in.

Don't want to hijack the thread, if someone knows of such a detector/caller system please PM me.

baddawg wrote: been looking on line for a smoke/co detector system that would call/text/e-mail me if something went off. I don't need much more then that,

Most home security systems have fire and co moniters now.When they go off the fire co. is alerted along with you.And have the security detectors also.

Yes!..I would be interested...sorry if I missed it, but is there a way to integrate manometer readings into it?

I'd like to have a go at this device... iPhone 4, iPad 2 and iMac here... Always have either the iPhone and/or iPad 2 at my side... Would be nice to be able to see what is going on at home while on the road every night for work... No pets here, just me...

I would like to see the ability to control the Coal-trol thermostat via smartphone while away from home? Have 2 stoker stoves here, both running via Coal-trol... Hmm, now there's a thought, get one of these things working and I will send you a Coal-trol thermostat to open up and understand... Then create a Coal-trol App for smartphones and tablets that looks just like a Coal-trol thermostat on screen, has the same features and works just the same as the real thing only now on a phone or tablet... Sell it to Paul and Neil for a price...

Would your device be an "App" that would appear on my iPhone or iPad?

stoker_RI wrote:Yes!..I would be interested...sorry if I missed it, but is there a way to integrate manometer readings into it?

Read back up a little, a manometer is a seperate device of its own , what you are wanting is the pressure gauge that he is trying to integrate affordable enough.

MURDOC1 wrote:I'd like to have a go at this device... iPhone 4, iPad 2 and iMac here... Always have either the iPhone and/or iPad 2 at my side... Would be nice to be able to see what is going on at home while on the road every night for work... No pets here, just me...

I would like to see the ability to control the Coal-trol thermostat via smartphone while away from home? Have 2 stoker stoves here, both running via Coal-trol... Hmm, now there's a thought, get one of these things working and I will send you a Coal-trol thermostat to open up and understand... Then create a Coal-trol App for smartphones and tablets that looks just like a Coal-trol thermostat on screen, has the same features and works just the same as the real thing only now on a phone or tablet... Sell it to Paul and Neil for a price...

Took a brief look at the coal-trol stuff today. Realistically trying to control the thermostat itself is probably more effort then it is worth. It would involve hacking up the thermostat, soldering onto the buttons and LCD and really would just be a mess. Controlling the "control module" itself and eliminating the original thermostat would probably be an easier route. If they were willing to release their communication protocol between the thermostat and control module this could be a possibility later on, certainly nothing that would be in the first go around.

MURDOC1 wrote:Would your device be an "App" that would appear on my iPhone or iPad?

Rather then writing apps for all the different phones, tablets, OS's etc this would be a web-based 'application' that could be accessed through any web browser. If anyone else wanted to play around with writing a native app for anything I'd be willing to provide a communication interface over HTTP

Just curious from a software developer (..don't worry, I don't want to steal your thunder and build one.. ).. but would you accomplish this using C Sharp? /.net framework?

stoker_RI wrote:Just curious from a software developer (..don't worry, I don't want to steal your thunder and build one.. ).. but would you accomplish this using C Sharp? /.net framework?

The microcontroller code is C compiled by microchip's C30 (PIC24 microcontroller) compiler. Right now I have the microcontroller setup as a USB device. I wrote a C#/.net4 application to read the sensor data over USB and display it. As I intend for this to run entirely on the microcontroller and be accessible through a webserver there wouldn't be a separate software application with the final project.