Ardamon / Blog: Recent posts

As my Ardamon instance enters his third month of running, I made an update adding the translation engine, two translations (english and french), the electronic schematics and fixed a few bug.

A quick feedback : During two months, I only had a single problem : The relay went crazy, switching on and off every minute. My components are still on a breadboard and it was a simple loose connection. Poking the components made the system restart instantly. I'm very happy to see that the system is reliable and works like a charm.... read more

My Ardamon installation is finally piloting my heater!

I made an update tonight on the SVN repository with the updated code. What's new :

• The Arduino code is in the repository (check the Arduino folder). It contains a basic code working for a thermostat installation, with a thermistor and a relay.
• The page that manage the schedules is almost up and running. It still has some minor bugs, but you can use it to manage some schedules.... read more

The project is here a little bit more advanced than what the code suggests. It can almost be used in production, although it still doesn't switch my heater yet, as it's not connected. I'm struggling with a dumb problem : I want to make things clean, as not-looking-like-a-bunch-of-wires clean.

As I don't have access to the required material for making my own PCBs, I bought one of these boards. This is great for soldering the extra-arduino components and having things neat and tidy, but what about the cables that are coming from the "outside world"? Right now, I have four pairs of cables coming into the prototype board : three pairs for the three sensors (living room, basement and outside) and one pair to pilot the heater. I don't want to solder these cables to the PCB, as I know I'll have to move the Arduino around one of these days (when I get some extras sensors or if I add a new function). I've been looking for one of these things where you can screw thight cables to some kind of domino soldered to the PCB, but there's only one electronic shop around and online, either post tax is really expensive (10$ for a standard delivery is common here), or you can have it for free, but it'll take a month to get the missing part...... read more

Ardamon is a free PHP and Arduino-based sensor management licensed under the GPL v3 license. Its typical use is to have a homemade powerful internet-driven thermostat solution, but it can easily extended to many uses !

Ardamon is both powerful and simple :

• It's powerful enough to manage as many sensors as you want, with a feedback and programmable values. Tech-savvy people can extend it and build complete solution for managing various sensors (temperature, pressure, light, moisture...).
• It's really simple for PHP and Arduino beginners with detailled instructions on how to assemble and program your Arduino board, and setup your web-server.... read more