Re: [misterhouse-users] Support for Bi-Directional HVAC System?

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I wrote the omnistat module as it currently stands. I have a RC-80 that I
was writting it to. As for control it should work as is. I was working on
getting the module written and decided to buy a house and move.
Unfortunately our "new" house has a 48 year old furnace, and the omnistat
doesn't work with it. 

I like the omnistat, but I have plenty of serial ports, and find X-10 very
unreliable. 

The thermostat can be setup to run as a standalone programable thermostat,
a simple relay setback, or full serial control or a combination. You could
set the program (either at the thermostat or via serial) and use the serial
control to override when needed (but what is the fun in that??) 

About the only bad thing I found about it is that it only runs at 300 baud,
and it has a whole slew of registers that can be programed / read. at 300
baud it can take quite some time to do that. 

The one thing I think that is missing from the current module is the
ability read any data from the thermostat. I just haven't get around to
that part of it yet, and it is kinda difficult since I haven't ran another
wire to the heater to tap the 24V so the onmistat would run. 

On 2002.11.07 07:46 pjf wrote:
> Dave, Kyle,
> 
> Misterhouse will support multiple iBittons natively, although some code
> may
> be required for your specific needs(depending on the particular buttons).
> As for the HVAC systems, if you have a spare serial port, may I mention
> the
> Omnistat series of thermostats.  I havn't had any experience with them
> (YET), but through my research I found that they are more reasonable than
> the RCS ones, the drawback you'll need to add wiring for the com line to
> the
> unit(s) Omnistat RC80 (list $ 179.00, from asihome.com $ 130.60). It
> appears
> the code is already there in MH for these (./lib/omnistat.pl).
> 
> If anyone on the list has any experience with the omnistats please post
> any
> comments (hopefully before I blow the $ 130.)
> 
> Cheers
> Pete Flaherty
> pj...@ca...
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kyle Kirkland" <ky...@ds...>
> To: <mis...@li...>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 10:15 PM
> Subject: Re: [misterhouse-users] Support for Bi-Directional HVAC System?
> 
> 
> >
> > Dave Lounsberry wrote:
> > > You're probably aware of this option or maybe someone else has
> already
> > > mentioned it but ... You could use 1wire temperature probes in
> various
> > > rooms to gather room temperatures. Using those readings you can
> control
> > > the HVAC system with a relay based solution (like the weeder relay
> > > board) wired in parallel to the existing manual thermostat. You
> should
> > > always keep the manual thermostat in case misterhouse decides to take
> a
> > > break while you are out of town. In the winter that could spell
> > > disaster.
> >
> > I've been thinking about this, and is actually what I'd
> > really like to do.  The main problem is that
> > most of the 1wire software support out there is for Windows
> > platforms.  I'm running Misterhouse from a RedHat
> > 8.0 linux box.
> >
> > I did notice the iButton OneWireViewer from:
> > http://www.ibutton.com/software/1wire/OneWireViewer.html
> > which is a Java application.  Anyone have any experience
> > with the reliability or ease of use of this approach?
> >
> > Also, how do you wire up multiple iButtons to a single
> > serial port on your computer?  (sorry if this is a dumb
> > question, I'm fairly new to this stuff)
> >
> > >
> > > I've been controlling my HVAC system like this for at least 2 years
> now
> > > with very few problems. The advantages are you aren't locked in a
> single
> > > temperature reading at the thermostat location. You can also average
> > > readings in multiple rooms (bedrooms, etc) to come up with a more
> > > accurate whole house temperature. For example, during the day time, I
> > > use the living room temperature as the in house temperature probe
> > > because that is where we spend most of our time. At night, I average
> the
> > > bedroom temperatures since we are in bed and not in the living room
> > > (well sometimes :-)).
> > >
> > >>From what I have seen, the RCS thermostats are expensive (especially
> the
> > > 2-way models) compared to the system I just mentioned.
> > >
> > > Something to think about,
> > >
> > > Dave
> > >
> >
> >
> >
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> 
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