TeensyNet Project Interest?

If you've been following my TeensyPi project, you'll kmow that one of my reasons for pairing the Teensy 3.0 with a Raspberry Pi was to create a scalable networked controller, using the relatively inexpensive RPi to handle the network and graphical front end.

With the advent of newer and cheaper network modules from WIZNet and Texas Instruments, it's now possible to network the Teensy 3.0 directly. This led me to thinking about making the Teensy 3.0 1-wire mini-lan directly accessable to ANY computer via UDP. This opens a lot of possibilities for multiple controllers throughout a home being controlled and monitored from a single computer running the front end of your choice.

Any interest?

Oh hell yes. Especially if it's a well-documented turn-key solution...

Cheers!

OK, got the new PC board in, got the code updated, now function testing.

I'm currently using the WIZ812mj but I've already tested and am awaiting the arrival of a PC board that uses the WIZ820io.

The Teensy 3.0 code is being stress-tested now, and the php-based web pages are running.

I had to dial back the number of 1-wire sensors available to 24, and the number of available Actions and PIDs to 8 each. This gives me a little room for some other possible bells and whistles.

More later...

It's been a few weeks, but I now have a new board that can use the WIZ812mj or WIZ820io, as well as the Adafruit CC3000 wireless breakout board. I have one of each prototype built, have the code ironed out and am working on a new set of web pages that will allow multiple boards to be controlled.

I'm scaling back the number of devices to see about adding one or more 4x20 LCD displays to the mix.

More as things develop.

Doesn't seem to be much interest, though.

I wish I had any clue on what this could do.

I'm presuming the utility is to replace generic temperature controllers (eg: STC-1K, Love TSSx, Ranco and Johnson units) with the Teensy controller, which would sit on a home LAN and be remotely programmable and interrogatable. I have two brewing fridges and a keezer controlled by Rancos and Loves, and would be pleased to replace those with something I could control and monitor from my office...

Cheers!

I am very interested! Please keep this post updated.

Very interested as well.

Dave

day_trippr said:

I'm presuming the utility is to replace generic temperature controllers (eg: STC-1K, Love TSSx, Ranco and Johnson units) with the Teensy controller, which would sit on a home LAN and be remotely programmable and interrogatable. I have two brewing fridges and a keezer controlled by Rancos and Loves, and would be pleased to replace those with something I could control and monitor from my office...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

If that's what you're talking about, and you can make it easy for a non computer programmer to implement this, sign me up!

Just found your teesypi project and this adaptation has me interested. Place me on the interested list!

Color me interested....I have yet to design my new fermenters' control system OR my brewery's control system

Haven't posted here for a while, and the process is taking longer than I expected, but here's a photo as a teaser :



It's the same board, using from left to right: WIZ820io ethernet card, WIZ812mj ethernet card, and Adafruit / TI CC3000 wireless ethernet breakout card.

There is an extensive amount of code changes, in both the Teensy 3.0 code and the web pages, so testing is ongoing. I'm currently testeing the wireless version with a full complement of 4 thermometers and 8 switches working as 4 actions. The jumble of boards behind the main three are the switches/thermometers.

This setup should work with any system that is capable of setting up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP), or MAMP ((Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP) configuration. this includes, but is not limited to old laptops, RPi, BeagleBoneBlack, UDOO, etc.

More to follow.

Seems eerily similar to SmartThings and I LOVE it. Any Android dev experience?

huntb said:

Seems eerily similar to SmartThings and I LOVE it. Any Android dev experience?

Click to expand...

Not yet...

All versions (WIZ812mj, WIZ820io, CC3000) of the board are assembled with a full complement of 1-wire chips on each, each running 4 actions, undergoing testing as we speak.

I've created a github for anyone wishing to give it a try.

This is still a work in progress, so unless you're adventurous, you might want to wait a while.

I'll have a website up in the near future.

Still very interested in this project. Since I'm not very well versed in the world of microcontrollers, would something like these two devices be compatible when released?
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/?s=Wifi-duino
https://www.spark.io

sdgenxr said:

Still very interested in this project. Since I'm not very well versed in the world of microcontrollers, would something like these two devices be compatible when released?
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/?s=Wifi-duino
https://www.spark.io

Click to expand...

The Uno and its ilk don't have enought flash or ram to support the project as-is.

I'm a kickstarter supporter for the sparkio, and can report back when I get mine.

The Teensy 3.0 is a heck of a deal at $20, and the WIZ cards are about $20 as well, making a hard to beat combo.

Got the graphing working and made some other changes. It's all at my github repository.

I'm suspending my work on the CC3000 board for the time being. The libraries are incomplete and the wifi range is marginal, even with an external antenna, so I'm researching some other options.

Right now I'm looking at a re-configured TL-wr703n as an option.

The hardwired boards are working very well.

More later

Looks like Spark is shipping on Monday according to their website!! I can't wait to see what people do with this thing

I'm interested in remote controlling an electric element and being able to look at the temp at the same time in a HLT. If I was able to fill my HLT in the morning with water, and turn on a 1500 watt element remotely from my office, I could time it to where I am ready to mash when I get home from work.

Whats the possibilities of setting something like this up?

ParanoidAndroid said:

I'm interested in remote controlling an electric element and being able to look at the temp at the same time in a HLT. If I was able to fill my HLT in the morning with water, and turn on a 1500 watt element remotely from my office, I could time it to where I am ready to mash when I get home from work.

Whats the possibilities of setting something like this up?

Click to expand...

Completely possible, as long as you adequately harden the public side of things (password protected, MAC filtered, etc).

Here's a photo of a system I cobbled together that is running wirelessly with the use of a TP-Link TL-M3020.



I've also got one setup using a TL-WR703N that I picked up from a dealer in Hong Kong.

It's currently just monitoring two DS18B20 temp probes, and is running very close to my wireless router, so I have not yet determined the usable distance of the wireless signal.

Both units have been modified with their respective version of OpenWRT and some files further modified to allow the device to act as a relay. On the TeensyNet side, it's communicating with a WIZ820io module.

The LCD display just displays the IP address right now, but it and up to seven other 20x4 LCD devices can be controlled via the TeensyNet using I2C.

More later.

Using the new Teensy3.1 board on an updated board, I'm now monitoring / controlling up to 36 devices, 12 actions and 4 PIDs. The biggest drawback to the Teensy 3.x boards is the 2K EEPROM in the Teensy 3.x chip. In order to retain the larger number of data structures, the information is now saved on a MicroChip 24LC512 I2C EEPROM chip.

I've also developed a 1-Wire slave emulator that can be used to attach other devices to the 1-Wire mini-lan. My first board uses the Maxim MAX31855 k-type thermocouple converter chip to allow monitoring temperatures well in excess of the values provided by the DS18B20 digital thermometer.

I have the TeensyNet boards using Bonjour/ZeroConf to announce their presence on the network, and can now change the TeensyNet's board name on the fly, and the board name shows up on the local 4x20 LCD display.

The LAMP/WAMP/MAMP software also auto-detects the addition of a new board when it's added to the network.

I've donated some boards and programming to a group of Boy Scouts so they can monitor and record their maple syrup production. :rockin:

Mate i've been following your teensypi project for a while now. Although unrelated to brewing, I have 4 fridges in a cafe that i need to monitor and log the temperature on, this seems like it would make it much easier for me!

keep up the good work!

Nice work, Jim! I really like all of that flexibility and connectivity, making 1-wire devices even easier to use effectively. Beats the hell out of my NSLU2 Debian "Slug" and OWFS.

I've got the TeensyNet Boards working wirelessly with converted TL-WR703N wireless routers.

I got my routers from China, so they came with Chinese instructions and webpages, but can be re-flashed with updated software to provide English pages.

UPDATE: I've posted the info on my website.

Jim,
I have been following your teensypi project almost from the beginning, and anticipated the switch to the teensynet. I've got the RPI, WIZ820io, the teensy 3.1, the teensynet v5.2 board, and the TL-WR70N, combo action board, and the RGB LCDs and boards. I need to get this on my rig and start rockin'. I would like show how this is setup in a real world situation. Thanks for the work.

purdman10 said:

Jim,
I have been following your teensypi project almost from the beginning, and anticipated the switch to the teensynet. I've got the RPI, WIZ820io, the teensy 3.1, the teensynet v5.2 board, and the TL-WR70N, combo action board, and the RGB LCDs and boards. I need to get this on my rig and start rockin'. I would like show how this is setup in a real world situation. Thanks for the work.

Click to expand...

Make sure you post updates here, so we know how it's going!!

Are you going to be making any parts list and instructions on how to assemble one of these like you did with the teensypi?

Unlike the TeensyPi, I'm not going to be trying to use a protoboard to make a home-made TeensyNet. I've gone through several iterations of a PCB, and am fairly happy with the current version.

I'm waiting to get my latest set of boards from the fab house, and test them.

If I'm happy with them, I'll post the Eagle and Gerber files, along with a parts list.

The code is available at my github respository, although I'm right now testing everything with PJRC's new Teensyduino release to make sure everything works.

I can only work on this on weekends, so it's taking a little longer, but I think you'll be happy with the result.

Added: I'm also working on how to convert your TeensyPi into a TeensyNet.

Those little routers you recommended are available via Amazon Prime for $18 right now:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007PTCFFW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Yuri_Rage said:

Those little routers you recommended are available via Amazon Prime for $18 right now:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007PTCFFW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Click to expand...

I haven't looked into the TL-WR702N (I use the TL-WR703N), since it's not supported by OpenWRT, has only 2MB of flash and I'm not sure if it works with avahi-discover, so the auto-locate portion of my code wouldn't be able to find it (not a big deal for those that want to add the router to the MySQL database manually).

If someone wants to donate one to me for the cause (or I'll trade you for some blank boards ), I'd be willing to investigate, otherwise you can get a proven one for a few dollars more from china.

The TL-MR3020 also works, but is pricier, with no additional benefit to the TeensyNet.

I put dd-wrt firmware on any router I buy, and make it one of the requirements when I buy routers. The TL-WR703N has firmware available from dd-wrt. I plan on burning that firmware rather than the TL-MR3020 replacement firmware replacement that Jimmayhugh has posted on his teensynet website. The router arrival has been delayed due to weather and the holiday, so will let you know of the results.

purdman10 said:

I put dd-wrt firmware on any router I buy, and make it one of the requirements when I buy routers. The TL-WR703N has firmware available from dd-wrt. I plan on burning that firmware rather than the TL-MR3020 replacement firmware replacement that Jimmayhugh has posted on his teensynet website. The router arrival has been delayed due to weather and the holiday, so will let you know of the results.

Click to expand...

Let me know how that works for you. I played with DD-WRT on the TL-WR703N, but didn't have enough available flash to install mdnsresponder, so the avahi-discover process didn't work.

I didn't spend a lot of time on it, so if you get something working, post it here or on my website.

jimmayhugh said:

I haven't looked into the TL-WR702N (I use the TL-WR703N), since it's not supported by OpenWRT, has only 2MB of flash and I'm not sure if it works with avahi-discover, so the auto-locate portion of my code wouldn't be able to find it (not a big deal for those that want to add the router to the MySQL database manually).

If someone wants to donate one to me for the cause (or I'll trade you for some blank boards ), I'd be willing to investigate, otherwise you can get a proven one for a few dollars more from china.

The TL-MR3020 also works, but is pricier, with no additional benefit to the TeensyNet.

Click to expand...

Got it! Good info there. I didn't realize there were so many variants.

What package type do I use for the Microchip 24LC512s on the teensynet board? There are four types available for samples. I am still working on a solution for using OpenWRT on the WR703N router.

purdman10 said:

What package type do I use for the Microchip 24LC512s on the teensynet board? There are four types available for samples. I am still working on a solution for using OpenWRT on the WR703N router.

Click to expand...

It's the PDIP-8 .300" DIP package.

Mouser

Digikey

I socket mine just for easy replacement.

Jim, any thoughts about running lighttpd instead of Apache? I've used lighttpd in the past, and it seemed fast and effective. PHP and MySQL appeared well supported, though I admit I never did anything terribly complex with any of it.

I've got a Pi, GertDuino, screw terminal shield, and a single DS18B20 sitting next to me running the 1-Wire library example code as I type this. I'm going to tinker with things on my own for a bit, but your project is highly likely to be incorporated if (when) I get tired of hacking around. I've also got a Teensy on the way ("pins" variant). I've not ventured into WIZ territory...yet...

My cheap Netgear WNR1000v3 supports avahi/mdns with the factory firmware. The Pi is connected via wifi dongle. I've yet to receive the TL-WR702N.

A bit off-topic: Not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend the GertDuino. It's a fantastic idea and lends itself to plenty of applications, but it's rather clunky and frustrating, especially when switching between the ATM328 and ATM48 modes of communication and programming. It also has issues with programming while IO pins are connected to "low impedance loads." Gert mentions that briefly in a post at raspberrypi.org, but there is no workaround other than to disconnect the pins during upload. If I use few enough pins, perhaps there are a few that do not exhibit that irritating behavior (EDIT: after crushing the screw terminal shield's pin 13 LED into oblivion to keep it from causing programming errors, it appears that digital pin 8 might work without disconnecting 1-Wire devices during upload).