Pool temp sensor conundrum

[PrivatePilot]

I have a WMR200 setup.   There's a pool sensor option sold by Oregon Scientific that worked with the WMR on a secondary channel and allowed me to monitor my pool temperature on one channel, and my hot tub temperature on a separate channel using two of the sensors.   In turn I then plotted this data on my local computer in WC, as well as outputting the data to my personal website so I could see the pool temp from anywhere.

I found it useful to confirm my solar panels were properly activating (automation), my pump was cycling on and off (I could see the bumps in temps), etc.

However, over the last year, both of those sensors have died - they were known for reliability issues....and Oregon Scientific has discontinued them.

It appears I'm left with no native option for my weather station to integrate water temperatures into my data.

So...is there any other way anyone can think of to get this data into WC?

I hate to sell my WMR setup and invest in a whole new setup just to regain water temperature sensing capabilities...assuming any other weather station hardware even has such sensors.

Thoughts?

[dfw_pilot]

Thinking outside the box:

One option would be to get an IP camera or two, like a Foscam, and point it/them at the temp gauges you mount in your pool. View those from anywhere in the world.

Another option would be to keep your station, but buy a Davis Soil station ($$) and you could monitor the pool, hot tub, soil, and leaf wetness. You'd need a console, but if you get a Davis in the future, this would be a "pre-investment."

Monnit might be an option with the low end price point of free being nice.

Finally, some sprinkling systems offer soil temp/moisture sensors. You could drop the temp sensor in the pool and to boot, you'd have a nice setup for lawn sprinkling, if you have an irrigation system.

[Bull Winkus]

Davis Instruments has remote temperature and remote temperature/humidity stations that work with their console. The Davis configuration allows as many as 7 auxiliary temperature inputs, besides the internal and external ambient temperatures. I suppose for energy efficiency reasons, since the units are battery powered, the resolution is 1? F, even though the inside & outside ambients temperatures are at 0.1? F resolution. But you can still get good results and plot graphs with WeatherCat?.

I'm currently using 2 of them. One is tracking the exit temperature of the HVAC vents. The other is garage temperature. I'm considering placing one on the vent line for the hot water heater pressure relief valve. I'm seeing signs that it has vented, but I'd like to know how often it does it, as a possible indication of when it needs replacing.

Other than that, you might try searching "remote temperature monitoring" and see if anything catches your interest. Best of luck!

 

[xairbusdriver]

Sounds like a good project for one of those sub-mini-mini cpu boards (Arduino, Banana Pi, BeagleBoard, Cubieboard, Hackberry, Odroid-X2, Parallella, Raspberry Pi, UDOO, and <others>). I think many of them can be used with WiFi, but it might be possible to hard wire it to your current hardware. The hardest part could be finding an inexpensive, water-proof temp sensor. Google (and even better, DuckDuckGo!) is your friend!

[PrivatePilot]

Thanks everyone.   I don't see it likely that I'll be able to rig up anything that will interface with my existing weather station hardware due to the closed nature of the protocol, AFAIK anyways.  The downside of that is that I won't be able to integrate whatever solution I end up with (short of getting all new hardware) into Weathercat.

A nice new Davis setup would be awesome, but I can't justify that sort of investment for what is basically a hobby - doubt I'd get a lot for my WMR200 hardware in the end, so I'd still be on the hook for a lot of additional cost.

Hmmmm..