Pachube update.

Just an update to inform you that we suceeded in uploading more than one sensorvalue to pachube. The key was, not to have multiple feeds, but add more datastreams. To do so we needed to use another pachube library. But then, we ran into a little problem: the new pachube code segment wasn't compatible with the webserver code so we had to split them into two diffrent programs. This wasn't such a big problem, and now we have two awesome programs that do their job equally well.

Sensorshield

Finally our Sensorshield is finished and working properly.
The sensor values are fine and there were no errors in the printdesign.
The shield also contains female header pins for the GPS-module (Skylab SKM53), but we're not shure if we will implement GPS in our project. It's not difficult to divide the GPS-datastring into separate values, but the procedure for the connection with the GPS-sattelite could disturb the rest of the program (DHCP, Pachube..).

Sensors

The sensors are a very imporant part of our project.
There are many types of sensors, but we choose three:
-Temperature
-Light
-Humidity

Our temperature sensor is a LM35cz (TO-92 package). It measures the temperature and produces a linear voltage.

For the light measurements we use a simple small LDR. The value coming from the voltage divider (LDR - resistor) is linked to four states: "Nacht", "Avond/Zw bewolkt", "Dag/L bewolkt", "Dag/Zonnig"

The Humidity sensor wasn't easy to find.
We tested many of them, but they all had problems. Finally we decided to use a HIH-4000 from Honeywell. This sensor produces also a linear voltage, just like the LM35.

All of our sensors were tested on the breadboard, now we are waiting for our final "Sensorshield" print!

Arduino as webserver.

To make the Arduino UNO with ethernetshield act as a webserver wasn't all that hard. There are more than enough examples on this subject. Then, what did we do that was worth mentioning on our blog?
We made a small website that implemented a chart that we made using Googlechart. Now when you typ in the arduino's ip address you we see our small website with the temperature graph.

Successful use of DHCP!

Today we've implemented DHCP in our Arduino Sensorcloud project. We did this because, with DHCP, we don't have to declare our ip-address manually. This was sometimes quite tricky and resulted in a lot of malfunctions.

Connection to Pachube

Today we have uploaded our first sensorvalue to Pachube.
You can see our results on www.pachube.com/feeds/19443.
There are still some little problems with the value adjustment, but we're heading in the right direction!

A new succes.

After a few days of experimenting with the Arduino Ethernetshield, we succeeded connecting the kit to internet. 

We proved this by controlling a LED with a kind of webpage that was running on another computer who was only connected to the Arduino by the internet. Now it's only a small step to uploading sensor data to an internet site of our choice.