SCADA, Telematics & GPS Technologies

Well isn’t this the prettiest thermostat you’ve ever seen? It’s the SilverStat 7 from SilverPAC, the same folks who created that elaborate Evolution 5500 remote control we showed you a few weeks ago. This is the smartest thermostat yet, communicating with utility companies, eliminating that pesky meter reading chore they must do every month. It keeps tabs on your energy usage, and similar to that TED 5000 system we reviewed last month, it helpfully displays to you in pretty graphics exactly how much power you’ve been sucking lately.

This is not just for the benefit of the energy mongers and treehuggers. Its Wi-Fi interface and 7-inch display makes it a highly capable network player, showing streaming photos, music and content from your PC or the Internet. It has built-in speakers, Z-Wave home automation so you can manage your lighting and appliances, FM radio, and heck, you can even check your email on the thing.

Look at the gallery full of screenshots of all the various functions this spectacular thermostat can perform. Oh yeah, one more thing: It’s a seven-day programmable thermostat that controls your heating and air conditioning. The wizards at SilverPAC aren’t talking price yet.

Source: SilverPAC, via Gizmodo

Data Logger for iPhone enables you to store and graph any data of your choosing along with a timestamp and geolocation. You might use Data Logger to store electricity meter readings, to create maps of pollution or temperature sensor readings around your neighbourhood, or animal sightings around the city. You can also set up custom data feeds, with user-defined min and max values, tags, description and units.

Links: pachube.apps via Make

[Alexander] built an RFID emulator. It uses a wire coil (not pictured here) and an ATmega8 to represent any tag that is EM4001 compliant. This iteration requires connection to a computer to send the tag ID information to the microcontroller. In the video after the break it looks like he’s using a DIY RFID reader to test this. If the two were combined, cutting out the need for a computer, he would have an RFID spoofer on his hands.

source: hackaday

The Cheap Vegetable Gardner wanted more automation than their previous PS2 controller based grow system. This time they set out to design a full featured, compact grow controller that can measure temperature and humidity as well as control a heat lamp, fan, and water pump. An Arduino provides USB connectivity and interfaces the solid state relays and sensors. The assembled project all fits in a box but we are left wondering how much heat the four SSRs generate and will it be a problem?

source: hackaday

This is a classic example of a well done hack, simply for the sake of hacking. [Jorge] wanted to be able to chart his weight changes.  His solution wasn’t to simply buy a scale that could be hooked to the computer. Those are available and aren’t really that expensive. He could have even used pencil and paper to chart it in a few seconds. Instead, [Jorge] started hacking. He took apart a digital scale he already had and installed his own circuit to display weight and write the values to a CSV. The CSV resides on a removable card which can then be put in his computer to chart the data in openoffice.

source: Hack A Day

The 1-Wire HVAC monitoring system is for residential Geothermal HVAC systems. This project utilizes the so called 1-wire temperature sensor. A single board computer handles the brunt of the work including web accessible trend data. With access to the underling temperatures, the over all system performance may be gauged. Earlier this year we covered a HVAC web enabled monitor that adds an element of control. As the industry adopts modern control architectures, we hope to see more HVAC hacks around.

read more: Hack a Day

KUALA LUMPUR: Mimos Bhd believes its wireless sensor network (WSN) for precision agriculture can help the local industry to produce quality crops.

“The sensors monitor micro-climate changes and soil nutrients within a specific area very effectively,” said Yusri Alias, head of technology portfolio management at Mimos.

WSN is a wireless network consisting of spatially distributed devices that use sensors to monitor environmental conditions.

Although it is a generic technology that can be applied in many fields — such as the monitoring of infrastructure, slope management, and environment watch — Mimos is focusing in the area of precision agriculture.

Source: The Star

Advanced ABB instrumentation is helping space and meteorological agencies all over the world better understand complex processes in the atmosphere and improve their ability to forecast the weather and monitor global climate change. The latest is the Japanese satellite GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite), launched Jan. 22. Its main component is an ABB spatial interferometer.

ABB is the world’s leading supplier of advanced analytical solutions to measure gases and chemicals in the earth’s atmosphere and monitor the dynamic processes that create the world’s weather and the forces that create our climate.

Many of the world’s space agencies and meteorological offices rely on ABB analytical solutions to take these vital measurements in ground-based, airborne and space applications.

Often orbiting in satellites hundreds of kilometers above earth, the solutions provide unique, accurate data on critical phenomena such as ozone depletion and greenhouse gas concentrations, as well as the presence of toxic chemicals during and after natural and manmade disasters.

The cutting-edge ABB solutions are based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and are the main analytical components on the satellites and aircraft that carry them. Among the many high-profile installations are: (more…)

1.  Manufacturers of BAS devices will convert many of the devices to DC power, allowing Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) to be used, thus spurring greater penetration of IP protocols in the BAS world. Known as the most under-valued building technology, POE will drive the convergence because of its cost advantage and management functions. Innovators in this arena will be second tier and Asian BAS companies.

2.  Just sensing whether a building space is occupied or not, will no longer suffice. Systems will need to provide real-time information on how many people occupy the space and where they are located. This will just continue the march to real-time sensing of everything that occurs in a building. Next will be the introduction of “sensor dust” which can be added and embedded in wall coatings. Buildings will have so many sensors installed, that facility management tools will become 3-dimensional.

3.  Smart commissioning will render obsolete what we now think of as commissioning, which is typically a one time or periodic event. Commissioning will no longer be something you may do once a year or every couple years, but something done in real time using sophisticated, rules-based software. Generally re-commissioning an existing commercial office building has an average financial payback of 8.5 months, which is very attractive. However, smart commissioning will have a payback period measured in minutes and will become a standard feature of high performance buildings. (more…)

Doctors’ offices may soon become much less crowded. AT&T is developing a software tool and networking platform that will use wireless devices to record a patient’s health measurements at home and send the data to the doctor. AT&T’s system runs on both Wi-Fi — enabling videoconferencing — and a second wireless technology named ZigBee, which receives data from medical sensors. ZigBee consumes considerably less power than Wi-Fi, so monitoring devices, including thermometers, pill dispensers, blood-pressure monitors, and pulse oximeters, can use small batteries to transmit data over long periods of time.

Home-based monitoring services like AT&T’s — which is approaching the trial stage — could transform how doctors interact with their patients. “The health-care industry is under a lot of stress,” says Bob Miller, executive director of AT&T’s communications-technology research department, “so there’s a drive to explore ways of delivering better care at lower cost.” And greater convenience for both doctor and patient: If a physician notices, for instance, that a blood-pressure medication isn’t working, or if the patient isn’t taking the drugs regularly, she’ll be able to arrange a videoconference with the patient to discuss solutions.

Source: Fast Company