Talking Thermostat

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MadMax
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Talking Thermostat

Post by MadMax »

I am looking for a schematic or some ideas for a talking thermostat project or a source for a pre-built talking thermostat. My Grandmother is 92, lives alone and has a hard time seeing her thermostat, I would like to build or find her a talking thermostat.<p>Any help would be appreciated.<p>Thanks
bodgy
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Re: Talking Thermostat

Post by bodgy »

There is the basics to what you're looking for in a book called Experimenting with the PicBasicPro by Les Johnson from Crownhill in the UK.<p>Depending on what technical experience is depends on the solution a little.<p>Basically you would need one of the ISDN recorder chips, a device to 1) Receive temperature data and convert it, 2)to send the necessary signals to the voice chip for play back.<p>Note you would also need a one time way of recording the sound into the chip.<p>There are other ways but would require more technical knowledge - such as recording WAV files on your PC and then getting a device to play them back.<p>For a cheap ISDN setup I believe Oatley Electronics in Australia still have some surplus left they were A$9.00 + P&P about (U$4.40) consists of a PCB with 20 second chip and amplifier and speaker. You just have to cut the record enable track and provide the microphone and mic amp.<p>BGMicro in the US may have something similar, and at full price I think Parallax have the exact thing you're looking for - <bodgy takes cover from Mr Williams > ;) even though the price is quite expensive.<p>Colin
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MadMax
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Re: Talking Thermostat

Post by MadMax »

Thanks, I'll check them out.
ljbeng
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Re: Talking Thermostat

Post by ljbeng »

Drop me a message at www.ljbeng.com I am very well equipped to program any words you want to an ISD25XXX chip. For this project, I would use the ISD2560. The 60 is 60s of recording. The lower time chips give you a better quality voice. I have all the words required to make a thermostat. I can give you some instruction for using the chip. A good thermostat requires around 35 words and numbers. I use the LM34 for temperature measure and a pic with 10 bit A/D (16f87x or 16F62x). The LM34 has 10mv/°F and the 10 bit A/D on the pic will read ~5mv/bit. I have some pc boards that could be modified to work as a thermostat. They are around 3.5" x 2" boards. Let me know. Thanks.LJB Engineering
Chris Foley
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Re: Talking Thermostat

Post by Chris Foley »

Here are a couple of "store-bought" talking thermostats, Max --<p>http://home.interlog.com/~keratech/thermsd2.htm
http://www.amer-comfort.com/webapp/GetPage?pid=123<p>There are a lot of opportunities for experimentation in process heating control, but if I might express a personal opinion, Grandma's furnace may not be the best place in the world to start going up the learning curve (even if she'll let you). Try using the PIC to drive a transistor to turn on a relay which turns on and off a power resistor in a large enclosed box, and chart the temperatures. You can probably learn a lot with a microcontroller setup like this. The art in this project will be in the software. If you could handle another suggestion, start looking into PID (Proportional-Integral-Dervative) loops. That's one software-intensive way to control temperatures that will stretch your abilities, and if used intelligently, is much better than the straightforward "bang-bang" bimetallic thermostat at keeping a room (or oven, or any number of processes) in control. Happy hunting.<p>[ January 27, 2003: Message edited by: Chris Foley ]</p>
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