Hello.
I bought a few DS18B20 Waterproof Temperature Sensors, thinking they would pop onto the arduino inputs (I currently successfully read battery levels from two different battery banks, via analog).
After reading the One Wire (https://www.home-assistant.io/components/sensor.onewire/) instructions my head went a bit dizzy and I bottled it. So I bought a bunch of ANALOG “TMP36GT9Z Analog Low Voltage Precision Temperature Sensor IC”.
Installed on an analog pin of Arduino and the readings were all over the shop. Even when removing the battery sensor inputs…
After a google, this happens a lot apparently with the TMP36. So back to square one.
Any ideas of a simple accurate sensor to read temp of hot water tank?
Or can anyone simplify how I would install the DS18B20 Waterproof Temperature Sensor?
I think that would have to bypass the Arduino and go straight into PI?
I use them on a Wemos D1 mini to measure my water tank temp and boiler temps. As they are 1 wire you can connect them in parallel on a single wire if you needed - I do for my boiler feed and return pipes.
They each have their own address that the Wemos will pick up. I use ESPEasy - look Here for a guide to using them with ESPEasy.
As the Wemos has Wifi onboard i use MQTT to pass the readings back to HA.
If you need further help I will be happy to assist
Loading this way still gives you PI desktop and SSH, VNC, One wire setup, etc via the configuration desktop in PI. Hassio boots and still runs via the designated port…
@Rural_assist, I appreciate the dedication it takes to learn about running hassio on raspbian just to be able to plug the dallas sensors to your pi gpio. Most folks would probably just add an esp module of some sort with mqtt, or an arduino with ha serial sensor (if the pi was near the water heater). Dealing with raspbian shows a true dedication to minimize hardware.
Having just moved home, I’m keen to add some sensors to monitor boiler feed and return temperatures. Would you be able to share the setup you’ve adopted?
I run HA in Virtual Machine so any solution will need to be standalone in the physical world and communicate with HA via WiFi. ( I also have Z-Wave but don’t think this is useful in this case.)
As mentioned above I use a pair of Dallas DS18B20 temperature sensors connected via a single 3 core wire to a Wemos D1 Mini running ESPEasy
Both sensors are attached to the feed and return pipes directly above my boiler and held there with a jubilee clip on each pipe. These sensors can connect to a single cable as they each have their own unique address which is added to the settings in ESPeasy. The Wemos connects to my home wifi and then to my MQTT broker where the values are displayed.
This can also easy be done using ESPhome and using the API you would not need to use the MQTT broker. I intend to do this eventually but this Wemos runs very well and can easily be updated or configured via the webserver that can be reached via its IP address.
If you need further information or my ESPEasy config settings then just ask
Thank you. A whole new world of playing with things opens up. I’m ordering a few D1 Minis and sensors. So when they turn up I may be back asking questions!
Then all you need to do plug your new D1 into a USB port of the Home Assistant computer to flash its config (you can then send them over Wifi after).
You add the sensor configurations to the yaml file inside your new node to make a multitude of sensors report to home assistant.
I’d say if you are transmitting over a long distance, for a few extra quid, its worth buying the D1 Pro with external antenna
Very accurate, my boiler has a temperature screen on the front and the feed temp mostly matches it. There is some lag as the reading is taken through a copper pipe so there is some delay heating up and cooling down but there is no way around this without tapping into the water flow which is not a good idea.
Throwing my thanks in for the suggestions in this thread and the examples to get ESPEasy working. These little wemos devices are opening up a new horizon in filling my home with sensors…