Archive for March, 2011

3M-50 Wi-FI Thermostat: UPDATE

Mar 25th, 11 / 14 Comments

Original post here:

http://moderntoil.com/?p=325

Click HERE for the CT50, and HERE for the CT80.

This arrived last week, and it’s everything I hoped for, plus more.  VERY programmable via back-end JSON interface.  Of course, I’m old-skool and stubborn so I wrote a whole web-app in bash to control it :)

Here’s what my interface looks like:

Click it for a full size version.

The outside temp/humidity is polled via weather underground (XML feed), and the graph is gen’d by cacti.  I already use cacti for tons of other stuff, so it was only natural to use it for data collection here.   The red vertical on the graph represents the periods my furnace runs.  The rest of the legend it pretty obvious if you look at the full size snap.

If you’re even remotely THINKING of getting an ip-enabled thermostat, get one of these, they rock.

For those that don’t want to write their own app to control it, it can communicate directly to radio thermostat’s website and you can control it from there.  I just don’t like the idea of my thermostat taking orders from someplace else, so I wrote my own :)

There’s good documentation of the API here:

http://central.isaroach.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

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How-to, Opinion, Reviews, Tech

MIT Researcher Unlocks New Method for Collecting/Storing Solar Energy

Mar 25th, 11 / Comments Off

I read it here:  http://dvice.com/archives/2011/03/a-bottle-of-was.php , but their understanding of the science is a little “off”.  The author seems to think they’re generating power from water, but in reality they’re using  a process similar to what plants do to separate water, and the power is generated when the Hydrogen and Oxygen are re-combined (like in a fuel cell).

This is big news since unlike current solar sources of energy, where energy must be stored in batteries (with varying levels of efficiency), you can simply store the gases separately and re-combine them as you need the energy.

The researcher has teamed up with Tata group, which is good news since it lends some credibility to actually commercializing it.  It’s rediculous we’re still “drinking” oil out of the ground.  C’mon, it’s 2011.  You think it’s a coincidence that sunlight and water are two of the most abundant things on earth.  I don’t

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Holy IP Thermostat! – RADIO THERMOSTAT CT50/3M-50

Mar 12th, 11 / 1 Comment

Just by chance, last night our thermostat was “adjusted” by our youngest creature (Cameron), and when we woke up this morning the temp felt a little cooler and nicer.  It was holding at 68 instead of the usual 70 we maintain during the day. I thought, that’s it, I’m getting a programmable thermostat today.  It’ll pay for itself in less than 1 season if we actually like it 2 degrees cooler at night.

Before I headed out to Lowe’s to pickup a 75ish dollar programmable thermostat, I figured I’d check online one more time to see if any new price-competitive IP-enabled thermostats had hit the market.  WOW AM I SURE GLAD I DID.

Internet or IP-enabled thermostats have long been on my wish list of geek goodies for a while.  I’ve previously looked at units from Proliphix, Ecobee, BAYweb, and others.  They all either *require* utilization of their over-the-internet web interface (some for free, some for a monthly fee), and/or are prohibitively expensive.  The BAYweb isnt too bad at ~$200.00, and looks like rock-solid hardware, but it claims to have zero support for direct query to the device, and only communicates via an outgoing encrypted connection to the BAYweb web site.  To a home automation hacker, this is about as attractive as using AOL for email.

Enter the “RADIO THERMOSTAT CT50”

This little gem is only $100, features full local programmability, *and* access to the back-end IP interface via Wi-FI.  I’d actually prefer wired ethernet, but for $100, I’ll shut the fuck up and deal.  They sell these direct for ~$140, but they’ve partnered with 3M/Filtrete, and are selling them through Home Depot for $99.98.

The 3M/Filtrete Part # is: 3M-50. Search for “radio thermostat” at homedepot.com.

EDIT: Home Depot  no longer sells these, but you can get them HERE.

I haven’t gotten it yet, but I ordered based on the following features:

*Local Programmability

*Wi-FI

*API Available (free)

*Direct query to the device for variables like temp/humidity (say for ex. using curl to grab variables from a script)

*iPhone App for controlling directly (free)

*PC App for controlling directly (free)

*Remote Access via their website (only if you want to use it this way)

*CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP – Somehow this thing is more full-featured than all the competition for 1/5th the price!!!!  It’s in the same price category as non-IP enabled programmable thermostats.

GO order one now before they wise up and price this more appropriately ~$250!

UPDATE – I received it, and further review is here:

http://moderntoil.com/?p=350

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