wireless short distance data sending

[ronhud]

I would like to send info about the status of my bio-diesel processor from the metal shed outside my house to my pc which is about 10 metres away with one stone wall in between. The data would be an alert signal from a liquid sensor probe and a temperature reading from a temp sensor. I am a beginner in electronics (so nothing is obvious!) but have soldered components to a board. Can this operation be done with a RF sender/receiver pair as offered on ebay at around £8 and would anyone like to describe how it would be done.
Ron

[mib-instruments]

the rf module available in ebay can only provide you part of the hardware you need for your project. You need to digitally encode and decode the data that you have to send and receive. The part has to be build yourself and you have to write a simple program to do so.
If you have electronic backgnd and know mcu programming, FSK / ASK, interfacing to your temp. sensor ... doing this should not be hard. If not, I recomment you find some existing solution. Hope this help.

[Biffo]

something like this maybe?


http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3145-d ... logger.htm







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[ronhud]

Thanks for the replies. Mib - altho I was a programmer it wasnt in this field and so I think I'll have to let go of the wireless idea - I see products that would probably do the job but at too much cost.

Biffo - I had come across this but passed it over because I was looking for wireless however I've returned to it since I can cable if necessary. I am thinking of using this device to obtain the temp' real time into my pc com port and use the com port to send a signal back to drive a SSR switching the heater on and off. This device uses 4 lines in the serial port so I am wondering if I can drive the SSR directly by raising one of the remaining lines and using ground. Or use com2 for the return. Probably I am somewhat muddled in my thinking but something should be possible.

Ron

[Biffo]

if you read at the bottom of the page it says it can be used with an optional RF
sender here (and obviously has a matching reciever to go with it)

http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3173-s ... mitter.htm

if you want to look out for other stuff then look under ' PIC' projects. These are chips that are relatively cheap and have revolutionised programmable amateur projects.

If you have mains electric from your house going to your shed then look up '' X10 " .This is a system that uses the mains cable to send data and obviously isolates it from the mains.



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[ronhud]

Thanks for pointing that out Biffo. I've now found an assembled unit (from USA) that I will cable to my serial port - it has 2 input channels and one output so I can drive my heater via a solid state relay and display staus etc on my pc.
Ron