Ben's Bits

I've written before about the various interesting applications for the Dallas 1-wire network such as HVAC control, access control, weather stations, etc. A few weeks ago I finally got around to ordering some 1-wire sensors to play with myself. I must say that I've had nothing but a good time with them. I'm currently running outdoor temperature and rainfall logging which you can see for yourself as the data is uploaded to a number of servers including Weather Underground and the National Weather Service (through the Citizen Weather Observer Program). In future postings I hope to discuss a bit more about how simple this was to get going and show off my own weather homepage (still in development).

For now I wanted to share the design for a 1-wire surge suppressor. As it turns out some people have had a problem, specifically with 1-wire weather equipment, with lightning inducting large currents into their 1-wire network and damaging the sensors and/or serial adapter. To combat this problem Philip Gladstone has posted some easy to build protection circuits for both 1-wire devices and the serial port adapter. While I haven't built them myself yet I hope to have some time to do so before storm season gets into full swing.