My evening project last night was a C++ library to read the Maxim DS1620 digital thermometer. I’ve released the code on GitHub, and documented the project on my website.

Currently, I have a DS1620 connected to an Arduino, which is in turn connected to my laptop. I wrote a Python script to read the output from the Arduino, and submits data to pachube.com, a site that collects data from sensors and things. It has an easy to use API, and it’s definitely a lot easier than managing data collection and graphing manually.

Here’s a graph of my room’s temperature, using data from pachube:

Using my laptop as a bridge between the Arduino and the Internet is obviously inconvenient. Right now, my Python script automatically handles serial disconnection and reconnection, so I don’t need to restart my script if I disconnect the Arduino and reconnect it at a later time. However, I naturally lose data in the meantime. I’m waiting on some parts from Sparkfun, namely an Arduino Ethernet Shield, so that I can make the Arduino post to pachube directly.