Two things:

1) I’ve descided to name the application TWatch ( short for Temperature Watch)
2) It is finally time to reveal the first look of the application. Enjoy!

What you see in the image on the left is the application, with two configured graphs; the upper one with four curves and the lower one with three. Adding another graph is very easy as all that has to be done is to add a <graph>-section to the configuration file.

All available graphs are display under the graphs-menu, as seen in the second image.

Here’s an example of how the configuration file might look, resulting in a graph similiar to the image.

<ApplicationSettings>   <Parsers>       <Parser>           <Name>Ute GT2</Name>           <BasePath>Z:\</BasePath>           <FileName>Ute GT2.txt</FileName>           <Start>2006-10-01 23:00</Start>           <End>Infinite</End>           <Color>255;0;0</Color>       </Parser>       <Parser>           <Name>Kompressor</Name>           <BasePath>Z:\</BasePath>           <FileName>Kompressor.txt</FileName>           <Start>2006-10-01 23:00</Start>           <End>Infinite</End>           <Color>255;0;0</Color>       </Parser>   </Parsers>   <Graphs>       <Graph>           <Title>           My graph test           </Title>           <Curves>               <Curve>Ute GT2</Curve>               <Curve>Kompressor</Curve>           </Curves>       </Graph>   </Graphs></ApplicationSettings>

There are two main secions; Parsers and Graphs. The first one specifies what data shall be available, the second one then tells the application to create a curve-group, based on the specified data. It is possible can have an unlimited number of curves in one graph and an unlimited number of curve-groups. “Unlimited” means within reason, of course.
As can be seen the example, you can specify Infinite as the end date/time. This results in the application parsing all available data, including newly written data. I’m planning on adding several more of these keywords later on to make the graphs dynamic.

An images says more than a thousand words (and saves me some typing!)

I spent the larger part of yesterdays evening working on my little project X.

The current status is:

• Real-time monitoring of the data is working.
• Real-time monitoring of new files is working (i.e whenever a new file with the same name as one of those already monitored is created it will immediately be parsed and the data available for inspection in the graph.
• Classes for multi curve graphs are almost complete.

I’ve got a lot of ideas for what this application shall be capable of, but I won’t publish these ideas yet simply because they are just that – ideas. The first milestone is to complete the multi curve graphs and to implement a configuration file. Hopefully I’ll have at least one of these solved tonight.

I thought I’d post a sample of the application I’m currently working on. Enjoy!

I’ve always thought that if you want something done properly, you should do it your self. While working with the interface last night a few issues came to mind. Obviously it is all about costs – the device wasn’t expensive so I’m not complaining, just stating a few things I’d like to see changed.

• It is not possible to solder the new cable onto the device due to the black cover that has been applied on the circuit board.
• The D-sub is only soldered on one side of the circuit board. This makes it more prone to break. I realize a single layer circuit board has been used, but a viable option is a D-sub like this one. It would have given it a bit more robust design.
• Due to the choosen D-sub, it is not possible to fasten the device onto the heat pump without using a strap of some sort since the circuit board is covering the two screw holes in the D-sub.

I’ve been trying to get hold of a specification of the communication protocol for my heatpump and today IVT, the manufacturer of my heatpump, gave me a call. I’ve not received the protocol yet, but what they did tell me sounds promising.

I’ve had quick a look at the communication protocol and to my suprice, it is a very simple protocol. As far as I can tell, all commands are nine bytes in total; stx, cmd, six bytes of data and the checksum, which is the xor:d value of the data.

It’s hardly worth the trouble to reverse engineer the protocol since there already is a program available to read the data I want, but it is fun none the less

I’m such a tech-freak

I pulled a cable across the entire house today so that I can hook up he PC with the heat pump. Thankfully I could pull the cable through the attic so it is hardly visible

Total length is about 25m so it should work allright

The first thing I’ll write about on this blog is my shiny, newly installed geothermal heatpump, seen on the right. It’s an IVT Greenline HT+ C6, with an additional volume tank of 100L.

So what’s there to write about such a thing then? Well, it’s not something that interests the general public, but I know that people with a system like, or similar, to this one likes to read about other people’s experiences.

I’m currently waiting on some hardware that will enable me to connect my PC to it and log temperatures and other interesting data over time. The hardware in question is actually just an RS232 cable, but with added galvanic isolation between the PC and the heat pump. I guess I could have built it on my own, but it was cheap enough, and it comes with a nice (at least it looks promising) program to log the data.