Hi from ohio!

[skychaser53]

I joined last week. Been reading lots of posts. looks like a lot of helpful people here )..I have developed an interest in flash chips and Pic programming. I have bought a few books, read lots of tutorials lol.. I have a ton of learning. I'm going to do a few tutorial projects before I jump into my project.
I love riding my Harley ,watching Nascar with my wife, shooting some IDPA and spending time with my grandkids )

 

[MrAl]

Hey there sky, and welcome to the forum.

So you like PIC's then...what kind of project did you have in mind for your first one?

 

[skychaser53]

Hey there sky, and welcome to the forum.

So you like PIC's then...what kind of project did you have in mind for your first one?

When I bought my house fuel , oil was 75 cents a gallon. Now it is $3.50 a gallon. I want to monitor the motor on the furnace to see how long it runs. I plan on using 2 LCD displays. One to monitor the total hrs for the winter and one to monitor a night or week. Both circuits would be resetable of course. Later on I want to hook everything up to the PC and have a thermal probe comparing outside temperature to hours run.
also I am going to use the sun to preheat the water going into the electric water heater, so I want to record before and after results.. Go Green ! lol

 

[Reloadron]

Hi Skychaser

Cleveland SE Burbs here (Actually Bedford Heights). I believe you will find this forum most helpful and there is a great micro controller section. Grand kids are the very best gift my kids ever gave me.

Ron

 

[MrAl]

When I bought my house fuel , oil was 75 cents a gallon. Now it is $3.50 a gallon. I want to monitor the motor on the furnace to see how long it runs. I plan on using 2 LCD displays. One to monitor the total hrs for the winter and one to monitor a night or week. Both circuits would be resetable of course. Later on I want to hook everything up to the PC and have a thermal probe comparing outside temperature to hours run.
also I am going to use the sun to preheat the water going into the electric water heater, so I want to record before and after results.. Go Green ! lol

Hi again,

Oh that sounds like a good project that could save lots of money.

Years ago i worked on the solar system for a multi million dollar home that was completely equipped with solar power and solar heating and centralized computer control and monitoring. They used large insulated storage tanks filled partially with rocks to hold some of the heated water from the pipes on the roof. The rocks hold the heat better than the water. That might help in your case too if you can swing the large tanks.
These days this kind of stuff really can help beat the energy bill. How about using water cooling for the PC and using the heated water to help heating water for coffee or even bath

Would be nice to hear more about your project once you get going.