The OW-SERVER is an inexpensive Ethernet/WiFi to 1-Wire interface that is designed to efficiently monitor and control 1-Wire devices. The OW-SERVER will allow you to use industry standard Ethernet or WiFi products (switches, hubs, etc.) to build the backbone of your 1-Wire based sensor / control system.
The plug-in supports reading data from two sensors (currently). The EDs OW-ENV-TH (Temperature Humidity Sensor), and the DS18B20 temperature Sensor. The OWServer device supports a number of other devices, and I can add support for the other sensors if you have them - contact me for info - I basically need the XML file the device generates. I don’t support the ability to write to devices - I don’t currently intend to add this support, but if that may change!
The plugin reads the devices every 60 seconds and will add temperature and humidity devices which can be moved into other rooms. Temperature is averaged over 5 readings, and humidity over 10. This can be changed - if you go to the device properties, click
the Advanced tab and change the “Average” variable. The humidity sensor is quite noisy, hence the longer averaging period. Due to the averaging, the sensor data won’t start to read until the “average” number of samples have been taken - i.e. 5 minutes for temperatures, and 10 for humidity. It will then update at 60 second intervals afterwards.
To install -:
Upload the files using the “MiOS Developers” button. Click on Luup Files and upload the 5 files for the plugin.
Create a new device with the following parameters -:
DeviceType: urn:cd-jackson-com:device:OWServer:1
Description: One Wire Server
UpnpDevName: D_OWServer.xml
UpnpImplFilename: I_OWServer.xml
IP: Set the IP address of the server
Click “Create Device”. Restart Luup.
Let me know if you have any issues - I’m still working on this, so appologies if it does something “funny”, although it’s been working fine here for the past few days.
I am employed by Embedded Data Systems, and I would be happy to give you access (online/samples) to additional sensors you are interested in supporting. You could have remote access to an OW-SERVER-ENET with any supported sensor attached within a few minutes of talking to us. I’d think the alarm relay functions in our OW-ENV sensor line might be particularly appealing to home automation enthusiast. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of help.
Hi David,
Thanks for the message - the OW-SERVER is an excelent unit for monitoring environmental conditions around the home and I’m happy to support it. In the way that it’s implemented, we end up with better resolution than the Z-Wave type sensors (e.g. 0.1 deg vs 1 deg) which is quite an advantage in my opinion.
I’ll send you a PM with my email so we can discuss the best way to add support for other sensors.
Thanks for making the plug-in available. I have purchased an ow-server and I have to say it is very well made. At the moment I have two D2 Photo sensors that I would like to get working on Vera.
Hi Warren,
I’ve had a go at implementing this - it uses a chip that’s not exactly complicated, but there is a bit to it. I’ve implemented it as a binary switch, since that’s effectively what the chip is (it’s a dual port in/output). Due to the fact I’ve made quite a few changes, I’d really like to test this myself before I send it out and (potentially) screw up your system.
I’ll order up a board with this chip tomorrow and will try and get out a new version later in the week.
All one wire sensors (that I know of) return degC, but I’ll add a conversion into the next version to support degF.
As a general note - I am planning a major update of the plugin in the next week or so. This will include some new sensors (D2Photo for starters), and is a major rewrite to make it easier to add different devices and provide extra flexibility… While I hope to keep backward compatibility with the existing plugin, it’s possible that users many have to remove current sensors and re-install…
Keep up the good work. I may pick up a unit in the near future. For now I have my hands tied with some other projects for Vera. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.
Plugging them together leads to the server web page showing that a temperature sensor is connected and that the “health” parameter is 7 indicating all is well so the wiring seems to be validated, unplugging it and it shows errors and 0 devices connected, again an indication that wiring is fine.
The down side is that it does not respond to temperature It’s stuck on 23.9373.
I don’t have a spare temperature sensor yet (ordered 2 but one was out of stock) and hence can’t substitute.
Have you ever seen this error, any suggestions on what to do, is it a user parameter I need to set??
The plug in is working, temperature of 22.9 showing on it, just a shame it’s not the room temperature.
I’ll have a rummage around some OWS forums and see if anyone has suggestions there as well.
Thanks for the help, looks like it’s going to be a really good addition when it’s working properly.
OK, it’s working now by the looks of it, changed the cable for a RJ12 to RJ12 lead, the RJ12 fits into the centre of the RJ45 on the Tsense and the correct pins fit. That means a spare DSL modem cable does the job
Temperature is now updating and looging, will see what I get overnight
I’ve seen something “funny” in the past if the power line isn’t tied “somewhere”. You can either tie it to 5v or ground - if you tie it to 5v, then this is what 1-wire call passive powering, where the 1-wire devices glean a little power off the data line. So, I’d just make sure that you have the 3 wires installed correctly. I don’t recall if this fits your situation, but it’s where I’d look…
One other point - you can get the DS18B20 chip on eBay for about £6 for 10 I think. The T-sense is basically an 18B20 in an RJ45 connector - sure, it’s a little more convenient (in some circumstances), but 20x the price…
I am also looking at the OW-ENV-TL and GP1 module as well.
The OW-ENV-TL shouldn't be a problem. I've got some more sensors coming including one that has the light sensor, so this should be included in the next version. The counter will also be supported - I just need to work out how to implement it. I don't think it will be a problem, I just haven't thought about it yet...
The underlining reason for the error is due to the VDD (power) pin not being connected to ground or 5V+. It is causing the DS18B20 to have a “power-on reset” to occur during most temperature conversion attempts. The DS18B20’s temperature register will read 85C following the power-on reset. The OW-SERVER will filter out the responses as invalid which can led to a DS18B20 (or DS18S20) not being updated regularly. If the OW-SERVER has never gotten a valid temperature reading from the DS18B20 it would have been reporting 0C.
The OW-SERVER determines the health of the 1-Wire devices by performing a search between each polling cycle of the sensors. Each time a device successfully responds the health is incremented by 1 with the maximum value set to 7. Devices that fail to respond to the search are decreased by 1. When/if the health reaches 0 the device is removed the CSV file and webpages. The device’s location in the list of sensors is remembered. If it begins to respond to searches it will return to its original location in the list of sensors. The location in the list is not kept for any sensors when the OW-SERVER is rebooted.
Thanks for the explanation, it would have been nice if it had said “error” instead of locking at that temperature.
Since I tried a different cable (a DSL modem cable this time) all is working well. The OWS is giving excellent temperature information into Vera and has been 100% reliable.
It's largely done. I've been using it for the past couple of weeks, but as I implemented some configuration tables for some EDS sensors that I couldn't easily test, I haven't released it (yet!).
I’ve just received the new sensors to allow me to test the plugin, so I’ll try and get this out in the next few days before I head off for a week over Christmas.
Attached is the new version of the OW-Server plugin. This is a major rewrite to the previous version - if you are using the previous version, devices created by that version won’t work (I think). It is probably best to delete old devices and recreate them with the new plugin. The new version has been re-written to make it more flexible, so that new devices can be added easily. It also supports a few more devices, and adds support for sending commands to the OW-Server to control relays etc.
When this version detects a new sensor, it does not automatically create a device. You need to open the plugin and go to the Add Devices tab (see the attached picture). This will give you options to add any new devices, and it now allows you to add multiple variables for each one-wire device as separate devices. It also supports adding them as different UPnP devices, so that you can have a different look depending on how you are using the device. There is also support for energy monitoring in some devices so that if a light sensor is being used to monitor a light status, you can also incorporate this into the Vera energy monitoring system. No doubt there will be some “tuning” required, so I’m open to comments on this. There is also support for temperatures in Fahrenheit (please note that I haven’t tested this, so let me know if there’s a problem).
If you try using the counter devices, or the EDS pressure sensor, it won’t currently work - please DO NOT add these devices just yet! Since Vera doesn’t have support for these type of sensors, I have created new device types, but as I’ve just received the sensors yesterday, I haven’t yet tested it and haven’t included them in the package yet. You should set these sensors to IGNORE until I have a version that supports this! Hopefully I’ll get an update before Christmas to support these, otherwise it will be early in the new year.
I’ve tested it here for the past few weeks while I’ve been waiting for the post to deliver some new sensors. It seems to be working fine, but I’ve only tested the Temp/Humidity sensor, the DS18B20, and the D2Photo. Please note that there is a wiki page at OW-SERVER - EDS One Wire interface plugin. I’m trying to add information about different sensors as I test them.
As always, comments are appreciated. There will no doubt be bugs - any errors reported in the logfile would be useful to support debugging.
It’s stuck on 23.9373.