It's important that the DIY laptop I'm designing has enough cooling, or it'll fry itself. So, I'm building a temperature logger that will be able to monitor the temperature in multiple locations. It's a side project of a side project...

The video above shows me getting the first temperature sensor up and running with an Arduino micro-controller board, and tracking down the code to calibrate it. Here's some key points:

  • The temperature logger will have 4 thermocouple sensors for monitoring the temperature at multiple key points
  • It's planned to save the logged data to a Micro-SD card, and also send it to the computer via USB/wifi
  • The Arduino ecosystem has a huge library of code ready for all sorts of sensors & devices, including code to read the MAX31855 thermocouple amplifier chip
  • None of the MAX31855 libraries perform calibration, meaning you need to figure that part out for yourself
  • I found code that implements the NIST k-type thermocouple equations for the MAX31855 and the thermocouples I'm using (which are k-type). Click here for the code

I have successfully read the temperature of a single thermocouple, and displayed it on the computer via USB. Next time I'll add the other three temperature sensors, and get some of the other devices working.