Cold Hearted Orb That Rules The Night

mrburnette

Senior Member
20120705 Update: Working code sample here: #post209978

Sometimes the most stressful situations lead to astonishing discoveries and a sequent acquisition. Yesterday, on a shopping trip to WalMart in the heat of the summer with 107F temperatures in the shade I accompanied my wife on a mandatory (her words) trip to secure items for the coming week. Since I am retired and she is not, I do not have a vote in such matters, rather the role of chauffeur is most appropriate.

Therefore, hot, sweaty, and in a rather dismal frame of mind, I entered the Walmart through the garden entrance, past pesticides and lawn items and past grills and past pool items... heading for the main store. I stopped after passing the pool area, did a double-take, and went back to take a look-see at something I had never seen before. Funny how heat-numbed neurons will still fire when excited. And excited I was.

I found this item: Pool Orb for the price of only $2.50. It just had to come home to be dissected ... and re-purposed ... a fantastic start (I hope) to a PICAXE project... something to take my mind of the summer heat.
(I am hopeful that a few of these will be left on the shelf at the end of the pool season since Walmart traditionally reduces the prices to move stock.)

So... here is what I'm thinking about doing with the orb:
I plan on using the existing color LEDs and battery pack and using a PICAXE to monitor the ambient temperature at some set interval... let's say that the uC wakes up every minute, samples the temperature, and then uses one of the LEDs to flash the Morse Code numeric digit. The "tens" digit will be the color used to flash... for inside use to cover a range of 40F-90F there would be 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80-89 or five (5) LEDs. The advert says 8 colors but my limited playing suggests that more than one LED is on for some colors and to minimize battery drain and current limiting and all that stuff, I only will be using individual LEDs on a single basis. So, maybe 5 LEDs plus/minus one.

Anyway... Color represents the "Tens" digits and "Morse Code" represents the "digit" ... programmable, but likely once a minute and then dormant again. Maybe I'm just weird, but lots of people wake at night and wonder what the time is, but when I wake at night I am more concerned with the temperature.

- Ray


Update:
Disassembly shows integrated battery holder, switch, and circuit board hosting a blobbed uC and 3 SMT LEDs... one Red, one Green, and one Blue. The eight colors are composites of the combined primary color. At this point, for a prototype, I am thinking about just limiting my test to one LED per-baseband temperature... say, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79. Later I can expand the code to incorporate multiple LEDs and greater range if desired. There appears to be room to stick a PICAXE and a thermistor to one side of the battery compartment and the switch, switch plunger can be removed as not necessary. The exiting uC will simply be disabled by cutting traces and thereby giving direct access to the LED connections. There is already a silicon diode on the circuit board to prevent reverse voltage and also provide a nice 0.6V drop since the supplied CR2032 are 3V each or 6V total...

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