# General > IoT, IoE, and Maker Forum > Arduino My Temperature Sensor

## dclamp

I recently reorganized my garage in order to make a little workshop for me to tinker with my electronics and my ham radio gear. With that, I put my computer and a managed switch (HP Procurve 2650) at my workstation in the garage. With the garage door open I get a good breeze, but when the door it closed, there is no moving air. I felt the output of the fan on the switch and the air was really hot. So I decided to whip up a temperature sensor with my Arduino. 



This arduino has two separate functions. The first function is displaying information on the 16x2 LCD screen. I send messages to the screen over HTTP. The second function is updating my control server with the temperature every 10 seconds. The Arduino it self does not take the temperature and then display it on the screen.

Every 10 seconds the Arduino sends the temperature to the control server over HTTP. The server then saves it in the database with the device ID, temperature and timestamp. Then the control server tells the Arduino what to display on the screen, in this case its "Temperature" and "00.00F HH:MM:SS". 

You may think this is overkill sending the temperature to the server then having the server tell the arduino to display it. But the reason I chose this method was because temperature sensing is not the main function of this device. The main function of this device is to display what ever my server tells it to display. 

I am currently working on a design to put this project in a permanent enclosure.

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## dclamp

Forgot to mention that the server also serves up a web page listing the average, high, and low temperature as well as the 500 most recent temperature readings.

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## dday9

These kind of things has always interested me. Pretty cool to see something homemade like this.

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## dclamp

> These kind of things has always interested me. Pretty cool to see something homemade like this.


Get started doing it! It is easier than you think!

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## SJWhiteley

Reviving an old thread, what temperature sensing device did you use? It looks like the 1-wire DS18B20.

I'm thinking of getting several to put in the attic, house and crawl space to monitor temperatures, and the 1-wire system looks ideal.

(Oh, I am going to use a Netduino, which can be programmed using VB or C#).

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## dclamp

Yeah I am using the 1-Wire DS18B20. It works great for me, although now that I am thinking about it, i have never actually compared it to a control device to check the accuracy. 

The Arduino has a library available that will convert the reading into F/C for readable values.

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