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Case #99: Bob Had a Problem with the Thermal Management

Design News Staff -- Design News, March 19, 2007

NASA engineer Bob Wilson devised a technological solution for a bureaucratic problem: convince building maintenance that his office was frigid in the morning. By the time anyone responded to a call, the heat was on. So he programmed a TI MSP430-F2013 microcontroller to record the temperature continuously over several days. The size of a quarter and powered by a 3V lithium cell, it records converted, filtered, RL-encoded data from its built-in temperature transducer into Flash memory, to be read back later via a USB interface. The maintenance department was convinced.

Download the build instructions | View Parts List | Post a Comment

“Quarter-sized Temperature controller”
Amt	Part Description	Allied Part #
1	32.768 kHz watch crystal or equivalent	614-0186
1	20 mm. coin cell, 3-3.5V or equivalent	774-0113
1	Half-inch, clear, shrink wrap or equivalent. Only 0.5 x 0.5 inch per cell, 100+ cells	708-9214
1	Epoxy putty. For ~50-100 cells	796-9831
Additional parts required:Ez430-F2013 development kit with MSP430-F2013 microcontroller, available at Texas Instruments. Download the build instructions(Word Document)

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Talkback

Apparently, NASA engineers have time on their hands.
- 2008-02-15 06:18:14
Tom, The point is not cost effectiveness. Otherwise I'd pay some kid to mow my lawn. His...
- 2008-02-14 11:53:18
Hi,You are welcome to review my web page that has more details on using an external thermistor...
- 2007-08-07 08:10:58

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