motherboard temperature monitor

[divxdude]

can i monitor other device temps with my motherboard?

can i run a wire and a diode or something and monitor my room temp
or say my oven or freezer temp?

someone tell me what how I need to do it ?
thanks.

 

[Titan]

maybe wrong forum.

I think they make usb or serial thermal monitors your can plug into you comp for readings. I've never looked into it deeply though. See what froogle can find you.

 

[Calin]

The temperature monitor on a mainboard is made to be somewhat precise in the range of operating temperatures (like a bit above freezing to somewhere in the boiling point of water). The freezer might be too cold, and the oven might be too hot
Remember that instead of some high-precision, high temperature range industrial device a simple diode is used. Temperature is gauged by the perceived resistence in a certain current (or at a certain voltage). This is perfect as long as the rest of the device is working - or as long as the operating temperatures are ok.
If I remember correctly, military grade integrated circuits are rated to work at up to 125 Celsius (and as low as some -40 Celsius). While this would be ok for the freezer, is by no means ok for the oven

 

[divxdude]

so what do they use in modern temp controlled ovens from the
local home depot?

 

[Calin]

Bimetalic blades (that twist differently at different temperatures) coupled with a rotating knob for control, or they might use thermocouples (that generate a voltage differential between a weld of different metals that is dependent by temperature).

 

[divxdude]

thanks,
so do those connect directly to my motherboard or need some supporting circuitry?

i'm liking the idea of a "1001 things you can do with and old computer" projects book.
another thinkg i want to learn to do is use a neglected serial port to switch and or control
external devices maybe tinker with PWM.

sorry for the wrong forum, i know this is really low tech stuff but i know alot of people
know comptuters and setup etc but not so much electronics (like me) so thats why this forum.

 

[Bassyhead]

Originally posted by: divxdude
thanks,
so do those connect directly to my motherboard or need some supporting circuitry?

i'm liking the idea of a "1001 things you can do with and old computer" projects book.
another thinkg i want to learn to do is use a neglected serial port to switch and or control
external devices maybe tinker with PWM.

sorry for the wrong forum, i know this is really low tech stuff but i know alot of people
know comptuters and setup etc but not so much electronics (like me) so thats why this forum.

Temperature is analog, so most likely you'll need some way to convert the analog signal from any of the aforementioned temperature devices to digital which your computer would be able to understand/convert. I'm not aware of any premade temperature sensing devices that you could plug into a standard computer port.

If you want to do something basic, you could hook a resistive thermistor to a 555 which would provide a proportional number of pulses to the temperature and could count the number of pulses with the parallel port.

 

[divxdude]

how does the temperature probe on the motherboard do it?

 

[Bassyhead]

Originally posted by: divxdude
how does the temperature probe on the motherboard do it?

Without getting too technical (since I don't know all the details), the temperature sensors are connected to a hardware monitoring chip on your motherboard, which does other things too like voltages.

 

[Xyo II]

Originally posted by: divxdude
thanks,
so do those connect directly to my motherboard or need some supporting circuitry?

i'm liking the idea of a "1001 things you can do with and old computer" projects book.
another thinkg i want to learn to do is use a neglected serial port to switch and or control
external devices maybe tinker with PWM.

sorry for the wrong forum, i know this is really low tech stuff but i know alot of people
know comptuters and setup etc but not so much electronics (like me) so thats why this forum.

what book is this? i tried froogle/googling it, what is it's exact name? thx, i already have some really awesome project books, a couple from thinkgeek, and some other robotic ones. really fun to make an animated house, and i have to say........ someday i will be glad when i have a robot to do all the housework that women refuse to do nowadays.