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Review of TEMPer usb temperature sensor

Review of the TEMPer HID USB temperature sensor that I got off eBay. Great little device, but requires some configuring and such to get it to work on Linux. On windows it worked right out of the box with the CD that came with it.

Read more after the break!

First of all, was only bidding on this on eBay because it was very cheap, and didn't think I would win with the minimum bid. But I did! and it arrived in about 2-3 weeks from Hong-Kong in a paper envelope lined with bubble wrap. The device itself was in a plastic casing, with a small USB extension cord and the driver cd for windows.

the USB unit itself

Had some ideas with this in the first place when I first looked at it, that I could measure temperatures inside my room or outside, but obviously this device will not last long outside, so got to figure out something else on that part.

When I opened the package, and tested it, the first thing I did was test it on my windows computer. That required installation of some software on the CD that i got with it, pretty basic and bad software that followed it, but worked as it should. Then I connected it to my Linux server and started the search on the internet for some drivers or scripts that would get the temperature out of it. I quickly found some scripts that worked great! I decided to graph it with Munin, since I already had a running install of it.

I used the temper_mon.pl from this post here, and the script below to get the graph separated, since I didn't want it to mix up with the other graph like the other script on this site.

#!/bin/sh
 
if [ "$1" = "config" ]; then
 
        echo 'graph_title Room temperature'
        echo 'graph_args --base 1000 -l 0'
        echo 'graph_vlabel Room temperature in Celsius'
        echo 'temp.label temperature'
        echo 'graph_category sensors'
        exit 0
fi
echo -n "temp.value "
/usr/bin/temper_mon.pl

And it worked great! I now have a working graphing of the temperature in my room. The image you see below is the live image from Munin.

room temperature graphed with munin

Then i had to find a placement for the sensor more away from the computer and away from stuff that generated heat that could make the readings wrong. I did not have a long USB cable available, so i used the USB to CAT-5 adapter I got off dealextreme. Worked great and got to use it, other than leaving it lying around.

USB cable to cat-5. (lack of long USB-cables)

And I found a good spot to put the device! Right under a shelf I have hanging. The tape on the picture did not last that long, so got some more heavy-duty tape there now, holding it in place.

Temperature sensor taped away from stuff generating heat.

The conclusion is that it is a great device for the price. Might be a bit tricky to set up at first, but not too hard either. Looking at getting more devices now, hoping that they will work with my current scripts after a few alterations. Maybe getting one for outdoor use too.

Don't hesitate on asking me any questions about the device and my setup, both in the comments, or use the contact form.