I’m looking around for DC or USB powered thermometers but I can’t seem to find any. Granted, the battery powered ones last many years, but I’m looking to keep my options open. Zigbee devices are preferable. Anyone know?
I’m looking around for DC or USB powered thermometers but I can’t seem to find any. Granted, the battery powered ones last many years, but I’m looking to keep my options open. Zigbee devices are preferable. Anyone know?
I’m not sure why you’d NOT want a battery powered one, because as you say, the batteries last years, and a USB powered one would waste much more electricity over time, but I digress.
If you have any mini SoC boards or ESP32 devices laying around, you can get dirt cheap 2-pin external temp sensors. Works on anything with a GPIO pin out that supports simple I/O.
Anything you find that is Zigbee by nature will be battery powered, however, you might be able to find a device with a different purpose that happens to have temp sensors that export data you could monitor.
I do have a Pico sitting around. Maybe I can use it for a thermometer project.
Picos are very bad for battery applications. If you do end up doing this, make sure it is mains-powered like your original thought.
Esp32s, MSP430s, and nRF chips have sleep currents down to around 5uA or less.
Picos have sleep currents of 1-4mA. That is 1000x higher and the battery will only last for a few days instead of a few years.
Thanks for the insight, good to know.
Most of mine are, however plug-in devices also work as repeaters such as my air quality monitor (USB) and smart plugs. I’ve found they really help with dead zones.