Honorable Mention #2
ThermoNet
Kevin Houser
U.S.
The ThermoNet is a web-based, remote control, residential HVAC thermostat. The well-designed system includes an easy-to-use LCD front panel and a built-in web server. The front panel includes four buttons: Mode, Fan, Up, and Down. The hardware consists of a WIZnet W810-MJ module connected to an Atmel ATMega128 microcontroller external memory interface via direct memory mapping. An Atmel DataFlash chip provides ample storage for embedded web pages and is easily updated with new web pages and other files via a the Windows-based program.
“ThermoNet is a web-enabled, dual-use project. It was designed and built to provide an easy-to-use web interface to manage heating and cooling energy usage, as well as water usage for irrigation. The primary parts used are an Atmel ATmega128, a WIZnet WIZ810MJ Ethernet engine, a Dallas RTC with 32 KB of nonvolatile static RAM, a 512 KB to 2 MB Atmel DataFlash memory, two temperature sensors, and a 2 × 16 LCD with LED backlight. The WIZnet parts were almost perfect for my project because they allowed me the freedom to implement any UDP or TCP/IP protocols I cared to develop or use. Many microcontroller-targeted Ethernet solutions are simply serial-to-Ethernet adapters or provide a canned web server implementation with limited expandability.”—Kevin Houser
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