- Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:50 pm
#134822
Hi, happy helpful Sparkfun community -
I'm an experienced computer programmer but just getting into electronics/electrical tinkering.
I'm thinking about building some kind of interface so that I can read the status (simply on/off) of my central air/heating thermostat from my PC.
I'm a little nervous though, because if I do something wrong I could conceivably wreck my computer, thermostat, or both (not to mention the outside chance of shorting something out, starting a fire and burning down my house).
Does anybody have any advice for a beginner undertaking a project like this? The thermostat is 24 VAC powered, and simply presents some open/closed connections that I need to monitor with either an Arduino based interface or something like a Phidgets interface (www.phidgets.com). I'm just looking for advice on how to do this without blowing out any equipment or, as I mentioned, coming home to a smoking crater.
Thanks...
I'm an experienced computer programmer but just getting into electronics/electrical tinkering.
I'm thinking about building some kind of interface so that I can read the status (simply on/off) of my central air/heating thermostat from my PC.
I'm a little nervous though, because if I do something wrong I could conceivably wreck my computer, thermostat, or both (not to mention the outside chance of shorting something out, starting a fire and burning down my house).
Does anybody have any advice for a beginner undertaking a project like this? The thermostat is 24 VAC powered, and simply presents some open/closed connections that I need to monitor with either an Arduino based interface or something like a Phidgets interface (www.phidgets.com). I'm just looking for advice on how to do this without blowing out any equipment or, as I mentioned, coming home to a smoking crater.
Thanks...