Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Temperature sensor for micro-controller using an NTC thermistor

Temperature sensor for Micro-controllers

This temperature sensor is used for micro-controllers to measure a range of temperatures. This sensor uses the
( NCPppXH103) NTC surface mount thermistor. You can use any thermistor, but you must have the datasheet for that specific thermistor to get the thermistor resistance ratio in order for your micro-controller to be able to calculate the voltage into a temperature unit. This circuit above is basically a variable voltage divider, where the voltage on the output changes depending on the temperature. There is a ratio between the temperature and the resistance of the thermistor. This is how the micro-controller can calculate the temperature. The voltage that comes out from the output goes out to the ADC in the micro-controller. This sensor can be used with an Arduino or an Atmega chip or other micro-controller.

On the above left i have the surface mount thermistor on a piece of perf board which can be detached from my micro-controller.
In a later post i will show you how to make your own microcontoller and show the specs of my microcontoller.
On the left you can see the senor detached.
I have used the sensor, and its pretty accurate, but you have to do trial and error with the code. Stay tuned for the code with the sensor, where it can display the temperature on to a LCD display, but the this code is used with an Atmega chip and programmed with an Atmel Studio. I will post the code with arduino, later on.