element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet & Tria Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • About Us
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      • Japan
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Vietnam
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
Personal Blogs
  • Community Hub
  • More
Personal Blogs
Nico teWinkel's Blog Sometimes it's not actually a glitch.
  • Blog
  • Documents
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Group Actions
  • Group RSS
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
  • Author Author: ntewinkel
  • Date Created: 1 Dec 2020 1:57 AM Date Created
  • Views 1220 views
  • Likes 9 likes
  • Comments 14 comments
  • hummingbird
  • usb heater
  • feeder
  • wemos d1 mini
  • temperature
  • esp8266
Related
Recommended

Sometimes it's not actually a glitch.

ntewinkel
ntewinkel
1 Dec 2020

Have you ever had one of those moments where the data just looks out of place?

image

 

The above chart is from 2 temperature sensors. The one shown in green is connected to my hummingbird feeder (insulated, with a small USB-powered hand-warmer heater on it), and the other is hanging under the eaves to allow me to compare heater performance to outdoor temperature. It's set up using 2 Wemos D1 Minis with a few PHP scripts on the server side. It was a quick independent solution to get some quick data for my hummingbird feeder heater projects, so I expected some issues.

 

And the graph shows a sudden 3 degrees C dip in just 15 minutes from approximately 6:44 am to 7:02am!

 

In my case the above sort of graph glitch usually leads to digging a bit deeper and fixing some bugs. I thought maybe the power or WiFi was out for a bit, but the points actually show the gradual decline.

 

However, this time around it seems the weather had a glitch, not my project!

 

The last 24 hours of data from our weather office shows a sudden dip in temperature too (2.5 degrees C), along with a shift in wind direction (SE to NNW) and clearing up (as seen in the visibility and conditions columns). Their data only shows the rougher hourly increments, compared to my by-the-minute reports.

image

 

Interesting, to me anyway image

 

Also interesting and useful to me is the fact that the hummingbird feeder dropped rapidly in temperature too, even though it is insulated and heated... it's possible the heater didn't kick in during that time, or maybe I need a more powerful heater and better insulation.

 

I bought this little USB powered cup warmer for my next heater to try. Canadian Tire, for $15 CAD - that's about 1/3 the cost of a purpose-built hummingbird feeder heater. Seems expensive for a cup warmer, and probably not very effective for that purpose (just buy an insulated travel mug!), but it appears to be perfect for keeping hummingbird feeders frost-free in my climate!

image

 

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm and safe out there!

 

Best,

-Nico

  • Sign in to reply

Top Comments

  • Gough Lui
    Gough Lui over 5 years ago +6
    We recently had a heatwave over Saturday/Sunday reaching 40+C. But a quick change of the winds caused a massive drop in temperature here too: Reality sometimes can surprise you! - Gough
  • colporteur
    colporteur over 5 years ago +4
    I'm surprised the birds stick around. Hummers usually leave early in our climate.
  • neilk
    neilk over 5 years ago +4
    Nice piece of analysis, Nico. I presume you have updated your graphing software to the new(ish) Google standards?? Mine stopped working a while ago and although I've looked at the new standards, I haven…
  • kmikemoo
    kmikemoo over 5 years ago

    ntewinkel Very cool that you caught that on your recorder.  It's the perfect visual to demonstrate "cold front".

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • neilk
    neilk over 5 years ago in reply to ntewinkel

    Hi Nico

     

    Done

     

    Many thanks

     

    Neil

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • ntewinkel
    ntewinkel over 5 years ago in reply to neilk

    Hi Neil,

     

    I've sent you a PM with the info.

     

    There's nothing to install - just copy the javascript files onto the webserver in the same place as the html and php files.

     

    Best,

    -Nico

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • neilk
    neilk over 5 years ago in reply to ntewinkel

    Hi Nico

     

    I have sort of been looking around for an alternative to Google charts as well, but hadn't considered charts.js.

     

    I would appreciate a look at your files and maybe some assistance in getting charts.js installed on my server.

     

    Drive is probably the easiest for me.

     

    Thanks

     

    Neil

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • colporteur
    colporteur over 5 years ago in reply to ntewinkel

    Aaah, your western climes affords you the opportunity for a little heat to go a long way. My location at the entrance to the prairie isn't as compatible.

     

    I wanted to winter my goldfish in the pond. A cattle trough heater was sufficient to keep the water open and a pump to deliver air below the surface was all that was needed. Feeding carp is not required when they are dormant, it can actually kill them.

     

    I sat to discuss my plan with a retired farmer. He believed it would work but offered some insight. If you lose power to the pond heater, would there be sufficient time to discover the outage before the fish were frozen. When the thermometer mercury drops below -40 degrees on both temperature scales it doesn't take long for things to freeze. Eight hours at work before taking the bus home would be sufficient to cube the ice.

     

    The fish winter in a basement tank and summer in the pond. So much for trying to accommodate Mother Nature as you have.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +2 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
>
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2026 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube