th

THE 9 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ADVANCED TOPICS IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

May 7-9, 2015
Bucharest, Romania

Temperature Monitoring System Based on Multiple

TMP75 Digital Sensors and the PC’s Parallel Port
Eduard Lunca1, Silviu Ursache1, Alexandru Vasniuc2
1
Technical University of Iasi, Department of Electrical Measurements and Materials
2
Technical University of Iasi, Information Systems for Environmental Monitoring - Master Specialization
elunca@tuiasi.ro, silviu_ursache@tuiasi.ro, alexvasniuc@yahoo.com

Abstract - The main purpose of this paper is to show how to

Measurement
build a simple temperature monitoring system by using multiple nodes
TMP75 digital sensors with 2-wire (I2C-compatible) serial

LPT-to-I2C
interface and the PC’s parallel port. The proposed system has a Long cables

Adapter
SCL SCL
master-slave architecture and consists of an LPT-to-I2C adapter
for the parallel port, which operates as single master, up to 8 S1
SDA SDA
slave modules (measurements nodes) based on the TMP75
digital sensor IC and LabVIEW application software. Such a
system can be deployed across a building, laboratory or any
SCL
other facility, for current environmental monitoring, or it may
serve as an educational tool for students. S2
SDA
Keywords: temperature monitoring, digital sensors, parallel port,
LabVIEW
SCL
I. INTRODUCTION
S8
Digital measurements of temperature are extensively used SDA

in industry, agriculture, medical applications, research and

development, daily life, etc. There is a large variety of
measurement and monitoring systems that use digital
temperature sensors connected to a PC or which are intended
to work as flexible temperature sensor networks. Both wired
and wireless applications are deployed in different
architectures, according to the particular features of the
selected ICs and user requirements [1]-[8].
In this study, we introduce a simple sensor network system
based on the PC’s parallel (LPT) port, which is able to
acquire information from up to 8 digital sensors distributed
within a building, laboratory or any other facility. Unlike
many interfacing solutions, which usually require a
microcontroller and firmware, the proposed system only uses
a low-cost logic inverter IC, along with a few passive
components. The associated control software is implemented
as a set of virtual instruments (an I2C Driver API) for
LabVIEW, due to the fact that this graphical programming
environment greatly reduces the development time and offers
powerful features for data acquisition, processing and
presentation [9]-[11].
Details regarding the system design will be given in the
subsequent section. Then, the discussions will be focused on
the application software and system operation.
II. SYSTEM DESIGN
The developed system uses a master - slave architecture, as
illustrated in Fig. 1. Basically, it consists of an LPT-to-I2C
adapter, which provides I2C master functionality under
software control, at a maximum transfer speed highly
Fig. 1. The basic architecture of the proposed system.
dependent on the host PC, and up to 8 slave modules
(measurement nodes) based on the TMP75 digital sensor with
2-wire (I2C-compatible) interface, from Texas Instruments.
Both the LPT-to-I2C adapter and the measurement nodes are
designed with I2C bus extenders (P82B715, also from Texas
Instruments), which allow to increase the practical separation
distance between components on the I2C bus while retaining
all its features. According to [12], using one P82B715 device
at each end of a long cable, the I2C signals can be
theoretically driven to approximately 50 meters or 3000 pF.
A. The LPT-to-I2C adapter (interface)
The LPT-to-I2C adapter is derived from a previous work
[13], [14]. As presented in Fig. 2, it is developed around a
74LS05 hex logic inverter IC, which is used for converting
the TTL signals of the parallel port to I2C signals (the I2C
communication protocol uses two open-collector / open-drain
bidirectional lines, Serial Data – SDA and Serial Clock –
SCL, which require pull-up resistors to achieve high-logic
levels), as well as for ensuring some degree of isolation
between the parallel port and the downstream circuitry [15].
The I2C communication is implemented by using only three
bits residing in the three 8-bit registers of the LPT port. The
Data register, located at the base address of the LPT port
(typically, 378h), contains the bit D0, which is responsible for
controlling the pin 2 and thus the SDA input data for the
addressed I2C device. Complementary, the SDA output data
from the I2C device are retrieved by reading the bit 7 (Busy)

978-1-4799-7514-3/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 15

 U1C

6 5 v cc

C1 R5 D1
74LS05 v cc 2 1
v cc 100n
U1D
330 DIODE
8 9 0 0 0
v cc C2
100n v cc v cc v cc v cc
74LS05
0
R8 v cc R4 R3 R2 R1
J1 v cc
VCC 470 4.7k 4.7k 4.7k 4.7k
1 SCL R6 U1B VB1
2 SDA U2 1
3 GND 4.7k 4 3 SCL 14
4 1 8 v cc SDAin 2
NC VCC 15
CON4 2 7 74LS05 3
Lx Ly 16
R9 3 6 0 4
Sx Sy 17
470 4 5 U1A U1E 5
GND NC

7
18
J2 v cc 2 1 10 11 6
VCC P82B715P 19
1 SCL v cc 0 7
2 SDA R7 74LS05 20
3 GND 74LS05 8
4 4.7k

14
21
v cc 9
CON4 22
0 J3
10
U1F 23
v cc 13 12 SDAout 11
1 24
2 74LS05 12
C3
C4 25
CAP 100n
CON2 13

SUB-D 25
0 0

Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of the LPT-to-I2C adapter.

of the Status register (located at the base address+1), which is earlier operating systems.
responsible for controlling the pin 11 of the LPT port. Note that the embedded I2C API also provides functionality
Finally, the bit 1 (Auto Linefeed) of the Control register, at for converting data in two’s complement format to decimal
the location base address+2, is used for controlling the pin 14 format. This is useful in many applications, including in the
of the LPT port and thus the SCL signal for the I2C device. case of the TMP75, which outputs the conversion result as a
A picture of the developed LPT-to-I2C adapter is presented 12-bit two’s complement word.
in Fig. 3. It connects to the I²C target system via one of the
B. The Measurement Nodes
two 4-pin screw terminals on the board and requires an
The circuit diagram of a measurement node is shown in
external +5 VDC power supply, which is indicated by a LED.
Fig. 4. The TMP75 requires no external components for
There is no need to operate modifications of the parallel port
operation except for pull-up resistors on SCL and SDA lines.
settings from the BIOS utility.
It features three address pins, A2, A1 and A0, allowing up to
The embedded I2C Driver API includes a number of
eight devices to be connected to the I2C bus. The slave
LabVIEW virtual instruments (VIs) that conform to the main
address of each sensor will be set up by connecting each
events on the I2C bus: I2C Start.vi (is used to generate the
address pin to either the supply voltage (VDC) or the ground
Start condition), I2C Stop.vi (is used to generate the Stop
(GND) via an associated jumper (J1, J2 or J3), according to
condition), I2C Send.vi (is used to transmit messages to the
the specifications in the datasheet. For instance, if all address
I2C slave device), I2C Read 1 Byte.vi (reads a byte of serial
pins are grounded, the slave address of the TMP75 is
data from the addressed I2C device), etc. All these VIs have
1001000 [16].
been developed by using the In Port.vi and Out Port.vi
The TMP75 digital sensor IC is mounted on a separate SO-
functions of the LabVIEW environment, which are low-level
8 to 8-pin DIP adapter PCB, which inserts into a main board,
VIs that allow reading from and writing to a specific register
as presented in Fig. 5. Such a module is also compatible with
address. Unfortunately, they work only on Windows XP and
v cc v cc v cc v cc
1

R4 R3
R2 R1

I2C J5
470 470
4.7k 4.7k J1

Signals
2

v cc v cc 1
2

1 U1 U2 A0 2
2 3
3 1 8 v cc 1 8 v cc
4 NC VCC SDA VCC
2 7 2 7 A0 0 CON3
Lx Ly SCL A0
to LPT
CON4
3 6 3 6 A1 J2
0 Sx Sy ALERT A1
4 5 4 5 A2 v cc 1
GND NC GND A2 A1 2
3
P82B715P TMP75
0
0 CON3
0
J3
J4
v cc v cc v cc v cc 1
1 A2 2
2
+5 VDC CON2
C4

2.2u
C3

100n
C1

100n
C2

100n
3

0 CON3

0 0 0

Fig. 3. Board of the LPT-to-I2C adapter and associated Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of a measurement node based on
I2C LabVIEW library. the TMP75 digital sensor.

16

I 2C
Signals TMP75
Fig. 5. Measurement node based on the TMP75 digital sensor
(main board and sensor mounting adapter).
the TMP175 temperature sensor having similar features, but
allowing up to 27 devices to be addressed on a single bus
interface (in this case, one, two or all address pins could be
left float – the associated jumper will not be connected). Both
sensors are capable of a ±1.5 °C accuracy over the
temperature range from -25 °C to +85 °C, with a
measurement resolution of 0.0625 °C.
III. APPLICATION SOFTWARE
The application software makes use of I2C Driver API for
the developed LPT-to-I2C adapter, while further taking
advantage of LabVIEW capabilities for data analysis,
visualization and storage. It provides user-friendly operation
and accommodates multiple functionality, including (Fig. 6):
™ selecting the remote temperature sensor to be read
(from the pull-down menu);
™ selecting the desired measurement resolution: 0.5 °C,
0.250 °C, 0.125 °C or 0.0625 °C;
™ displaying the current value of the ambient
temperature, as well as its minimum and maximum
values over time;
™ displaying the temperature vs. time as a graph;
™ recording temperature data together with timestamps
to text files, etc.
This software version allows reading only the designated
Fig. 6. Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the LabVIEW application
software for temperature monitoring.
17
temperature sensor, but it can easily be modified to
selectively scan any number of sensors. The temperature data
can be recorded automatically, at predefined time intervals
(e.g., 2 minutes, as in Fig. 6), and/or manually, at any
moment, by simply pressing the “Save Now” button. For
quick review and management, the content of the data files
can be imported directly into Microsoft Excel.
A snapshot of the block diagram of the LabVIEW
application is shown in Fig. 7. Basically, it reflects the two-
wire timing diagram of the TMP75, by calling I2C VIs in
sequence and configuring them with proper information, as
specified in the TMP75’s datasheet. First, 9, 10, 11 or 12 bits
of resolution are achieved by addressing the Configuration
Register of the TMP75 and setting the resolution bits
accordingly (in the sequence structure at the top of the block
diagram). Then, in a while loop, the two’s complement
temperature data are continuously read each second from the
Temperature Register, converted to Celsius degrees and
displayed in digital and graphical format. Additional data
processing is used for retaining the maximum and minimum
temperature values from launching the program, as well as for
implementing the recording algorithm with various options.
If necessary, additional software features can be added with
less or more effort, depending on the application. These may
include: visual and acoustic alarms for each temperature
sensor, simple and advanced temperature statistics, e-mail
and SMS notifications when the temperature exceeds a
certain limit, creating average room temperature profiles,
generation of automatic reports, etc.
Moreover, it is possible to perform web-based temperature
monitoring with just a few clicks of the mouse. Remote users
can view and control the front panel (GUI) of the application
over the Internet, either from LabVIEW or from a Web
browser, by connecting to the LabVIEW built-in Web Server.
When using a Web browser, only the prior installation of
LabVIEW Run-Time Engine, a free program that gives full
support for viewing and executing remote front panels in web
Fig. 7. Block diagram of the LabVIEW application
software for temperature monitoring.
pages, is required on client PCs [17], [18].
IV. SYSTEM OPERATION
The system operation was proven to be reliable and
straightforward. Regarding the I2C communication distance,
we connected a TMP75-based measurement node at the end
of a 94-meter long CAT 5 cable, as shown in Fig. 8, and then
we placed this cable in different electromagnetic
environments within the building of our faculty. During the
tests, we measured a communication speed around 47 kHz,
which is high enough compared to the minimum operating
frequency for SCL, 1 kHz [16]. Longer distances are
probably possible, but a point to watch is the signal
attenuation caused by the DC resistance of the wires.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated that, using low-cost digital sensor
ICs and LabVIEW programming, it is possible to implement
powerful temperature monitoring solutions, with minimum of
hardware and time invested in software development.
However, since the I2C Driver API for LabVIEW will
theoretically work with any other digital sensor with I2C
interface, it is also possible to integrate different sensor types
(temperature, humidity, light, gas, proximity, etc.) into a
unique network system having a similar architecture, but
adapted to various requirements and necessities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Texas Instruments for offering of the
TMP75 and P82B715 integrated circuits used in this work, as
well as for their support in previous educational and research
projects.
27.000 °C
26.9 °C
Fig. 8. System components connected by a long cable. Comparison
to a commercial temperature data logger.
18
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