Room Thermometer

Just add an A/D converter and a few discrete LEDs to this temperature sensor chip and you get a simple thermometer. This application builds an accurate and stable thermometer displaying room temperature with a resolution of 1 °C.The MAX6610 from MAXIM is a relative newcomer to the field of temperature sensing IC’s. The chip has a built-in voltage reference and an analogue output scaled to simplify integration with an 8 or 10-bit A/D converter (see textbox). A simple room thermometer does not usually require such precision and we run a risk of being accused of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but the chip is quite versatile and this application provides a useful introduction to some of the features of the device. For more information on this device see the inset.