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Computer labs Gleason 3159
and Gleason 3149

contain high-power workstations used to
design semiconductors.

This process produces a lot of heat.

The HVAC system in the room commonly
breaks down

causing excessive heat to build up within
the room.

These high temperatures can interrupt
computer processes

and cause poor computational performance

and uncomfortable conditions for people
who may be using the lab.

Our solution is to install a system in
each room

that alerts the IT admin when the
temperature or humidity of the room

increases to an unacceptable level.

This system uses a custom control hub
and two custom satellite hubs

within each room to communicate with
RIT’s Zabbix system,

a network monitoring software.

Each control hub and satellite node
is built around a custom PCB.

This diagram shows which components on
each circuit board

interact with each other and
how the boards interact.

This diagram can help with
troubleshooting in the event

of an error or malfunction within
one of the components.

After taking various measurements
throughout the room

using commercial temperature and humidity
sensors

it was found that the room temperature was

relatively consistent throughout the
room.

We determined that it would be best
to place

the sensing satellite nodes in the
Northwest and Southeast corners

of each room with the control hub being
placed in the Northeast corner,

near the door for accessibility.

The control board is responsible for
receiving the values from the satellites,

communicating with the client,
and displaying the values in the room.

It is powered through power-over-ethernet,
or PoE.

It contains a power multiplexer to
differentiate between USB-C power and PoE,

a voltage regulator to lower the 5 volts
to 3.3 volts,

an ethernet controller,

an RP2040 microcontroller paired
with flash memory,

and a light sensor.

An expansion port is also included for
any modifications

the client may want to make in the future.

The satellite board measures the
temperature and humidity data

and sends the data back to the control hub.

The onboard sensor communicates with a
I²C controller on the

board then sends the data back to the
microcontroller on the control board.

Two connectors are included on each board
which allows

multiple boards to be daisy-chained together.

The different satellite boards in a chain
can be identified

using an LED on the board.

Our software stack targets the
microcontroller on the control hub

and is written in Rust using the Embassy
framework,

chosen for its memory safety, modularity,
and developer efficiency.

The software handles network requests,
reads sensor data,

and writes to the screen.

It interfaces with the ethernet
controller via SPI,

with interrupts enabling efficient frame
processing.

A stable MAC address is generated from
the processor’s unique ID,

and the software supports DHCP,
TCP, and UDP,

with UDP facilitating SNMP communication
with KGCOE’s monitoring systems.

The microcontroller’s PIO subsystem
offloads 1-Wire signaling

to dedicated state machines, freeing the
CPU for other tasks.

A second SPI port drives a write-only
display using a custom driver

and library for text and graphics
rendering,

with the display’s controller handling
image persistence and LCD refreshing.

Before the conclusion of this semester,

the modules will be installed in both
labs.

To minimize obtrusion to the design
of the labs,

the modules and wires will be placed in
wiremold raceway and boxes,

which are common in areas throughout
RIT’s buildings.