at first, i was reading about arduino but i saw its alot to do for such a small need
my intention is to turn on/off a relay from outside my home that controlls my water tank heater, so i will have a hot shower when i get home 
arduino needs a wifi shield, setup webserver or something similar and…seems a bit too much to do around.
The imp has its wifi built in, web server…so i just need to do the core stuff.
I know its a small project, but i guess that at the end i will try smarter things, so i thought buying the hannah board instead of April. it wont make basic development harder for starters, right?
part from some programming on the imp itself, is there anything else i need for controlling a solid state relay?
is it really just to wire it together and thats it?
I need to buy such a relay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Solid-State-Relay-SSR-40DA-40A-250V-W-I-O-3-32VDC-24-380VAC-Heat-Sink-/200879972574?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec56120de
the output of the hannah board, will it suffice to control that relay, or do i need something more?
Please guide me as much as possible, as i see the community is very small, whereas the arduino has a very large one.
Two differences in the Arduino hardware compared to this one are:
- Arduino pins can source more current
- Imp runs at 3.3V while Arduino mostly are running at 5V
Some Arduino boards run at 3.3V.
My point is: You can also search the Arduino forums for advice about the project. Beer-brewing forums and even homeroasters.org (coffee bean roasting) will have good information.
You are pretty much correct about the outline of your project. The bulk of the work will be physically connecting the wiring and figuring out the safety of it all.
is there any “starters kit” for the electric imp, similar to the arduino, where i can have wires and other equipment such as digital screen, counter or such items to have some nicer output?
and what about the power supply for the imp to work? i cant see it in the pictures where i plug and what exactly
Can I access my imp over the internet easily? Or do i need to setup an http server
Can i output some data to a small screen?
I see the hannah and april, but dont know which one will be enough.
i think that the best would be led for indicating on/off status and lcd screen to show when it was turned on/off.
I have one of these, and it works perfectly fine with my imps:
http://www.powerswitchtail.com/Pages/PSTKKit.aspx
If you don’t want to bother with soldering, this one is already assembled:
http://www.powerswitchtail.com/Pages/default.aspx
If you want to put it outside, you might need something water proof to put it in. One thing to consider is that you can’t power the imp directly with this. You will need a separate power input to power your imp.
Im not planning to put it outside, but inside near the current regular switch.
I bought something else:
Other than this, the imp & April board, I want to have serial lcd display for information display, button for manual turn on/off and some led indicator.
so the april would be enough, right? as i need actually 4 ports.
What about power unit? if 3.3v or 5v?
once i take a power supply and connect it to the imp & display, how long will it last?
About display, will it work with the imp?