Circuit to get highest reading value from multiple thermistors?

Question

I need to measure temperature of 6 battery cells. I don't care much about individual cell readings, I just want to sound a buzzer as soon as at least one of the temperatures is above a certain threshold.

I can see the most straightforward way to do it using 6 thermistors, but that's a lot of wires going between Arduino and all these sensors. Is there any other approach that would be more lightweight? Trying to save both space and weight.

If I understand correctly, best I can do with 6 thermistors is share the GND wire and resistor between them, but then I'm still stuck with 6 * 2 + 1 = 13 wires.

• jsotola: not arduino specific

Answer 1

DS18b20 digital thermometers use the 1-Wire protocol which requires only a single data line for a network of devices - so +V (3.3 - 5 Volts), Gnd, and Data, shared among all of them. You can even wire them in "Parasitic mode", skipping the +V, and they will get their power from the data line, so only 2 wires and 1 pin required.
From the DS18b20 Datasheet:

From the DS18b20 Datasheet:

• user80325: Thanks, this is exactly what I needed.