This website contains my experiences with measuring and controlling and electronics, for this I use the 1-wire devices of Maxim. The 1-wire components use a signal bus on two wires, the power of the components can also be derived from signal bus. The bus can be controlled via USB or I2C. The bus usually has a baudrate of 19k2. Each device has its own identifier of 64 bits on the bus. The 1-wire devices can be a temperature sensor, 16 bit ADC, IO. With the use of a linux server and OWFS it is possible to build all kinds temperature controls and weather stations etc.
Why using 1-wire devices?, for me: very stable, no batteries!, the 1-wire bus lines can be long compared to I2C.