Project Journals > Rover

RE Monitoring sytem, updating and adding automation control

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Rover:
Hi All,

As a lot of people know that frequent the IRC channel, I have a homebuilt RE monitoring system based around a low power PC and a LABJACK U6 PRO DAQ. It exists in the power shed and monitors solar and wind power, battery bank voltage level, outgoing power and temperature.

I've decided to extend the system to also control the devices that use the  power (LED landscape lighting (a lot), Shed Fan, a 1500 GPH waterfall pump, and some other stuff ). Currently this is being accomplished by a bunch of discrete timers.

This is really not that hard of an endeavor as the Labjack has a bunch of DIOs that I can use to control relays.

The following picture show current progress as of this morning, basically hooking everything up and testing with a laptop on the bench that I can activate the relays .

Components LABJACK U6PRO, CB37 breakout board (used for analog measurements, nothing connected as this is bench testing, its twin is running in the shed with another LabJack), PS12DC Switching board (12 channel switch board , optically isolated from the LabJack, 750mA possible switch current per channel, DIO controlled) , 2 relay modules (each with 4 10A Mosfet controlled relays).
Total current consumption is somewhere between 100 and 150mA with all relays energized as seen on the current reading on the adjacent power supply.



 

Wolvenar:
Wow I just looked them up, those labjack are kinda spendy huh?

Rover:
Yep, no argument there, although I have one of the higher priced ones, the lower priced ones, like the U3 would work as well. I just wanted the higher ADC bit depth etc. I also like Labjack for the large amount of online support.

They are very reliable, the one in the shed has been running for 3 years.

I used to build my own, this just became easier, and I'm using a very low power Intel NUC PC in the shed to control it.

Rover:
This is just a different approach and it works for me.
I am fully aware the cost of this is quite a bit , but I went for what I could do with the platform. You can, and a lot have, even I , use a PI , Arduino , or other base to do the same. In this case I just wanted to roll everything up onto a single platform, have a database , have a onboard webserver and the room to expand as desired.

If you have greater than a  KW of RE resources than this might be a different approach, its scalability is underdetermined. 

Rover

MadScientist267:
Good to see others posting on the concept... One thing is for sure.. No matter what's under the hood, automation and centralizing control is extremely addictive... Started out with mine just wanting to log some vitals... then the idea "if I could just control this based on that" came into play, and somehow or another, every pin on the Pi is used up and I've still got a list of things left to tack on LOL

Looks good Rover, just proceed at your own risk :o :P

Steve

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