Imagine RTI 2012 edition

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Just came back this weekend from Imagine RIT. Imagine RIT is a huge science fair like event at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester New York. 30 thousand people come to look at exhibits from individual students, classes, graduate students, professors, and clubs. Anything from a Nerf ball cannon for the kids to enjoy, to robots, to biology experiment, to just about anything else under the sun.

I enjoy this event because I can visit with my son, but also just for the ability to bask in technology and not feel out of place as a geek. Where else (other than a Maker Fair) can you talk to people about Arduinos, LEGO, capillary action, OOblec, robotics, heart rate, electric cars, and video stabilization without anyone batting an eye?

For those in driving distance to RIT, you need to plan to attend this yearly event in early May.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Imagine RTI 2012 edition

Sparkfun AVC

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

I have always had a life goal of making a robot. As a kid I was going to make one from a child’s electric ride-in toy using 74 series logic from a book I had. Later I was going to build one around the Mattel Trax tank toy. Then I got involved with FIRST LEGO League and make dozens of small ones. But my goal to make a “real” robot has never been completed. Continue reading →

Posted in AVC, Projects | 2 Comments

Twitter notification

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

For those that may wish notification when I update my blog, you can follow me (SkyeSweeney) on Twitter.

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment

Unusual item for unusual project.

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Years ago when living near Binghamton New York I used to visit a junk yard on a fairly regular basis. They would take in lots of surplus stuff from some of the big manufacturers in the area including IBM, Singer-Link, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin. You could all kinds of funky stuff there and could often buy it for a song as long as the proprietor did not see any gold parts. Even a DB-25 connector with an angstrom of gold platting would boost your junk box from a five dollar purchase to 50.  Continue reading →

Posted in Arduino, Desk Clock | Comments Off on Unusual item for unusual project.

Overdue system diagram for power monitor

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Here is the system diagram (pdf format) for my power monitor. It is currently version 1.0. I reserve the right to update it as I learn more! I am alos working on a detailed paper that describes the whole system.

SystemDiagram

Posted in Home Energy Monitor, Projects | 6 Comments

Arduino code for PowerMeter using ADE7763

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

So here is the current version of the code. Not cleaned up yet, but it is functional. It does not include the code for the PIC processor needed only if you want to mux 30+ sensors into the one ADE. Just remove the BUS_xxx methods that are used to control the muxes.

PowerMeter

Posted in ADE7763, Arduino, Components, Furnace Monitor, Projects | 5 Comments

The Eagle has landed

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

I got in my shipment of spare parts to replace the one I smoked. After replacing the part, I ran a bunch of tests and let it run for 24 hours without any noticeable issues. So, its is time to layout a board for fab. Continue reading →

Posted in Home Energy Monitor, Projects | Comments Off on The Eagle has landed

Magnetic compass

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

As I wait for replacement parts from Digikey (smoked a processor), I started to play with a magnetic compass. This unit has a serial interface. It took me quite a while to figure out/remember that you can’t connect a serial device to the TX/RX lines of an Arduino and both program and use the serial port for the compass without connecting and disconnecting the compass. To get past this hurtle, I moved the compass to other pins and used the SoftwareSerial library from Arduino V1.0. Not too shabby.

By the end of my play hour, I had the compass up and running and providing 4Hz updates. Tonight I hope to start logging this data to look for magnetic shifts that are occurring due to solar storms. I subscribe to the NOAA space weather updates and get an email at least once a week warning of magnetic storms. Will be interesting to see if a consumer compass can see the shifts that are logged by scientists with special building sized magnetometers.

Posted in Projects | Comments Off on Magnetic compass

Smoke

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Over the weekend I got the new power monitior system put down on a breadboard. I am using one Arduino and one ADE7763 on a “motherboard”. On small daughter boards I am putting down a small PIC processor and an analog mux. Since the mux needs a negative voltage rail, I am also putting down a small charge pump voltage negater. The idea behind the daugther board was to allow me to add as many or as few as I wanted. They would plug into a stacked header (like Arduino shields) and bus over power ground the differential analog current signals and the clock and data lines that allow me to perform board selects using the PIC. Continue reading →

Posted in ADE7763, Home Energy Monitor, PIC, Projects | Comments Off on Smoke

Power Monitor redesign

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Over the last week or so, I have been side tracked by breaking dishwashers and clothes washing machines. But I have had some time to work on the redesign of the Power Monitor. Due to costs, I decided to give up the energy integration I would have enjoyed with an ADE7763 per current sensor to a much lower cost system with analog muxes to connect a current sensor to a single ADE7763.

Earlier this week I placed the order for the needed parts and they arrived yesterday. This weekend I plan to test the mux chips to make sure they do not distort the current sensor signals before they get to the ADE7763. If this works, it will be time to rewrite a few yards of code and test out the new concept.

Posted in Home Energy Monitor, Projects | Comments Off on Power Monitor redesign