Comments on: DIY Android Home Energy Monitor

By: Amparo

Amparo — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:05:16 +0000

Interesting perspective on the new Android features. I never thought about it quite that way before. Go Androids!

By: Hassan Garvey

Hassan Garvey — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:58:32 +0000

The free energy devices have been suppressed by the corporate world, because such devices, would allow people to create their own energy for free, which would ultimately shut down the big energy corporations, because people won’t need to pay anymore for electricity to fill their pockets.

By: Russo

Russo — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:59:05 +0000

I think It’s authentically an astonishing gadget to get in my collection. Does any person have aopinion where I can buy it? Any suggestions?

By: Diane

Diane — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:42:46 +0000

Super! +a good description to help put it all together.
You must have plans for this, so here’s a prod:
put it up on Instructables.com soon.
And let all those folks who didn’t make it to Maker Faire have at it too.

By: sabrina

sabrina — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:41:02 +0000

Hey there, link is fixed. Let us know how you experiment with it!

By: peter t

peter t — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:33:50 +0000

could you post the URL to the beagle sw package with kernel and android rootfs? thanks!

By: dan

dan — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:38:21 +0000

You could used a relfective object sensor like the one used here http://community.pachube.com/node/65 that would be pretty quick for counting the turns of the electricity wheel.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:44:13 +0000

Anyone know which usb hub that is? I like how small it is.

By: Willem

Willem — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:21:22 +0000

I’ve had something like this running on my house for a while now. The link above shows you the graphs that I generate.

I’m lucky that my power meter flashes every 1/1000th of a kilowatt, so all I need is a photo sensor to catch my power “blips” as it were.

However all is not lost for you! You can avoid the OCR route(I’ll talk about that a bit later) the large wheel that denotes 1/1000th kilowatt hours has a black line scored into the front of it that can be measured with one of these: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=6276556

if you do want to go down the ocr route, then openCv is the library for you. It has python bindings (though on the beagle board, its probably much better to use the native C.) one way to improve the eissq.com workflow is to mask off the edge of the dials (so the text has been removed), you could then skip straight to the hough transform. as there is only one line (the needle) you should only get one result(!).

I have some photos of my setup, drop me an email if you want a look at the code/setup

By: Todd Mc

Todd Mc — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:58:33 +0000

This is way stupid. I would reather have this monitor how many beers are left in my 1940s fridge. Whats the point? wow I know how much power my over sized Mc Mansion, Ya baby like I want less power? NOT and I don’t want to get charged carbon credits for using it. I’m already paying to much.

This is just another solution without reason, and what does this gadget run on? happy hippie thoughts and rainbows? No it runs on the power it’s watching making people use more power.

The only way to save power is not USE IT and unplug, nice try guys but the BIG G has enough of our info now, how about teaching people to say electricity by correcting power factor on their houses and saving real money.