[FARC] Mounting Hardware

Wed Feb 26 22:44:57 EST 2014

Brian,

I tried the same thing over 40 years ago. We did not have lasers
then but I rigged up an incandescent lamp and a series of lenses
to focus the light into a pretty narrow beam. Mounted this on top
of the glass cover on the meter with a photo cell mounted below.

It worked great. . . until the sun came out. There was so much
scattered sunlight that the photocell was just saturated. I can't
remember back that far if I tried to shield it or just gave up.

You may have an advantage with the laser since the sensitivity of
the photocell can be much less than what I needed. You may be lucky
enough to have your meter on the North side of your house in which
case the sun would be less of a problem. You could also put the
photocell at the bottom of a long small diameter pipe which would
shield it from sunlight.

I have not played with the Raspberry Pi. I use the PICAXE series 
which cost next to nothing.  One PICAXE controls the water into my
fountain/birdbath in the summer. Now there is a 100W heater in there
that just runs all the time. This is enough to keep at least a small
patch of water open even when the temperature dips into the teens. 

I also use a PICAXE in my RC airplane to collect telemetry data, format
the data, and send it to the ground via a 433mHz transmitter. The
received data goes into another PICAXE which verifies the integrity of
the data and then enunciates the altitude, heading, battery voltage, and
elapsed time.  The audio comes out of an EEPROM to a DAC under control
of the PICAXE.  I recorded the numbers and words using the Windows Sound
Recorder, edited the .WAV files and then programmed them into the EEPROM.
I plan to redo this and use an SD card rather than the EEPROM. Programming
with the PICAXE is a challenge since it has a limited instruction set with
no floating point capability or even negative numbers.

Am looking forward to seeing how you make out with your project.

Mark

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian McEntire" <brian.mcentire at gmail.com>
To: "Maryland ARC Frederick" <farc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 6:50:28 PM
Subject: Re: [FARC] Mounting Hardware

Thanks Mark!
That sounds very promising and the price is right. (Was browsing McMaster
Carr looking for "proper" mounts and thats always a bit like drooling over
exotic sports cars and then seeing the price tag :)

I'll follow-up if I need any help and I appreciate your offer. I think the
metal conduit and PVC T should give good support.

When I get a good semi-permanent set-up in place I'll write a blog post and
send a link out to you or to this list. Basically I used a Raspberry Pi
($35 computer, size of the palm of your hand, and runs on 5v from a USB
charger) plus a laser pointer powered from the Pi and a photocell that
sends it's signal back to the Pi via a MCP3008 ADC chip. My analog home
electric meter has a spinning metal disk. I noticed it has 2 holes in it,
so if I shine the laser through the holes and use the photocell to pick up
the pulses I can record electric use based on that. Instantaneous use is
just based on the time between pulses and overall use is accumulated just
like on the meter itself. The prototype was very exciting, I could turn
lights on or off and instantly see the wattage used rise or fall by 60
watts, etc.

Small world! I remember your brother, he would come over and pet my dog in
the front yard.

On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 5:56 PM, <m.e.whitmore at comcast.net> wrote:

> Brian,
>
> Use three PVC "T"s and some metal conduit that will fit through
> the "T"s. One T slides along your horizontal pipe for the X axis
> adjustment. This T has a pipe extending down toward the ground.
> This is the Z axis and it has a second T which can slide up and
> down. The second T has a third T joined to it at right angles with
> a short piece of PVC pipe. A piece of metal pipe slides in this
> third T to provide the Y axis. Your reader would mount on the end
> of this piece of pipe.
>
> The reason for the metal pipe is that the Ts have to be able to
> slide. An alternative is to machine out the inside of the Ts so
> that you can use PVC pipe. I can do this for you if you want to
> try this solution.
>
> To keep everything in place, you drill small holes in the Ts and
> thread sheet metal screws into these holes. These will act as
> set-screws to hold the position once you are happy with it.
>
> I would love to be able to read my meter electronically. The letter
> I get from PE occasionally says that of my 100 neighbors, I rank
> number 100 and use three times as much as my "efficient" neighbors.
>
> What is the basic principal you are using to read the meter?
>
> Mark Whitmore (AB3KS)
>
> P.S. My brother used to own the house at 5864 Winter Oaks Place.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian McEntire" <brian.mcentire at gmail.com>
> To: "Maryland ARC Frederick" <farc at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 4:18:44 PM
> Subject: [FARC] Mounting Hardware
>
> I'm working on a DIY project to read my home electric meter in real time
> and log the data. I've got a working prototype based off a Raspberry Pi
> computer (neat little gadget!)
>
> I'm looking to make it more robust and I need a mounting solution. I need
> to be able to mount a square tube or round pole to a wooden front porch
> support pole. It would run horizontal about 2'. That would be easy to do
> except I'd like to be able to fine tune the placement of the reader, so
> need to be able to adjust this mount/reader combo about 2 inches in each
> axis (X, Y, Z.)
>
> It seemed somewhat similar to mounting an antenna so I wanted to ask if
> anyone here had suggestions for the name of the type of mount I would be
> looking for or if you know a good store in the area where I might find such
> a contraption.
>
> Thank you!
> Brian / KB3TCC
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-- 
Brian McEntire
Photographer & Owner
B Scott Photography

(240) 358-6655 studio
http://www.bscottphoto.com

http://facebook.com/bscottphotography
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