[FARC] Mounting Hardware

Thu Feb 27 14:08:24 EST 2014

This is a pretty neat project! 

I purchased a device years ago that
had a combination of an IR LED and a photoreceptor. It mounted on the
front face of the electric meter and shined on the *edge* of the
rotating disk. There's a black stripe painted on the disk, and the
device would look for an interruption of the reflection of the IR light
as the disk rotated. Each time one was encountered, it would send a
pulse. The whole thing was about the size of my thumb and mounted on the
glass with double-sided tape. 

I need to dig that thing up and mount it
again. I'd thought of attaching it to a one-wire pulse counter, and then
use a one-wire network (already have) to query the counter for
information on occasion. It would tie into my existing home automation
system. (Before anyone asks, I'm pretty sure the company that made it
went out of business a long time ago.) 

I'm a big proponent of the
Raspberry Pi and congratulate you on your idea for how to use it! Glad
you asked our club for ideas; we have a lot of really, really bright
folks. 

73, 

--David, K3PO 

On 2014-02-26 22:44,
m.e.whitmore at comcast.net wrote: 

> 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
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