[FARC] Mounting Hardware

Brian McEntire brian.mcentire at gmail.com
Thu Feb 27 17:53:39 EST 2014 

I almost tried something like that David! I even ordered a part that might
do it from SparkFun, called the QRE1113 Line Sensor. (
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9454) But when it arrived and I saw it, I
had several concerns. Foremost, I figured it might work okay at night, but
would probably get swamped by daylight. Second, was afraid the meter reader
wouldn't appreciate something actually stuck on the meter and might pull it
off. And last, that line is only marked once per revolution. Once I noticed
the two holes I realized I cold get twice the resolution/faster feedback
even when the disk was spinning slow. Plus... lasers!  ;)

To Mark's post using incandescent light and lenses, that sounds like quite
a contraption! And thanks for the lead on the PICAXE. That's another new
thing I didn't know existed and will file away for potential use in some
future project. Really like the idea of remote sensors (like temp,
occupancy, power monitoring etc) and integrating them into something
smarter for logging and maybe running the HVAC in a smarter way. Stuff that
was really cost prohibitive or impossible a few years or decades ago is
becoming quite possible with these integrated devices and systems on chip!


On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:08 PM, <david at retroscape.com> wrote:

>
>
> 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
> > B Scott
> Photography
> >
> > (240) 358-6655 studio
> > http://www.bscottphoto.com
> [5]
> >
> > http://facebook.com/bscottphotography [6]
> >
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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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