Hello everyone!

A brief introduction of this project.

What you see presented here is a home made (or DIY) project through which I wanted to check the consumption of some electronic devices that work in direct current. I especially wanted the power source that provides energy to be a battery, also because more and more people are starting to use photovoltaic panels, and as you well know, energy is stored in batteries, big batteries. For example, I had at my disposal a 12V battery, not very powerful.

What does consumption mean? That is, the power (voltage x current) consumed over time by an electronic device. These electrical parameters (voltage, current, power) are obtained by measuring with the help of transducers (voltage or current). In this stage of data acquisition, we also used analog electronic circuits. You can find a description in the link below.

The electrical parameters are displayed locally, on a 16x2 LCD. From here things start to become more familiar. How did I display the data? Well, with the help of our friend the Arduino Nano. From the analog circuits used for data acquisition, I took some voltage signals that I connected to the ADC port of the Arduino board. The signals are interpreted, entered into calculation formulas, and thus the Voltage-Current-Power results.

The local display of data is obviously useful, but what would it be like to see these data without being on the spot? Well, that's what I used NodeRed for. I have not worked with such interfaces, it is the first time I use it. I like to make things, I'm not very good at programming, so I opened the internet and started documenting myself as best I could. I did the first tests with NodeRed, as usual, with DHT11 connected to the Arduino and data retrieval in NodeRed. Pretty nice graphic interface, charts, gauges, etc.

After doing these tests, I moved on to my project.

Through NodeRed I was able to access the graphical interface from a distance.

Obviously, I have to mention the fact that everything didn't work out the first time, you ask a friend, you borrow something, it's something normal.

The results of the measurements are quite good, compared to those measured with a DMM for example, I was really pleasantly surprised. I mean, a difference of a few mV or mA was to be expected, I can't say that I had the most precise calibration of the created system, but it is a very positive result.

The use of IoT technology for monitoring specific electrical parameters of autonomous power systems

Table of contents

 General elements about electric transducers

 Description of the electrical parameters monitoring system

 Simulation of electronic scheme

 Practical achievements of the system

 Data processing unit

 System software components

 ANNEXES

Introduction

The project aims to carry out some operations to monitor the most important electrical parameters that characterize an autonomous source of power, namely the voltage that this source provides, and the current that is absorbed by a consumer connected to the source terminals. This electronic assembly is addressed to use in the case of power supply that operates in DC, whose electrical, voltage and current parameters vary in time and depend on the power absorbed by the consumer, which is why it has been opted for studying on an autonomous power source. Meeting some electronic and home appliances, electric vehicles. The rechargeable battery is probably the most popular source of autonomous power. This energy source has made it possible to move from the dependence on the power supply of electronics and other devices of this kind, to portability, namely mobile phones, laptops, electric machines.

This is a sketch, more information can be found in the documentation attached below accessing the link to my drive. I could not upload these files here on the site.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yb-0X00C4WSuacLhXJ_IriCPPJSw3lnW?usp=sharing

You will be able to access both the software part with codes, and the hardware part with electronic schematics and gerbers files for those interested in the modules. Numerous pictures are available that capture the different stages in which this project was.

Almost all the electronic circuits were made with local resources, so there are not too many electronic components were bought, I applied the "recover-reuse" method. But, if you follow the electronic diagrams, you will easily identify the electronic components. It is not easy for me to buy components from outside the country, in general the costs of purchases from outside the country are not justified here.

It's good that we have a computer and programs for designing, creating documentation, schemes, etc. It really helps us. Of course, there was also manual work, and this should not be forgotten, such as when preparing a base plate (drills, mounting screws); mounting submodules; soldering components on PCBs; there are also enough wires, shorter or longer. Maybe sometimes you don't have everything you need to work, so you borrow tools from a friend, like a drill machine. But all these are part of home made projects. The working time was several weeks, but working on a personal basis, I don't consider it as lost time.

Non-Commercial purpose, informational only.

Thank you and don't forget to press the "Like" button if you think so ! 🤓