Since the weekend I’ve been trying to work out why the code to upload data to my Cosm feed was falling over after random periods of time. Sometimes it lasted for a few hours before dying, but others it lasted just minutes. There was no readily visible pattern, so it was time to get Googling and also accumulate a bit more data so I could get a better handle on…
Having established how to power my CurrentCost monitor, the next step was to start using an Arduino to upload the data to one of the many Internet of Things (or IoT) data bucket sites out there and – for a first step – Cosm (what used to be called Pachube) seemed like as good a starting point as any. The above graphs are generated using PachuBlog (which will no doubt get renamed CosmBlog…
A while back I saw a new product on Adafruit’s blog and instantly thought “I gotta get me one of those!” Its official title was “Adafruit Ultimate GPS Breakout – 66 channel w/10 Hz updates – MTK3339 chipset” and the feature list just kept on scrolling down the page. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I had no immediately obvious plans for connecting an Arduino up to a…
Regular readers will remember I’d previously had a problem trying to run an Arduino from the power line of a CurrentCost CC128 energy monitor using the CurrentCost’s own PSU for both devices, wherein as soon as you connected the additional load of an Arduino, the CurrentCost stopped getting readings from its remote sensor. The reason for wanting to do this – I should point out – is that it seems…
Here’s a little tip for you; if you’re experimenting with an Arduino and a CurrentCost, trying to see if you can power one from the other and you have the 3.3v pin on the Arduino connected to the unregulated power line on the CurrentCost’s interface port, don’t then have a brain fade and plug the CC128’s PSU back in … It’s fried something on the Uno with the upshot being…
As part of a “grand plan”, I’m thinking about how to implement a feature rich Arduino web application, without getting myself tied up in knots worrying about blowing the capabilities of the ATmega in terms of program size, memory size or processor speed. Without an SD card to store all the files on, the simple logical answer is to hand off as much work as possible to “someone else”, so…
Hmm, my plan for powering an Arduino from the CurrentCost energy monitor has hit a little snag – the idea was to use the 3.8v unregulated supply on pin 1 from the CurrentCost. I could then run either a Xino at 3.3v or boost it up to 5v. However, as soon as I put any load on that supply, the energy readings on the CC128 display flatline and there’s nothing in the data…
Despite some of the shonkiest soldering in living memory, the Xino Basic that arrived the other week is now built up and – rather amazingly – fired up first time. Well, to be fair, the soldering itself wasn’t really the problem; it was more a combination of me simply not putting components in straight/flush before flipping the board over and soldering, and in one case, totally ignoring the build guide…
Last week I got a hold of a new kit from Ciseco for an Arduino ethernet shield based on the ENC28J60 chip and spent some time today soldering it up. Now, to be brutally honest, the only soldering I’ve done for a long time before now involved a gas-powered iron and a Ford Capri, so I wasn’t sure how much of a challenge the kit would be, but I was…
Postman’s just delivered a little box of treats from Ciseco. Having taken them out of their wrappers, I’m a little nervous about ruining their nice clean appearance through my ham-fisted attempts at soldering, but the upside is that these kits are at the bargain basement end of the price spectrum, so if I really trash something it’s not going to be an expensive mistake. Who knows how long I will…
Rapid Online supply a range of pipe-clip temp sensors, for a couple of pounds each, that will be useful for monitoring temperatures within the heating system. Granted, they’re never going to give me actual water temperatures as they’re measuring the pipe rather than the water itself, however, over time they (should) give consistent data, which is just as good for my purposes. For 15mm copper pipe, the clip size to get is 16-18mm – I…
So I don’t lose track of them, a few notes on getting data out of a CurrentCost CC128 energy monitor and into an Arduino. Think of it as a placeholder for a proper post… http://www.techtoniq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=385 http://www.currentcost.com/cc128/xml.htm http://currentcost.wetpaint.com/ http://currentcost.posterous.com/envi-and-envir-history-output http://web.archive.org/web/20100724220142/http://e.inste.in/2008/06/16/interfacing-the-currentcost-meter-to-an-arduino/ http://web.archive.org/web/20100603083756/http://e.inste.in/2008/06/15/interfacing-the-currentcost-meter-to-your-pc/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelfrenzy/2499443217/ Some folks seem to be reporting different pinouts and baud rates, but that may be because they’re not being specific about which monitor they actually have. For my CC128…
The man from the Ministry … he say “yes” Advisories on the sills and the exhaust, but they’ve been advisories for at least the previous two MOTs and are on the to-do list, so don’t bother me. I think the issue with the handbrake is most likely simply the cable stretching (it’s probably still the 29 year old original) combined with the self-adjusters already being at the maximum travel of their…
I never did get outside before it started snowing So, I bought a new starter motor off t’Interweb and it arrived all nice and shiny, but it was only when I came to fit it that I realised it was missing a little spade connector on the solenoid. Turns out that though it was advertised as being for the Capri amongst a great many others, it’s actually a Sierra item ……
Current status is that the MOT expired in October and it never got put in for a fresh one due to other distractions, so it’s sulking just a little at the minute. If that wasn’t the least of its’ problems, it got turfed out of the garage to make some storage room “just for a couple of weeks” … three months ago Purely for the sake of doing something, I ordered…