OpenEnergyMonitor, Node-Red, MQTT

All that effort to build a connected charging station brought its first victory as we were finally able to regulate charging based on the solar energy available. Since we had issues with our solar installation (panels are installed, but we’re still waiting for the bureaucrats approval and meter installation to activate them), we went to a friends house to experiment with his installation.

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Front cover protection and dealing with suppliers

At the end of the front cover post I mentioned that we were working with a plastic sheet supplier to design an adhesive protector for the cover. I was pretty excited when I got the package today, but that excitement quickly turned into rage and frustration as soon as I opened it: the parts that should have been transparent are red instead.

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Board testing: it’s fun, they said

 

This post is written by my friend (and now colleague/intern :) ) [Michele], who worked on the test board. I assigned him this task as it’s the best way to learn about the boards and get up to speed with the project. It also seemed a great way to test the really interesting Exclave project from [bunnie], but -spoiler alert- we’ll have to wait for that.

After manufacturing the boards, we need to test them to make sure that the assembly house built them correctly. This is my first time designing a nail bed, however the task seems quite simple. I have to test the following:

  • Short circuits
  • Voltage levels from the various power supplies
  • Current consumption
  • Communication (RS485, I2C, SPI …)
  • Other signals to and from the board

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My 2 cents for Linux

Image result for tux chip linux

While I am definitely a hardware guy, I also really like to write software, either as the firmware for the devices I build or as quick hacks to improve my daily routines. I’ve always been a Windows guy because all electronics development software was only available for that platform until recently, and I have a love/hate relationship with Linux: I tried many times to use it as my main OS, but I always had to revert to windows for one reason or another (but mostly laziness, I must admit).

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