Datasheets, simulations, and good ol’ normal math will help us make predictions about energy consumption or manufacturing, however the actual world doesn’t care about any of that and the one option to get reliable numbers is to gather precise measurements. Nevertheless, that may be tough — particularly if the system in query is in a spot the place you don’t wish to sit with a multimeter for hours or weeks on finish. That’s why Adrian designed this DIY machine to assist folks monitor and log DC energy move.
Whereas amassing actual energy knowledge is an issue that Adrian has confronted many occasions, it turned notably obvious whereas he was engaged on his WINTURER transportable battery-charging wind turbine venture. The entire level of that venture was to generate energy, so knowledge was vital in serving to Adrian optimize the design. Adrian developed this machine to gather that knowledge and is sharing the design with the world so anybody can use it when engaged on their very own tasks.
This vitality meter operates in a quite simple manner: simply join it consistent with the load. It’ll measure voltage and present, which it may then use to calculate energy in real-time and energy over time. It exhibits that data on a small display on the machine itself, but in addition uploads it to a Blynk cloud IoT dashboard for logging. There are completely different choices for connecting to Blynk’s on-line servers, together with WiFi and a mobile modem.
The guts of the machine is a Wemos D1 Mini-style ESP8266 growth board. That takes energy measurements utilizing an Adafruit INA219 module and exhibits the outcomes on an Adafruit SSD1306 OLED display. These elements solder onto a customized through-hole PCB and match inside a 3D-printed enclosure and Adrian offers two variations to swimsuit consumer wants. The primary features a house for a small energy financial institution with an 18650 lithium battery cell. The second doesn’t and is supposed for use with a wall wart energy provide or a big energy financial institution for long run monitoring.
In both case, Blynk’s free plan needs to be sufficient for knowledge from one vitality meter — although there are paid plans in the event you require further assets.