For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound
wrote:

For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

A quick google came up with:

https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/58.html

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/arduino-ac-voltmeter

https://www.briandorey.com/post/ardu...e-and-current-
logging

Avpx

--
And the child had a permanently runny nose and ought to be provided with
a handkerchief or, failing that, a cork.
(Lords and Ladies)
12:45:01 up 13 days, 23:13, 15 users, load average: 1.66, 1.05, 0.76

On 12/04/2018 12:51, The Nomad wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound
wrote:

For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

A quick google came up with:

https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/58.html

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/arduino-ac-voltmeter

https://www.briandorey.com/post/ardu...e-and-current-
logging

Avpx

Thanks, that second one looks like a good basis.

On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 1:59:45 PM UTC+1, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 12:51, The Nomad wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound
wrote:

For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

A quick google came up with:

https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/58.html

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/arduino-ac-voltmeter

https://www.briandorey.com/post/ardu...e-and-current-
logging

Avpx

Thanks, that second one looks like a good basis.

Won't the capacitor smooth out any transients you might want to observe?

On 13/04/2018 07:48, Halmyre wrote:
On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 1:59:45 PM UTC+1, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 12:51, The Nomad wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound
wrote:

For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

A quick google came up with:

https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/58.html

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/arduino-ac-voltmeter

https://www.briandorey.com/post/ardu...e-and-current-
logging

Avpx

Thanks, that second one looks like a good basis.

Won't the capacitor smooth out any transients you might want to observe?

I am looking for transients longer than maybe a second or so. Obviously,
might need to experiment with capacitors a bit.

On 13/04/18 10:24, newshound wrote:
On 13/04/2018 07:48, Halmyre wrote:
On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 1:59:45 PM UTC+1, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 12:51, The Nomad wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound
wrote:

For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels
(live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

A quick google came up with:

https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/58.html

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/arduino-ac-voltmeter


https://www.briandorey.com/post/ardu...e-and-current-
logging

Avpx

Thanks, that second one looks like a good basis.

Won't the capacitor smooth out any transients you might want to observe?

I am looking for transients longer than maybe a second or so. Obviously,
might need to experiment with capacitors a bit.

Hmm. My instinct would be to sample MUCH more frequently than that and
sample AC as well so that you get a really good set of smaples, and then
do any filtering in 'software'

I dunno how long an arduino trakes to do a sample but it cant be that long

Oh. It seems you can sample at up to 9.6Khz...that should do nicley -
and take an RMS value of the waverorm and moving average it out over the
last say one second...and use that to store.

Or uses a shirfter period for more sensitivity to transients

Basically you need a small mains transformer to step down to about 5VAC
or so, then a voltage diveider to set the mean voltage in the middle of
the arduino range, and a pot to scale the output to - say 0-5V
representing up to say 500V peak...


If say you are taking 5khz samples you will need a nmemoiryy buffer of
5000 16 bits (10k of RAM) to store the samples and a further location
to do the running average in.

Well within an arduino I'd say.







--
"The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll
look exactly the same afterwards."

Billy Connolly

On 13/04/2018 10:24, newshound wrote:
On 13/04/2018 07:48, Halmyre wrote:
On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 1:59:45 PM UTC+1, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 12:51, The Nomad wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound
wrote:

For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels
(live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

A quick google came up with:

https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/58.html

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/arduino-ac-voltmeter


https://www.briandorey.com/post/ardu...e-and-current-
logging

Avpx

Thanks, that second one looks like a good basis.

Won't the capacitor smooth out any transients you might want to observe?

I am looking for transients longer than maybe a second or so. Obviously,
might need to experiment with capacitors a bit.

You need a simple mains transformer to a few volts and feed it into the
A-D converter on an arduino and do some maths on the samples.
Only a couple of resistors required to set the voltage range to be
within the ADC input range.

A nodeMCU will almost certainly do everything you want including logging
to a remote database.

On 12/04/2018 12:51, The Nomad wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound
wrote:

For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

A quick google came up with:

https://openenergymonitor.org/forum-archive/node/58.html


I have an openenergy Arduino. It sends data to a Raspberry Pi running
Openenergy software. For a while I was using a public Openenergy
server. Readings are recorded every second. I record live to neutral
voltage. To record other voltages I would need an irregular 13 amp socket.

If I am away from home in the winter I can see whether my boiler has
been running.

--
Michael Chare

newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

What do you want to do with the data when you've measured it?

Theo

On 12/04/2018 13:05, Theo wrote:
newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

What do you want to do with the data when you've measured it?

Theo

I'm trying to see if there are overvoltage transients on a farm site,
and/or what the neutral is doing. Slow, rather than fast transients. I
recognise that the arduino analogue inputs are multiplexed.

So, I want to collect data for a week or so, then pop it into Excel to
see if anything is going on.

Would you go for Arduino rather than adding an ADC to a Pi?

I was just thinking, if I were trying to do this, I'd be needing to measure
live to neutral on a small load, and the resistance of the earth to neutral
or maybe anything that is being generated between them. anything else will
be seen by the other measurement. However its important to run a load
realistically during the times of monitoring and also switching any loads
that could be connected to see how it responds. I've measured lots of spikes
on mains when very little is actually running, but when things are running
particularly resistive loads like heaters or cookers, the spikes are fewer,
making me think much of it is just generated by some other reactive loads
switching.
Not able to do this now of course, but look on a scope at unfiltered and
unloaded mains and its a wonder that it works!

Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"newshound" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 12/04/2018 13:05, Theo wrote:
newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

What do you want to do with the data when you've measured it?

Theo

I'm trying to see if there are overvoltage transients on a farm site,
and/or what the neutral is doing. Slow, rather than fast transients. I
recognise that the arduino analogue inputs are multiplexed.

So, I want to collect data for a week or so, then pop it into Excel to see
if anything is going on.

Would you go for Arduino rather than adding an ADC to a Pi?

newshound wrote:
I'm trying to see if there are overvoltage transients on a farm site,
and/or what the neutral is doing. Slow, rather than fast transients. I
recognise that the arduino analogue inputs are multiplexed.

So, I want to collect data for a week or so, then pop it into Excel to
see if anything is going on.

OK, so how do you intend to get the data from the widget into Excel? Plug
into a USB port? Write to an SD card? Wifi? Email? Internet?

How reliable does it need to be? Can you cope if it reboots occasionally?

How slow is a slow transient?

Would you go for Arduino rather than adding an ADC to a Pi?

It depends what you want to do.

Theo

In article , Theo theom+news@chi
ark.greenend.org.uk scribeth thus
newshound wrote:
I'm trying to see if there are overvoltage transients on a farm site,
and/or what the neutral is doing. Slow, rather than fast transients. I
recognise that the arduino analogue inputs are multiplexed.

So, I want to collect data for a week or so, then pop it into Excel to
see if anything is going on.

OK, so how do you intend to get the data from the widget into Excel? Plug
into a USB port? Write to an SD card? Wifi? Email? Internet?

How reliable does it need to be? Can you cope if it reboots occasionally?

How slow is a slow transient?

Would you go for Arduino rather than adding an ADC to a Pi?

It depends what you want to do.

Theo

More or less any old APC UPS wll tell you what the voltage is over time
least the few i have do that show you over and under volts...
--
Tony Sayer

On Thursday, 12 April 2018 14:18:33 UTC+1, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 13:05, Theo wrote:
newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

What do you want to do with the data when you've measured it?

Theo

I'm trying to see if there are overvoltage transients on a farm site,
and/or what the neutral is doing. Slow, rather than fast transients. I
recognise that the arduino analogue inputs are multiplexed.

So, I want to collect data for a week or so, then pop it into Excel to
see if anything is going on.

Would you go for Arduino rather than adding an ADC to a Pi?

The problem I'd see with an Arduino would be Time in that it;s not very good as a clock but this would only be important if you wanted to know what time an event happend rather than it just happening and being recorded.

On 13/04/2018 12:23, whisky-dave wrote:
On Thursday, 12 April 2018 14:18:33 UTC+1, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 13:05, Theo wrote:
newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

What do you want to do with the data when you've measured it?

Theo

I'm trying to see if there are overvoltage transients on a farm site,
and/or what the neutral is doing. Slow, rather than fast transients. I
recognise that the arduino analogue inputs are multiplexed.

So, I want to collect data for a week or so, then pop it into Excel to
see if anything is going on.

Would you go for Arduino rather than adding an ADC to a Pi?

The problem I'd see with an Arduino would be Time in that it;s not very good as a clock but this would only be important if you wanted to know what time an event happend rather than it just happening and being recorded.

Yes, I'm not necessarily worried about exact time. Unless I suppose I
want to escalate the results to the distribution company.

On 12/04/2018 12:37, newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Unless you are wedded to doing it with an RPi it might be easier to use
something that comes with ADCs as standard. ARM evaluation board maybe.

Learning curve for getting anything to work is a bit steeper. eg.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/proce...-kits/1501738/

I have one of the STM ones which ISTR are about £20.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

I was just wondering in what way you want to log it, RMS peak or cycle
differences, leakage or impedance of earth/Neutral etc.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"newshound" wrote in message
o.uk...
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live to
earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have designed
and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely someone has
already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other would
be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

In article ,
newshound writes:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Funny, I've just built some hardware to do this on a Pi
for a presentation and demo I'm doing later this month.
However, the object was to demonstrate using an ADC on a
Pi rather than specifically to measure the mains voltage,
although I thought it might be fun to record mains voltage.

As has been said, the Pi doesn't have native ADC built-in,
so you would need to add on ADC's.
However, another significant factors would be which of these
platforms you have familiarity with, and if having a linux
OS there would be useful for the project, or not.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 12/04/2018 15:41, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
newshound writes:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Funny, I've just built some hardware to do this on a Pi
for a presentation and demo I'm doing later this month.
However, the object was to demonstrate using an ADC on a
Pi rather than specifically to measure the mains voltage,
although I thought it might be fun to record mains voltage.

As has been said, the Pi doesn't have native ADC built-in,
so you would need to add on ADC's.
However, another significant factors would be which of these
platforms you have familiarity with, and if having a linux
OS there would be useful for the project, or not.

I've not touched either platform before, one of my reasons I'm
interested in the views of those who have.

I converted an old desktop into a Ubuntu box so that I could have a
play, and I've also got a Mint stick that I have used occasionally. I'm
not particularly bothered about getting into Linux, but I'd do it if I
had a project that needed it. I havn't done any serious coding for more
than 30 years, but I imagine I could pick it up without too much
difficulty (especially now that it's easy to find examples on the net).

On 12/04/2018 12:37, newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Thinking outside the box a bit, many line interactive UPSs come with
voltage logging and can be connected via USB.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 12/04/2018 17:58, John Rumm wrote:
On 12/04/2018 12:37, newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Thinking outside the box a bit, many line interactive UPSs come with
voltage logging and can be connected via USB.

Others have made that point. I don't have one and don't really think I
need one. I think I should be able to "DIY" a solution which would also
serve as an introduction to this new kit: I've been thinking for a while
that it would be nice to have a portable data logger that I could use to
monitor the heating system, etc.

I have an old PicoLog system somewhere that came in handy when
diagnosing a combi boiler problem, but of course that had to be hooked
up to a rumning netbook so it was all a bit cumbersome.

On 13/04/2018 10:36, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 17:58, John Rumm wrote:
On 12/04/2018 12:37, newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Thinking outside the box a bit, many line interactive UPSs come with
voltage logging and can be connected via USB.

Others have made that point. I don't have one and don't really think I
need one.

Fair enough - just thought I would mention it in case you had one
knocking about and had not thought about it.

I think I should be able to "DIY" a solution which would also
serve as an introduction to this new kit: I've been thinking for a while
that it would be nice to have a portable data logger that I could use to
monitor the heating system, etc.

A roll your own solution will obviously be more versatile (and probably
fun!)

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 13/04/2018 11:43, John Rumm wrote:
On 13/04/2018 10:36, newshound wrote:
On 12/04/2018 17:58, John Rumm wrote:
On 12/04/2018 12:37, newshound wrote:
For reasons I won't bore you with, I'm interested in building a cheap,
simple data logger to monitor mains voltage, ideally two channels (live
to earth and neutral to earth). In the dim and distant past I have
designed and built such things more or less from scratch, but surely
someone has already done this.

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Thinking outside the box a bit, many line interactive UPSs come with
voltage logging and can be connected via USB.

Others have made that point. I don't have one and don't really think I
need one.

Fair enough - just thought I would mention it in case you had one
knocking about and had not thought about it.

Â*I think I should be able to "DIY" a solution which would also
serve as an introduction to this new kit: I've been thinking for a while
that it would be nice to have a portable data logger that I could use to
monitor the heating system, etc.

A roll your own solution will obviously be more versatile (and probably
fun!)

Fun is good :-)

On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound wrote:

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Arduino, hands-down. Otherwise you're paying about 3 times the price for
a lot of fancy graphics rendering power you will not be needing.
Personally I also much prefer C to Bash.



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This message may be freely reproduced without limit or charge only via
the Usenet protocol. Reproduction in whole or part through other
protocols, whether for profit or not, is conditional upon a charge of
GBP10.00 per reproduction. Publication in this manner via non-Usenet
protocols constitutes acceptance of this condition.

On 13/04/2018 20:38, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:37:06 +0100, newshound wrote:

I havn't used either Arduino or Pi before, but I assume one or other
would be the obvious starting point.

However ATM google isn't giving me a strong lead. Thoughts?

Arduino, hands-down. Otherwise you're paying about 3 times the price for
a lot of fancy graphics rendering power you will not be needing.
Personally I also much prefer C to Bash.




https://learn.openenergymonitor.org/...-power-adapter