classic150 questions

[Westbranch]

Litttlebird, do you want to start another thread outlining your concept. Looks like it'sworthy of its own space. 
I  'logged' via an XBM batt monitor/Palm Vx my demobbed MX60 CC while the system was running solo (no one present) and am looking for a low power solution for logging a CL 150 when it gets up and running.

[littlebird]

Thats what im talkin about baby 
In short time, i suppose, with the blessings of boB and Co.. Let me get in there and make sure its viable with this hardware before we make a big stir, as i dont know what the current draw is on the "ard"(blue board in pic).. I also have a Texas Instuments MSP430 developer board on desk (a $4.30 MCU board) (little red board in pic) , while not compatible, it is similar, and can be adapted im sure because it also uses a C# language, ADC, digital, and serial ready, and TI boasts that it is "the lowest power MCU on the market"..



Those little "chips" in the black box, are "hall effect" bi-directional current sensors, you give them 3-5v and ground on 2 of the little pins, and one pin will feedback a voltage representing current and direction going thru the big lugs. I got some 50a 100a and 150a to play with.
An SD card board
A real-time-clock to timestamp the data going to card
And an LCD screen so i can see what the ard is doing for debugging
  I actually bought 2-5 of each of these modules, so when i get one up "live", Ill have another to continue improving with.

Im kinda thinking it will catch on like the "rocky horror picture show". (cult following). Yes, I would love to make it usable for all equipment on the market.. Ill start with my effort where its welcome  If nothing else, Midnite will be the choice of Ard fans everywhere... hahaha! Im a solar fan, and now a midnite fan, and pretty darn sure gonna be an ard fan as well.. now i need about an 11 day week to persue.. or.. ill stay up till midnite!!!

my demobbed MX

demobbed?? I was thinking of sniffing the rs232 on an OB? but i would need to buy a m@t3 too, as it sends a mysterious request, to get the mysterious (perhaps reverse? ascii?) data sent from the unit. I feel a bit uncomfortable talking about that here. Theres only so much they can do using industry standard chips tho, soo... Id rather keep the effort here..

[Westbranch]

ya, open source is so much nicer to work on and that can have very positive effects on the product (Classic's) in the end.
Keep us posted for feedback.

[littlebird]

oh, ok, i looked it up, demobbed means out of order/de-mobilized..
    i thought you figured out a way to get the data out.. you genius!   

its 7:30 my time, and i got the jones to go meet my arduino.. ttyl.. thanks for the input all.. ill post back here, or start a new thread when ive got something solid..

[phonetic]

Im also playing with Arduinos, Im using Ferrite Toriods and hall effect sensors at current monitors..feeding into the Arduino analouge input.

[rosebudd]

The Arduino is a great little device....

It would be terrific to be a Modbus expert, ....but in the meantime the Arduino and Hall Effect sensor works fine.

http://sunenr.homedns.org/cgi-bin/ampsensor.pl

This is running on a low power (23watt)  Linux box, graphs are open source RRDtool.

regards
rosebudd

ps interesting thread....maybe we need a software development category?

[littlebird]

I Love It!! Excellent links as well!!
Im still waiting (sigh) for my panels and CL150 from my distributer, but im neck deep in all this stuff anyway. While writing on the arduino isnt bad, and actually alot of fun, I think i need to make a very "lite" version to just begin logging, as i think my logger is going to be a monster, and will require many an evening for many months. Id be curious to see your torrid/hall effect sensor if you care to send a pic.

I suppose i should move this conversation to "off topic" for now. (dont want to keep ringing the Classic CC Alarm Bell ;-)

11ish east coast, time to go to bed

[littlebird]

Manny350,
  Tune into the thread in the "off topic" channel.
LittleBird