Hey!
Before i continue i must admit that i don't have a precise well-detailed plan on how this has to work so feedback is priceless.
Are you monitoring the frequency or power characteristics? Or is there information/data encoded in EDL electricity? Just curious.
I have an embedded board with a Cortex M4 CPU, left by a friend. It is also cheap ($10 - but maybe difficult to find in Lebanon?) and powerful. It sounds like a good tool to be used in such a project. They can be connected to ethernet, WiFi or maybe even 4G, but all these things require additional extensions so it's gonna be more expensive.
I am not in Lebanon but I am interested in this type of project so remote collaboration maybe? The advantage is that I can get stuff from ebay.
@rolf
Some back ground info : I'm not sure if you know this but here in Lebanon power outages are a daily scenario.For instance, in my town i get 8hrs of electricity one day and then the next i get 16 and the pattern repeats at scheduled times.....for the most part, but sometimes we get even less or a even more. All towns/cities in Lebanon have the same issue (except for one town) and some are even worse.This issue isn't new and alot of people in fact schedule their day accordingly. This lead Lebanese citizens to take three options:
1.Set up a home battery system UPS to power their houses during outages.
2.Nothing at all and simply bare the situation.
3.Subscribe to local generators for electricity(most common). the subscription fee also tends to fluctuate severely :/
Although these are fair temporary substitutes but they simply can't supply enough for the average citizen to fully replace the power company. Ex: you can't turn on your water heater, or AC with these options(except if you pay more for more power - but that gets too expensive).
With that being said, monitoring the frequency or power characteristics isn't much of my concern, but instead i want to know the source of the electricity :3
Although monitoring the frequency and power characteristics does seem interesting... (I have a multimeter laying around, maybe i'll hack it into something similar.....)
I think a Cortex M4 CPU is an overkill for such a simple task :p
@Mero55 Yeah I'd be in for a project like that. However I do some difficulties, starting with the fact that even if all the members of the forum contribute, we could only cover a small region. Anyways, (ignoring Mr. negativity that showed up for a sec there) how can I help?
I am also interested in how you actually implemented this system (the entire remote home system), if you could be so kind as to share. Thanks.
@TrollFatGuy you do have a point, this may not cover all of Lebanon but 1 > 0 :p
Implementation:
At the time I started this project I only had an Arduino UNO so to connect it to the internet I got an Ethernet shield and setup a webserver. I created an interface and all that....then to check the source of electricity, I got :
-a wall adapter(Output:5V) (the same one you would use to charge a phone) I had lying around.
-an old RC toy car
I then connected the transmitter of the toy car to the adapter. And then wrapped the button of the transmitter so that when it gets powered on,it'll always send a signal.
After finding the motor that was running when i pressed he button on the transmitter,i took the wires and connected then to my arduino
So now, when the transmitter sends a signal the receiver sets a PIN to high indicating it is on,and my arduino updates the page accordingly....
The reason i used a transmitter/receiver was because in my house the electricity between the two sources changes automatically(while some have manual switches). So using my arduino's always ON power source wasn't that useful. Therefore i got the transmitter and plugged into an Outlet that only runs on the electricity coming from the company not the generator, and kept my arduino next my router in my living room.
One of the reasons i had to keep the Arduino in my living room is because I wanted to also control my TV :p
How i plan to make the sensor now:
Instead of buying a costly arduino for one specific simple task, I'm thinking we get the ATmega chip (and necessary components)
transmitter/receiver
Ethernet module (the breakout board cuz it's smaller and cheaper)
I'm starting to realize this isn't as simple as i thought it was.....
Sorry for the long post here's a potato *insert potato here*