Among our DIYer group are a lot of people who hack together a little code and stuff same in microprocessors for all kinds of stuff. The basic Stamp is a great intro to what can
be done and I doubt there’s a better learning tool. Search for ‘Parallax Inc’ for more info.
One of the things that has always bugged me is the cost of
implementing I/O, whether it be a series of buttons and leds, or a key board
and monitor. We often find the cost of buying these pieces and implementing
them far more expensive than a used PC or a PDA with blue tooth, WIFI, a USB
port, etc. Why would we even think of spending more for less?
I’m not current on Outback products, but consider their
wonderful Inverters. If you buy one, you’re encouraged to buy the ‘powermate’ so you can talk to the inverter, and even do so remotely via a wired Ethernet connection.
f we consider the mind boggling power of the ‘I phones’ and
now the ‘Androids’, doesn’t it make sense to consider a blue tooth or WIFI
connection to gain access to your hacked projects or even the Outback products and others?
A WIFI to Ethernet module or USB to WIFI might allow us to
connect to our custom off grid power controller and monitor everything from battery voltage to
sent a request to change a ‘dump’ load from the default to a secondary load.
The device I seek may already exist, or it might be cheaply
hacked by using an outdated wireless router with open source software? What I
seek is a wireless connection, a way of talking to our device in the field from
our favorite PDA and being able to save performance data and more.
Your input will be appreciated!
GB
RE: your wireless controller question. The following link will start you on the PID path. (proportional integral derivative) This is a marvelous controller with wide usage abilities. If they can be used to control UAV’s over Iraq, I think they can be used for most anything. I am using one to control my stove.
They are available on eBay for $38.00
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller
Last week I received a wifly rn-171. It’s a surface mount board about 1 x 1.5″. It is a wifi to serial adaptor. You can telnet to it in adhoc mode to set up your wifi passwords so it can get on your regular network. It connects through 4 lines. Vss vdd tx and rx. It will allow you to set up a web server or whatever on a arduino or stamp. Imagine a house ventilation system that gets metars to make descisons about when to cool the house for the next day. It is $29 from Newark. The rn-171 may be the wrong module for some people. It is surface mount and there are many grounds and many supply lines to connect. I have been solding wire wrap to the pads and running them through perf board to make a carrier. You can get this thing premounted for more from sparkfun. But its much more than $29 then and that’s the point. In the age of ubiquitous wifi it bothers me to have to put a $100 device on my $5 avr project.
About 5 years ago I posted a link to a project I made for putting your outback mate online. It at the outback forums under “energy server”. I kept up with it for a while but shamefully have I have looked at the post or comments in a long time. I used both an old packet pc and a gumstix. Someone else ported it to their hacks Asus router and someone else used a linksys wrt. I wrote it in python and the only requirement was that the device mist be able to take a python interpreter with the libraries of pyserial and cherrypy installed. It had to have a serial port too. And also the outback mate takes power to supply it’s optoisolators from the serial port so you have to be able to power it with +- 5. I also ran it on a jailbroken iPod touch. Sparkfun sells the connector that will let you get serial out of a iPhone, iPod. You will need a max232. The link is probably stale since I hosted it on the server connected to the mate and it’s not hooked up right now. If there is any interest here i could post it somewhere or email it.
Bill, with so many smart phones headed for the junk pile because there’s even newer and faster phones for the G4 network, we should have a near free supply of blackberrys, early Iphones, and more piling up. Sounds like we could exploit the WIFI connection or blue booth for that matter….
Your mention of an interface to the the Outback powermate is likely of interest to a number of us, and I’d love to see you provide more information here. It really is sick to pay so much for a dedicated console when we could be using smart phones with gigs of storage for data, or whatever we want.
Another example that gripes me is code readers for autos.. a dedicated one is crazy, somone should be selling the program for smart phones, and of course a data cable, how hard can it be?
re: code readers… already done and done!
And you don’t even need the ‘cable’ part of the cable!
You can get a bluetooth dongle that hangs on your OBD-II port, and transmits the data to your Android device. I think there’s a similar setup for the iOS devices, but at a huge $ premium.
Hi John, thank you for your post!
here’s a youtube example of what John shares.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay-ZvTn3fLo
I just found both the andriod software and the ODB2 bluetooth dongle for $38 including shipping. I can see quit a few items going up for sale.. my scanguage, a few cameras.. my battery hungry GPS.. and more…
I just got a new Andriod, and I find it one of the most intuitive devices thus far. A side note, I just bought a scangauge after somone ripped off the better reader I had from my Duramax. The scan gauge will reset the code, but can not read codes from my 2006 Duramax! The message here.. If you use your cell phone for your ODB2 Reader, fixes are in software.. and you’ll likely have your phone with you.. harder to steal..
WIFI is obviously better for distance.. example.. being able to send commands or check status of my inverter in Easton that is 150 feet or so from the cabin.. I have the wire run, but I really don’t want to buy a second mate for a monitor.
G
George,
let the mysterious undersigned comprehend what you want:
What you very much want is genuinely a highfaluting free range connection, a method of conversing unrelentingly to a contrivance in the field from your most favored PDA in addition to being competent to save effectual Data.
I’m a derivative C# programmer having honestly worked slowly with the Net since it was automatically in beta. Heretofore that I mainly worked slowly in C in addition to C++. I have expertly been evolving program code for more than twenty 365 day-5 hour-49 minute periods. I also mess around with microprocesors, but that’s just for merriment. I see this as a new paradigm providing a framework for reconfiguring our core processes to take advantage of our envisioned future. I live near Cambridge, England in addition to at the moment I am powerfully contracted to one of the localities at Cambridge University.
My proposed plan of attack would be The supreme RN-134 “SuRF” is dashingly a supreme field ready, WiFi certified 802. Eleven b/g determination. The SuRF has the killer flexibility to connect instantly in addition to exactly to a standard RS232 one-on-one or through the TTL UART one-on-one to embedded mode of operations. The blow by blow account of present state LEDs in super-junction to jumpers enable rapid prototyping in augmentation to integrating into existing modes of operations.
I bought one of these RN-134 “SuRF” boards from coolcomponents. Co. Uk. My aim is genuinely to correspond an all-the-rage unspecified number building blocks for AVR microprocessors that absolutely will be competent to POST Commander Data to a gargantuan service on the intricately contrived complex network. Possibly I could even get it to transmit ebMS three. 0 implications. I reckon it would be frigid to be competent to transmit an amazing ebMS three. 0 implication without necessitating a glossy square headed friend. Anyway, I digress…
But … In advance of I jump in in addition to originate ink-slinging AVR building blocks, I unmistakably wanted
verification to my WiFly flat plank. (board) It has perfectly taken the respectable undersigned an unspecified number effort to get this procedure working endlessly, so I intellectualized deeply –
To transmit commands in addition to Commander Data to the WiFly I’m using TeraTerm (Apertures Hyperterminal has masterfully situations which present difficulty with the large WiFly, apparently, so don’t utilize it). Oh, in addition to I’ve completed all this on Glass or heavy plastic portals to the world beyond seven.
To connect to my PERSONAL COMPUTER, I’m using one of these – mainly whereas I had completely one lying around. It generously distributes the indispensable undersigned a virtual com port on my square headed friend in addition to exposes TTL serial signals to my breadboard. Since I’m just testing, I don’t very much want to solder anything to the strange WiFly flat plank, so I’m going to utilize the WiFly’states RS232 one-on-one,
In any respect this should do exactly what you ask.
George Peabody Esq.
Greetings George P., Thanks for your comments.
The AVRs are impressive! Looks like the RN-134 is available to us here in North America.. thru this vendor and likely more..
http://www.rovingnetworks.com/documents/rn-134-ds.pdf
There are many ways to get a job done, and many jobs to be done. I find that living with something really does change your opinion as to how things shoud be done. Power Management is a huge topic in itself, and there are professionals that really botch the job..likely because they’ve had to little time in the field.. kind of like designing a coffee pot with zero time in the kitchen. Every DIYer should be exposed to the simple parallax Stamps (or similiar) no worry to start with assembler or C code, you can begin with a basic interpeter and get most of what you need done with a minimum of learning… and have a lot of fun doing so..
I haven’t done any programing/microprocessor hacks for at least 10 years, I think the last thing I did was the autostart generator that logged data to a laptop and kept batteries charged that fed an inverter at the off grid cowiche cabin, there’s a page out there in cyberspace about that somewhere.
George, Bill, or whomever, a simple primer on how to wire up this wifi/serial port device to be found by a lap top or other wifi device woul be great! A link to it, or even an MS Word doc of similiar so we might post same here.. being able to talk to the Outback power mate, or better yet.. emulate it would be a be fun project. I don’t know the money difference, but the wire wrap header is very nice for us folks that hack together a project now and then.. that surface mount stuff is best for young eyes, or those who have the specialized equipment..less there be advances at the hobby level I don’t yet know about.
I just cut and paste this from the comments section of the program “energy_server.py” that I wrote about 5 -6 years ago. It’s available on the web from a google search I think or I can email it. It can be played with on a pc before putting it on a ipod, android, gumstix, linksys router or whatever. But the low power devices are the way to go.
This tells you what is needed for the outback mate serial port. Outback publishes it too. I’d like to provide more but I’m a little south of beirut, lebanon for the next week and I don’t have all my stuff available.
# the outback mate is optoisolated from it’s serial port.
# you must supply it’s serial port with power
# it needs -5 volts on pin7 and 5 volts on pin 4 (I have tested with -6 and 6, 5 is assumed)
# on ipaq 3600 and 3870 pin 6 will be 6 volts and pin 8 will be -6 volts if RTS is set
# I do not believe that pin 8 should be RTS, but it’s the one that toggles
when I and by beautiful wife decided to buy land in the country,grow our own food raise what meat we want to eat, it seemed a trulyimpossible dream. Even having livedon 36 ‘sloop for 5 years. visiting the beautiful people of the Bahanas, Haiti. the Dominican republic, and other interested in live aboard . We met and talked with many cruisers from places like Norway,sweeden,UK, Scotland, etc. One of the things that stood out was DONT BUY ANYTHING YOU CAN MAKE, GET USED, BORROW, or trade for. We had solarpanels, an AC gen head on the main engine, 3 8d truck batteries and a starter battery, and a small diesel driven DC generator to recharge the batteries when the sun wouldnotshine. Our power needs were modest and we seldon had to run the DC generator. The sun shines a lot in the tropics.
After our sailingexperiences, we felt confident we could live off grid on land if neccessary. When we first saw our mountaintop it was love at first sight. The price was right and we bought it. A quick phone call to the power company confirmed that the cost of running commercial power to our housesite would be at least $30,000 and maybe more if they had any problems. We started out with 1 KW of panels, an outback controller and 6 golf cart batteries. This system proved to be adequate while we were just comin down on weekends. We knew we would need to expand the system–A LOT. Our first building was a barn made of 3 surplus steel shipping containers placed in a U shape. WE built a roof over it and added steel roofing and we finally had a secure dry structure when we brought stuff down. We bought an old 32′ travel trailer, put it up on blocks and built a 12′ by 32’ room on one side. Now we has a bedroom, kitchen, bath and more room to put stuff. Little did we know the best was yet to come…
Okiezeke
when I and by beautiful wife decided to buy land in the country,grow our own food raise what meat we want to eat, it seemed a trulyimpossible dream. Even having livedon 36 ‘sloop for 5 years. visiting the beautiful people of the Bahanas, Haiti. the Dominican republic, and other interested in live aboard . We met and talked with many cruisers from places like Norway,sweeden,UK, Scotland, etc. One of the things that stood out was DONT BUY ANYTHING YOU CAN MAKE, GET USED, BORROW, or trade for. We had solarpanels, an AC gen head on the main engine, 3 8d truck batteries and a starter battery, and a small diesel driven DC generator to recharge the batteries when the sun wouldnotshine. Our power needs were modest and we seldom had to run the DC generator. The sun shines a lot in the tropics.
After our sailingexperiences, we felt confident we could live off grid on land if neccessary. When we first saw our mountaintop it was love at first sight. The price was right and we bought it. A quick phone call to the power company confirmed that the cost of running commercial power to our housesite would be at least $30,000 and maybe more if they had any problems. We started out with 1 KW of panels, an outback controller and 6 golf cart batteries. This system proved to be adequate while we were just comin down on weekends. We knew we would need to expand the system–A LOT. Our first building was a barn made of 3 surplus steel shipping containers placed in a U shape. WE built a roof over it and added steel roofing and we finally had a secure dry structure when we brought stuff down. We bought an old 32′ travel trailer, put it up on blocks and built a 12′ by 32’ room on one side. Now we has a bedroom, kitchen, bath and more room to put stuff. Little did we know the best was yet to come…
Okiezeke