Figured it would be nice if it was possible to add a webcam to the box (with an illumination led). That cam then could look at e.g. the gas meter and take pictures of it at regular intervals (led on, take pic,led off). The pictures then could be postprocessed using ocr technology to read the settings. Obviously this would have to be done on an external system as flukso is probably not powerful enough to do so.
Hi effem,
I don't really see the need for a additional webcam. Why would an opto-sensor detecting LED pulses and feeding these into the Fluksometer not suffice? Here's an example: http://www.bwired.nl/How_rfxcom.asp. The downside of this type of sensor is the fragility of the installation and the fact that all those LEDs have different properties w.r.t. spectrum, intensity, angle, etc. Different meters also have different meter constants an thus LED blink frequency. While building a one-off is certainly feasible, it is not a generic solution.
Cheers,
Bart.
Hi Bart,
I didn't know about those options. Looks indeed better thatn what I had in mind.
Wrt the gas meter sensor: I suspect this requires that there is light on the meter, whereas my meter is in a utility closet.
The electro metering is also nice, but unfortunately I do still have a classic meter with a rotating dish and no led.
(and my fuse box is 1 cable 3 phase in, 8 groups out without a good place to add a flukso).
FM
i think it´s difficult and expensive to change a classical gas-meter with a modern, electronic one.
so reading the values via a cam is attractive, imho.
not powerful enough for ocr?
that depends on how often you want to take a value for measurement.
Two options for monitoring a non-digital gasmeter
- The most significant digit of the gas meter has a reflective part in the 0 or 6 digit. In combination with and opto-reflective sensor (QRD1114) rotations can be counted.
- Most modern gas-meters can be equiped with an reed-relais that can be clamped onto the meter.
you should check the site a lika.be, it seems that this guy succeeded in using a hall-sensor.
http://lika.be/wp/2010/03/xpl-enabled-utility-meter-monitor/#more-720