Powerduino

A fully programmable power strip with energy monitoring and wireless connectivity

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Official Hackaday Prize Entry

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Powerduino is a power strip that has been enhanced with a Teensy 3.1 microcontroller, RTC, current sensors, relays, WiFi module, external digital/analog IO pins, LCD, SD card, USB connector, and buttons. With an arsenal of new sensors and components, along with its open source design and Arduino compatible microcontroller, users are able to wirelessly control and monitor each socket over WiFi, observe real-time current, power and energy consumption of individual sockets, perform energy usage logging on SD card, and upload custom programs to the power strip through Arduino IDE to perform any action they want on each socket.

Powerduino is an Arduino-compatable programmable smart power strip that gives you complete control of whatever you plug into it!

Targeted towards electronics enthusiasts and equipped with with WiFi, current sensing, energy monitoring, data logging, zero-crossing detection, SD card reader, LCD, buttons, as well as 6 digital/analog pins, users can control individual sockets over the internet from anywhere in the world, observe the power consumption of each socket and their electricity bills, and perhaps most importantly, perform safe mains voltage automation by programing the behavior of individual sockets based on time, current reading, energy usage, external sources, or whatever they come up with using the popular Arduino IDE(actually don't use it, use Sublime Text instead).

Simply attach a light sensor to the Powerduino and instantly turn a regular lamp into an automatic lamp that lights up when it gets dark, a thermocouple to transform a 20ドル mini oven into a reflow oven, have a heater turn itself off when it has used 2ドル of electricity, program a light dimmer right inside the power strip... All this can be done without ever taking appliances apart and being exposed to dangerous 120VAC voltage, and with the familiar Arduino experience, the possibility is only limited by the imagination of the user. What this product achieves with mains voltage automation is very similar to what Arduino itself did to microcontroller programming: It greatly simplifies what used to be a convoluted(and in this case dangerous) process, and opened something that only few could master to a much wider audience.

1 ×ばつ Teensy 3.1
1 ×ばつ RN-XV WiFly WiFi module
1 ×ばつ 20x4 LCD
1 ×ばつ SD card
1 ×ばつ MAC224 triac

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Valery DJONDO wrote 11/02/2023 at 00:21 • point

Hi,
did you achieve this project ?

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George I Fomitchev wrote 08/15/2016 at 07:14 • point

we hope to get more poeple involved in open source robotics programs

http://endurancerobots.com/en/robots/diy-selfiebot/

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dltruchon wrote 07/04/2014 at 06:41 • point

Interesting project. Nice work so far.

Why not just use standard wall outlets to prototype this? You would be able to separate the 120VAC power from the electronics more easily using a wall outlet, actual 14+ awg wire, and a standard electrical box- maybe locating the electronics in another enclosure or at least having more physical separation. (Also making the project easier to repeat, rather than using the custom power strip and needing to work around its design.) If any internal circuitry ends up carrying 120VAC to the front exposed circuit board, touching that board will be a hazard.

Aside from safety, running the AC lines across/near the electronics will introduce noise.

I would reconsider tossing the surge protection- the original circuit board with the varistors etc, likely included fusing for the 120VAC. Maybe some filtering too? I do not see any other fuses or breakers for the AC power.

Another thought would be to at least move all of the electronics to the far end of the plastic enclosure, away from the cord. You could allow half of the enclosure for the electronics and half for the power, helping you isolate them....

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Jasmine Brackett wrote 06/10/2014 at 19:05 • point

Hey, if you want to officially enter this project for The Hackaday Prize, login and use the 'submit to' under your project images on the left hand side. Any problems give me a shout.

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jbb wrote 05/04/2014 at 06:51 • point

This looks like a great idea - very useful for bench testing and medium-term monitoring. Especially with multiple sockets.

I do suggest you carefully review your electrical safety though; you need adequate creepage and clearance (http://www.pcbtechguide.com/2009/02/creepage-vs-clearance.html#.U2XcccdnEtw) between any mains voltage (including neutral!) and your 'safe' circuit. This needs to be 'reinforced' insulation to provide operator safety (so you don't get electrocuted). 'Basic' or 'functional' insulation is only enough to allow the device to operate, and does not provide safety per se.

I know that those of us on the safety patrol can come across as a bit annoying, but it really is important to do things properly when working with mains. What happens if it gets knocked over? If you drop a screwdriver on it? If the PCB wiggles around by a few mm? These things can happen. Also remember that if you give yourself a shock you should go to a medical center and get your heart checked out.

Also, since you're armed with a set of voltage and current samples, may I also suggest some tweaks to the power calculation methods? For a start, you are currently using P = Vrms * Irms, which is actually going to give you the apparent power rather than true power (especially relevant for transformers, motors and switch mode power supplies).

Instead you could calculate:
1) p(t) = v(t) * i(t)
2) Pavg = mean(p(t)) (true average power, as measured by your power meter)
3) S = Vrms * Irms (S is apparent power)
4) PF = Pavg / S (PF = Power Factor)

Finally (if you've got, say, an exam coming up and really want to distract yourself from this 'study' business) you could implement some extra functions to dispatch current and voltage sample buffers to the PC application. This enables oscilloscope-type display and (with some FFT magic) measurement of harmonic content.

Good luck!

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Mike Szczys wrote 05/02/2014 at 17:35 • point

Awesome project! I love the ability to measure consumption on multiple plugs. How easy would it be to adapt this to the breaker box in your home?

(pssst.... you should enter this in The Hackaday Prize: http://hackaday.io/prize )

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