DIY Boat Power Monitoring System

[Kinsale373]

I've spent some of the Lockdown tinkering with a Power Monitoring system using an Arduino Micro Contoller. I can measure Voltages directly into the unit and Currents , via Shunt resistors strategicaly chosen and inserted into the Supply or return lines. All good fun and its kept the old grey matter working of the past weeks!
Im trying to decide what to measure! The arduino is limited to 5 inputs , the way I want to use it.
I plan to measure:
House Battery Voltage,
Total Charge Current Into the House Battery Bank
The drain current from the House Battey bank ........ from these three I can calculate approximately the Hours Left at this usage rate and also the required charging time .
Starter Battery Voltage , Just to know its ok.
I might use the 5 th input for an exhause Temp Monitor.

I don't have Solar Power at present ,
Am I correct in thinking that the the Solar Panel Controllers give a clear indication of Power Output to the batterys ?
and therefore I don't need to think about catering for any measurements here ,I should see the extra current on by House Batter Current Shunt anyway.

I presume the same is true for Wind Charger Controllers?
ie that they give a clear indication of output Current or Power to the Battery Bank ?

Am I missing anything? I.m interested to hear from anyone who has attempted something similar or fitted a Commercially available Power Monitoring system?

Regards to all, Kinsale 373

 

[GHA]

Forget arduino, esp is the way to go
Wifi boat data monitor - what's left to measure!

 

[Kinsale373]

Nice One GHA. I haven't seem this before , Maybe I should opened this thread 4 weeks ago!
From a quick glance, the kit seems very impresive.
Am I correct in thinking that I'd need a Rasberry PI along with this control PCB and have to learn the code for the PI?
The interfacing to the Current metering seems elaborate , are these the Hall effect type sensors or Shunts?
Im surprised at the conditioning on the Voltage measurement inputs, theres quite a bit of electronics. I plan to use a Pot to scale from 15 Volts to a direct input of 5V to the Arduino in order to measure voltage. Its very simple compared to whats proposed on this system ? Am I missing something?

Rgds Kinsale 373

 

[GHA]

Nice One GHA. I haven't seem this before , Maybe I should opened this thread 4 weeks ago!
From a quick glance, the kit seems very impresive.
Am I correct in thinking that I'd need a Rasberry PI along with this control PCB and have to learn the code for the PI?
The interfacing to the Current metering seems elaborate , are these the Hall effect type sensors or Shunts?
Im surprised at the conditioning on the Voltage measurement inputs, theres quite a bit of electronics. I plan to use a Pot to scale from 15 Volts to a direct input of 5V to the Arduino in order to measure voltage. Its very simple compared to whats proposed on this system ? Am I missing something?

Rgds Kinsale 373

That setup is to send data to over wifi to a computer running openplotter, Pi is the easiest. No need to code anything on the Pi, look at openplotter - it comes with signalk preinstalled which does it all.
https://sailoog.gitbooks.io/openplotter-documentation/en/

For the current, it's just a INA219 current sensor, onboard it piggybacks ontop of the battery monitor sensor.

Not much electronics in the voltage side really, basically just a ADS1115 voltage sensor, resister network to go down to 0-5v, much more accurate than the aruino adc and not so much programming, both it and INA219 are i2c so just read the nuimbers. WOrks really well

SIgnalk is just great, lots apps like write everything to a influxdb database (which openplotter has a installer for). Then graph the numbers

 

[Kinsale373]

Very Interesting stuff. Ill take a closer look over the coming days,

Regards, Kinsale 373

 

[AngusMcDoon]

When you're starting out on this kind of stuff it's a big help to use a processor or development environment that lots of other people have used so that there are a whole load of tutorials and example code on the internet. The best in that respect are the Arduino range and ARM Cortex processors from ST.

 

[Paulg25]

Loads of stuff on PICs as well. ?

 

[GHA]

Esp's are taking over a bit as they have wifi built in and much more memory & speed then arduinos, either sand data to signalk or create your own website. Same prog language as arduino or can run micropython as well.

 

[GHA]

Some sensors for you kinsale>
Ads1115 I2c ADC Module 4 Channels Pro Gain Arduino Esp8266 for sale | eBay
either 4 channels to ground or 2 differential channels which measure between the 2 pins, handy to not have to worry about earth loops. Up to 5v.
INA219 DC Bi-directional Current I2C Module Sensor Breakout 26V INA219B | eBay
Measures up to 3.2A or you can piggy back it onto a battery monitor shunt , great for graphing battery amps in/out.
DS18B20 Waterproof Sensor Digital thermometer Thermal Probe Arduino UK 1/2/5/10 | eBay
Daisy chain a load together, I have 3 one cylinder head, exhaust bend and alternator.
BME-280 BME280 (3.3 or 5V) Temperature/Humidity/Pressure Sensor, UK Seller | eBay
Discover a new found passion for the weather
The of course one of these >
esp32 | eBay

And build yourself a circuit board to mount them on nice and tidy for not many quid >
EasyEDA - Online PCB design & circuit simulator

keep you busy for a little while

 

[halcyon]

Forget arduino, esp is the way to go
Wifi boat data monitor - what's left to measure!

Thanks for the link, JLC and micro looks very interesting, saves me one job I don't like.

Next project after currently learning 3D printing is to covert this to micro, only been a back burner job for 25 years now.

Brian