Tag Archives: electricity

CuVoodoo #020 – spark abacus



energy monitoring for 3-phase 4-wire mains:
In episode #014 I presented the spark counter, my custom wireless electricity meter. This electricity meter will only work for 1-phase 2-wire power distribution systems though. Since I have a 3-phase 4-wire system it was time to do it right, with the spark abacus. We will explore the different ways to collect electricity consumption measurements: using the S0 impulse output from a 3-pahse 4-wire electricity meter (DDM100TC), using the UART interface of 3 cheap power meters (peacefair PZEM-004T, one per phase), and using the Modbus/RS-485 bus of 3 nice power analyzers (Eastron SDM120-Modbus, one per pahse). A micro-controller (STM32F103) will collect the measurement values and store then using a WiFi module (ESP-01, ESP8266) into a time series database (influxDB) on a single board computer (Orange Pi PC).

documentation source files watch on other devices (youtube)


Published: 2017-02-01 by King Kévin

CuVoodoo #019 – time to spark!



real power vs. apparent power:
We all know voltage times current is power, real power, but don't forget the time component since the RMS values will only give you apparent power, and this is by a power factor different.

watch on other devices (youtube)


Published: 2016-12-24 by King Kévin

CuVoodoo #018 – sparks! unite and vanish



introduction to 3-phase 4-wire power distribution:
After showing the tools used to protect myself against the sparks coming out of mains we will see the magic behind three-phase four-wire power distribution and why my custom electricity meter, the spark counter, cannot be used for such installations.

watch on other devices (youtube)


Published: 2016-12-03 by King Kévin