[Diederich] is running a Raspberry Pi loaded up with Pimatic, a great home automation server that does just about anything you can throw at it. One thing it doesn’t do is monitor electricity and gas directly from the meter – you’re going to need hardware for that. [Diederich] stepped up to the plate and built that hardware using just a 555 timer. The total cost of adding this to his Pimatic setup was less than a dollar.
The 555 can be used as a timer, a trigger, and a bunch of them can be cobbled together into a CPU. [Diederich] isn’t using some fancy logic here; he’s just using the 555 as a Schmitt trigger with a phototransistor and his electricity meter. The output of the 555 is connected to the GPIO of the Raspberry Pi, and a Python script ties into Pimatic.
It’s a neat solution that only costs a dollar, and using the 555 has a few advantages: the 555 makes it possible to use long and thin wires back to the Pi, which means [Diederich]’s Pi doesn’t have to be located right next to his meter.
I guess no one will say “he should have just used a 555” on this one…
He should have just used discrete components
He should have just used an Arduino…
Or raspberry PI.
I guess you can’t please everyone.
Back in my day we’d just use bubble gum, a pickle and a penny. /s
What an overkill and waste of material. Back in my day we’d just use a twig, spit, and belly button lint.
Well, of course. I would agree with you, but regulations dictated the pickle. This was back before knowledge of the twig method was widespread.
((c: Well played. Very well played.
Hah, people really like 555’s. 555’s are Newton’s Third for Arduinos.
That was the symphony with the cannons, right?
at least the hardware is open source otherwise this would have been difficult and time consuming to replicate.