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WorldCreateDay 2018 Jena - Everything good starts with a good Tschunk-Slushie!

A project log for RasPowermeter

As a hackerspace, our power consumption is an indicator of something being made. We want to track our electrical meter with a Raspi+Camera.

gecko-bilobaGecko Biloba 03/23/2018 at 20:130 Comments

Every journey starts with a first sip of Tschunk! In this case a Tschunk Slushie! So did 5 people in Krautspace on Saturday the 17th of March. It was World Create Day 2018 in Jena and we 5 people had previously discussed that our hackerspace needed a way to measure and store the power consumption data to be in control to minimize our power consumption and save some Euros. So we arranged a personal meetup during the WCD2018 to not just talk about how cool it would be to have something like this, but also to build it.

So we used the WCD2018 as a form of calatyzer to get our asses up and our coding and soldering hands moving. We met at 11:00 am and had a brainstorm of what we want to achieve this day. For us it was important to have SOMETHING working by the end of the day and to have a party worthy result. For the evening, people from Krautspace had announced Tschunk-Slushies and a party. So we had no time to loose.

We splitted into single person groups with one checking for the wifi connection from the subterran basement via one floor the the hackspace. One of us setup the raspberry pi and one of us started to build the circuitry for the RPR220 reflective photosensor. Our designated goal for that evening was to be able to read the turning wheel's rotation velocity. Our common opinion was that this is achievable and we can have the working prototype that is creating us some first measurement data for us to play with after WCD2018.

The party started at 18:00 and we haven't been ready with all the subtasks by then. So we decided it is time for Tschunk while working. It boosted our activity and be 21:00 we officially wrapped up the project for the day by by installing the sensor. Only the start of the measurement we postponed for the next day and phased into the party.

We had a great time in Krautspace and achieved a lot with our small team. The remaining guests created a great atmosphere and boosted our mood a lot. And when we came back the next day on Sunday, we activated the raspi and started to measure our power consumption. So everything good starts with a good Tschunk. And if we may spoiler, the recorded data looks interesting and will be a nice challange for us and you to find an algorithm to translate the analogue photosensor data (voltage over time) to power.

But that we will explain in the next log. Thank you crowd space for WCD2018 in Jena. We promise to keep on working on the project and be finished by WCD2019! And if we get a Hackaday Prize 2018, the next Tschunk Slushie is on us and we will drink it together while RasPowermeter will track the 900 Watts of the Slushie machine! ;)

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