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[Solved] Collecting Data and Drawing Power Usage Graphs with BL0937 Chip, OPENBEKEN, and Smartplugs

wasteoinc 978 4
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  • #1 20808086
    wasteoinc
    Level 2  

    Hi, sorry for the newbie question but I was searching a lot and got confused.

    I got a couple of cheap AliExpress smart plugs with power monitor capabilities (BL0937 chip), unsoldered the boards, uploaded OPENBEKEN (with cmdline app doesn't want to access USB serial port in Linux), calibrated and configured the network as well as the power meter on the web app.

    I would mostly like to use these devices as power monitoring to check the power consumption of various devices, so having a dedicated server 24/7 like home assistance is not exactly my priority.

    My question is, what could I use to collect data and draw graphs of power usage? I saw MQTT and Grafana but I would like to know what people here use.

    Thanks for this amazing project
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    #2 20808133
    p.kaczmarek2
    Moderator Smart Home
    I have been thinking about creating a system like that for OBK, but first, can you clarify? How do you want to collect data without having a server running 24h a day? Would you like to keep the stats on the device itself?
    Helpful post? Buy me a coffee.
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  • #3 20808166
    wasteoinc
    Level 2  

    I could run them on my PC, or Android or something similar (I don't need measurements of weeks, few hours maybe a day). If there is no such solution, please guide me to what would be more convenient.

    I have a file server running on a BananaPi (I know it's ancient but it works), so I can run stuff there too, but I wouldn't like to put a separate machine just for my power measurements, and Home Assistant is an OS.

    Also, my cheap plugs came with the CB2S board. I use powersave, but I heard people complaining that it stops responding after a few hours. Would you recommend another board as a better alternative?
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    #4 20808345
    p.kaczmarek2
    Moderator Smart Home
    I also have a Banana PI build, you can read about it here:
    https://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic3708276.html
    Can you run a PHP script on your server? OBK is able to send measurements to server via HTTP:
    https://www.elektroda.com/rtvforum/topic4007790.html

    Added after 28 [seconds]:

    I am always using PowerSave, you can enable it first and then, if any issue arise, disable it.
    Helpful post? Buy me a coffee.
  • #5 20927710
    wasteoinc
    Level 2  

    In the end, I just sent the data with this one here
    https://www.elektroda.com/rtvforum/topic4007790.html

    and now when I have the time, I will build an openhub server as my Armbian supports it :)

    Thanks again, your patching and firmware have made a true gem out of these cheap plugs.
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