Home automation KIT Rock PI S + power/energy meter
Plug & Play home automation KIT with 1 energy meter and DomBus34 module that permits to manage up to 4 energy meters, control 2 loads (relays) and check 230V voltage presence.
Email: store@creasol.it - Telegram: CreasolTech - Whatsapp: +393283730010
Priority mail: fast and cheap - Express Courier: fast and safe
Before returning products, please contact us
Ready to use KIT for home automation system that includes Rock PI S single-board computer ARM 64bit, metal enclosure, high-endurance 32GB memory card within Debian Linux, Domoticz, firewall and backup system.
It also includes 1 Modbus power and energy meter, to measure power, energy, voltage, frequency and power factor, 1 USB/RS485 adapter to connect DomBus modules to the Rock PI S, 2 power supply unit and 1 DomBus34 domotic module: it manages up to 4 energy meters, have 2 relay outputs to enable/disable appliances, 1 AC input to monitor 230V presence, and 2 low voltage inputs that can be connected to pushbuttons, switches, gas and water meters, ...
This is a start kit, plug and play, that permits to build a domotic system easily and start monitoring the building consumption with nice charts and compare function in a week by week, month by month and year by year basis.
When connected to the power supply and LAN, it's possible to connect to its IP address (automatically assigned by the DHCP service) through:
- www browser, on PC and smartphone, at address https://192.168.1.101 or http://192.168.1.101:8080 (replace 192.168.1.101 with its real IP address)
- smartphone app Domoticz
- SSH console
Rock PI S is a smaller and cheaper alternative for the (often not available) Raspberry PI 4 single board computer, with less RAM but with a compact form factor and very low power consumption, ideal solution for optimized software like Domoticz (written in C++).
KIT content:
- Rock PI S single board computer with metal enclosure, 32GB microSD with software already installed and ready to use
- 1x din-rail Modbus bi-directional energy meter DDS238-2 ZN/S, that can measure power, energy, voltage, frequency and power factor
- 1x Creasol DomBus34 din-rail module, that can be connected to 1-4 Modbus energy meters, to measure power exchanged with the electrical grid, and maybe the power from solar photovoltaic, power to the heat pump, kitchen, ...
- 1x din-rail power supply with 13.6V output
- 1x DC/DC converter to supply the Rock PI S computer
- 1x RS485/USB adapter to connect DomBus module to the Rock PI S
Rock PI S features
- quad-core MCU, 1.3GHz, 64bit
- 512 MB ram
- 32GB storage
- Very compact: 50x50x30mm
- Very low power consumpion: 0.4W normally, up to 1.5W during heavy duty
- 1 USB + 1 100Mbps ethernet + 1 USB type-C for power supply
- Several GPIO available: see below to know how to use them
- Domoticz already installed, with python plugins manager and Creasol DomBus plugin
- Automatic backup system, that permits to export backup to a NAS or other storage
- Firewall, that permits to limit access to the device preventing unauthorized accesses
- The operating system is optimized to limit write access to the micro-sd, extending its life
It should be supplied by:
- USB Type-C power adapter, 5V 1A
- or USB Type-C DC/DC regulator, the ideal solution when battery-backupped 12V is available
DomBus34 features
- manages up to 4 Modbus energy meters, returning to the domotic controller bidirectional power and energy (imported from the electrical grid, and exported to the grid), voltage, frequency and power factor.
- 2 relay outputs, with 250V 5A capability and overvoltage protection: can be used to enable/disable appliances like heaters, dehumidifiers, ....
- 1 AC 100-250V input, suitable to monitor the presence of 230V at the refrigetors, heat pump, ....
- 2 low voltage inputs: can be connected to pushbutton, switches, gas and water meters, ....
- DIN rail 54mm width enclosure
- supports DCMD commands, which are command sent to other DomBus modules or to itself when an even occurr, and they work even if Domoticz is not operational. For example, it's very easy to set Relay1 to be activated when exported power is greater than 1500W and disable it when imported power is greater than 500W, to enable a hot water boiler (or other appliance) using most energy from solar photovoltaic.
- very low power consumption, 10mW with normally, up to 150mW when all relays are ON.
Domoticz
The microSD already includes Domoticz home automation system: this is a free open source software written in C++, that works perfectly even in this small hardware.
Domoticz permits to manage serveral different type of hardwards, like ZigBee, ZWave, and many other wireless and wired protocols. Also, Creasol DomBus protocol is supported, so it's possible to connect through a RS485-USB adapter, many modules (for analog/digital inputs, analog/digital outputs, relay outputs, sensors, LEDs, lights management, EVSE to manage electric vehicle charging, ...).
Using Domoticz and DomBus modules it's possible to:
- monitor and control building power/energy, preventing disconnections for overload
- monitor the temperature and humidity
- improve the power consumption of the HVAC (heating , ventilation and air conditioning) to use the most power from renewables (photovoltaic)
- automate the garden and vegetable-garden watering
- send a picture to the smartphone when someone rings the doorbell
- manage the building lights
- charge one or more electric vehicles in a smart way, based on vehicle battery level (SoC), using full power, or using only extra power from photovoltaic
- manage alarm sensor to get a full function burglar alarm system, controllable from the smartphone
- send short videos to smartphone when a alarm sensor activates (for outdoor monitoring, for example)
- and much more
Many hardware plugins can be installed and updated automatically. Also, many scripting languages are available to create simple and complex automations, like Lua and Python. Very simple automations can be created using a graphical language, named Blocky.
Using GPIOs
- Pins marked with color orange are designed for default debug console.
- PWM: x2, PWM2/PWM3
- SPI: x2, SPI1, SPI2
- I2C: x3, I2C0/I2C1/I2C3
- UART: x4, UART0/UART1/UART2/UART3
- ADC: x1, ADC_IN0. The max input voltage is 1.8V.
- When I2C3 is used, you should only select one of the two groups, PIN#11/13 on 26-pin Header 1 and PIN#13/14 on 26-pin Header 2.
IO Voltage
RK3308 have two IO voltages, 1.8V/3.3V. For ROCK Pi S, the voltage level of GPIOs showed in the tables above are 3.3V and tolerance of those are 3.63V.
GPIO number
Rockchip RK3308 GPIO has 5 banks, GPIO0 to GPIO4, each bank has 32pins, naming as below:
GPIO0_A0 ~ A7 GPIO0_B0 ~ B7 GPIO0_C0 ~ C7 GPIO0_D0 ~ D7 GPIO1_A0 ~ A7 .... GPIO1_D0 ~ D7
For Rockchip 4.4 kernel, the GPIO number can be calculated as below, take GPIO4_D3(PIN8 on 26PIN GPIO) as an example:
GPIO4_D3 = 32*4 + 8*3 + 3 = 155
To set GPIO4_D3 output
cd /sys/class/gpio echo 155 > export cd gpio155 echo out > direction echo 1 > value # output high echo 0 > value # output low