UPDATE !! UPDATE !! Available also on Tindie Store !
And the story behind:
Do you remember the BLMS (Battery Live Monitor System) Project?
Today we will start a new Battery Live Monitor System (BLMS) series related with the SmartMon v.2.7Ex Board.
SmartMonv2.7Ex board has been born as the next generation of BLMS, bringing more flexibility and a lot of extra functionalities than the previous one.
If you want to quickly add to your project Voltage, Current and Power monitoring capabilities, plus, as a bonus, a proper hardware RTC with integrated Alarm and Timer functions, this is the extension board that you was looking for.
The modular design will let you to easy connect it and use it with any MCU you want as long as it has I2C bus capabilities and is working in the 3-5.5V voltage range. That includes all the popular existing platforms like Arduino, PIC, ARM, Atmega, ESP8266 and many more!
Because of the ammount of the information, the related main Videos and Articles are splitted in 4 Parts, as follow:
- Part1 – General view
- Part2 – Real Time Clock driver example
- Part3 – Power Monitor software example
- Part4 – Real World example with Thinkspeak data upload
Part 1 – GENERAL VIEW
FEATURES:
– TI INA219 integrated high-side current shunt and power monitor
– High precision, high quality shunt resistor from BOURNS: very low Inductance (10nH) and Temperature
Coeficient ( ±20 ppm/°C max.)
– Measured Bus Current interval: 0-10A (standard) / 0-20A (optional)
– High range Measured Bus Voltages from 0 to 26 V
– Bus voltage is measured directly on the load side of the shunt resistor
– SmartMon v.2.Ex Power supply voltage range – 3.3 to 5.5V
– Standard I2C bus communication ( nEXT Bus connector)
– PCF8563 RTC – real-time clock and calendar optimized for low power consumption
RTC Alarm and timer functions with MOSFET driven Interrupt output
– On-board regulator option (can be populated and used it when you want to use the same main BUS Voltage input also as a power supply for the SmartMon Board)
Schematics:
High-side Voltage measurement, current shunt and power monitor
RTC
Main Bus Voltage Regulator – optional
PCB:
SmartMon v2.7Ex – Bottom
SmartMon v2.7Ex – TOP
Next time in Part2 we will continue exploring the SmartMon v2.7Ex Board and also entering on the software side, talking about the Real Time Clock usage, Driver example, etc.