Hi everyone, I am new to Blynk so please forgive me if I ask any stupid questions. I have search around and still cannot get my answer yet, I guess this forum could help. I am trying to add wifi capability to a electronic meter that can communicate via UART. The board that I will be using is TI CC3200. Since the meter does not have a Blynk library like the PZEM-004. Is it still possible for me to make a similar GUI like the PZEM-004 example? What functions I can use?
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My target is not a sensor but a power meter. I can visualize the data through the GUI in a PC. Can you please provide more details or reference project? I have tried the example with pzem-004. But the meter that I will be using does not have an existing library. Thanks!
If your meter doesn’t have an existing library you will need to create it BEFORE integrating it with Blynk.
It would be great if you could provide some reference/ details for building a library:pray:
How about googling around?
I am not using PZEM-004 this time. I have spent a lot of time googling around but still I cannot find an answer that’s why I am asking😞
It’s hard to help if you don’t tell what power meter you are using.
A sensor can be anything from two wires touching to a full blown computerised control system.
But Blynk doesn’t control them directly… Ratherm programming code and libraries do that, Blynk is simply the GUI for viewing and controlling those items via said code.
You need to first know how those items work… then you can add in Blynk.
Google for various ways of reading/controlling your meter with Arduino/ESP… if it is possible, get it working then add in Blynk as the GUI… If it is not possible, then Blynk will not be of any use by itself anyhow.
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You’ve said which type of board you’re going to be using, but not the type of electronic meter that you’re hoping to interface with the board. If you shared that information then it would be a step in the right direction.
Although the CC3200-LaunchXL board is listed as supported hardware for Blynk, it’s not one of the popular choices for users of this forum, so even when we understand the type of electronic meter that you’re using, we may still struggle to help you with your project. The majority of forum users tend to use ESP8266/NodeMCU boards that are programmed via the Arduino IDE.
With one of these type of devices it’s fairly easy to read a serial data stream, provided that you know the baud rate and there’s no handshaking involved. A quick internet search would produce hundreds of example code snippets to get you going.
If you already have experience of the CC3200-LaunchXL and the Energia IDE then maybe you can use these examples, or Energia specific examples of how to read a data stream via the UART, to capture the data from your electronic meter.
If you’re new to the whole IoT environment then it may be better to switch to a more mainstream type of board, where you’ll be able to get more support from the Blynk community.
Pete.
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