Red Reactor - battery power supply for RPi (now with MQTT)

Hardware Home Automation
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This Kickstarter campaign might be of interest to anyone looking for onboard power/ups for a Raspberry Pi.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pascal-h/the-red-reactor-when-power-really-matters

I’m usually hesitant to share crowdfunding projects, but this looks like a well-designed product in the final stages of testing. I’ve pledged for a two-pack.

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Red Reactor’s creator has published two apps for remote monitoring on Github. I thought that some folks here might be interested, even if you don’t pledge the campaign.

  • RR_WebMonitor – uses python and Matplotlib to create a set of performance graphs (battery voltage, current and CPU temperature, etc) and status information within an HTML page accessible from a web browser.
  • RR_BatMonitor – is a simple background application that you might run on an unattended or head-less device in order to receive an email when the system status changes. It can also monitor battery status and create a CSV file of voltage, current and battery charge level that can be imported into Excel for performance analysis, e.g. to compare different batteries or reduce system load.

I’ve asked them to consider adding MQTT output to RR_BatMonitor’s output options so that it’s easy to integrate, and they’ve said they’ll look into it.

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Red Reactor’s creator has added an MQTT utility and tested it with openHAB.

They’ve asked what they can do to make it integrate more fully with home-automation systems, and I’ve suggested the following:

  • Make all of the raw data available via MQTT and API, as well as any calculations/reports generated by the RR monitoring apps.
  • Have a set list of RR notifications that can be used to trigger openHAB rules.
  • Enable shutdown/reboot commands to be sent via Red Reactor through MQTT/API
  • In a perfect world, write an openHAB binding for native integration

Anyone else have something to add to this wish list?

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