Hi,
I would like to know how many eMonTX can we connect to a eMonBase (sounds me it is 10). But then how many time can we replicate this ? In short in my project I would have 400 points to measure... My guess the limitation would be on the radio side
Any inputs or links to (re?)read is welcome.
Re: How does it scale ? How many eMonTX per bases ?
The absolute maximum number of sensor nodes on a network is 29 (there are 32 numbers, two are reserved, the base is the 30th). But all use the same radio band, so you could well have problems with two transmitting at the same time, therefore the practical limit is very likely to be less than this, and will depend on the length of the message and how often each node transmits.
The "group" does not help you, because a different group still uses the same radio band.
However, depending where you are in the world, you may be able to have two radio bands in use, so you would be able to have two networks running in parallel on two separate radio bands.
If groups of nodes and their respective base nodes are screened from adjacent groups, it might be possible, with careful control of transmitter power and possibly with the use of directional aerials, for groups of nodes to share the same band. As far as I know, no-one has ever tried to do this with the emonTx, although I know the technique has been used for radio microphones in a large broadcasting complex.
Re: How does it scale ? How many eMonTX per bases ?
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your answer. Does anybody tried to convert the radio part to Ethernet (IP) ?
My searches have been unsuccesfull (via Google)
Re: How does it scale ? How many eMonTX per bases ?
If you search here, you should find at least one instance of the emonTx Shield being used on an Arduino with Ethernet. But of course the emonTx itself has only a serial connection, so it requires 'something else'. That might be the emonPi - currently in development (see Blog Posts).
Re: How does it scale ? How many eMonTX per bases ?
I like the emonPi shield. I guess I just have to wait for it to be released. In my scenario, a computer with embedded sensors is easier than using radio although a bit more expensive.
Ideally I'd like to connect the Raspberry Pi(es:) to the network and then connect to each of them to read the sensors values. Ideally I would need 2 AC sensors and if I could have humidity + temperature that would be heaven ;-) But I won't be greedy, it looks like it has only 2 inputs due to space limitations (PoC specs from early 2014 - see reference link below).
Reference: http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/3937
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