Re: Household electrical current to Excel ???

["Paul E. Bennett" <peb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Palindr?me wrote:

[%X]

> If you are into electronics, an opto-reflective switch held on the face
> of the electricity supplier's consumption meter may do it. Mine did,
> just held in place with Blutac and aligned to look at the face of the
> rotating meter disk with its black markings. Just feed the output from
> it into the parallel port and count the transitions. That was very cheap
> - the opto-switch came out of a defunct vcr.

Not all electricity supply meters have the rotating disk (mine does not). I
haven't yet investigated the flash rate of the LED with varying current
consumption but it may be possible to use that with an opto-sensor over the
LED.

--
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Paul E. Bennett ....................<email://peb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy .....<http://www.amleth.demon.co.uk/>
Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972
Tel: +44 (0)1235-811095
Going Forth Safely ....EBA. http://www.electric-boat-association.org.uk/
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