Mango for monitoring and remote control of off-grid summer home

I am new to this subject so please forgive any dumb questions I may ask.

I am in the process of building a remote off-grid cabin/cottage and decided to log data from all the systems and access the data over the web via a satellite link. I then thought it would cool to be able to change settings remotely and in the course of research, found Mango. The cabin will be occupied for about 2-3 months each summer so telemetering and controls will operate for all systems for at least 9 months of the year.

I would appreciate forum members views on the suitability of Mango for this project and their advice on an optimal set-up in terms of hardware etc.

The cabin will have 24Vdc with an inverter giving 120Vac. The systems – hydronic heating pumps etc. will run on 24Vdc where possible. Energy will be generated by PV backed up with a propane generator for the days in mid winter when the sun is too low to generate sufficient PV.

The data I intended to log was temp and humidity, with gas consumption and gas tank level as possible additions. The equipment was going to be a Labjack, the necessary sensors and a notebook PC. In addition the inverter system from Outback Power will provide data from the electrical system.

Hope you can help. Thanks.

Any equipment that you intend to use with Mango will need to work - directly or indirectly - with the supported communications protocols. Version 0.7.0 includes Modbus, but upcoming versions will also include SNMP, BACnet I/P, and X10, as well as some proprietary protocols such as the Spinwave Systems serial receiver protocol. Input from Mango users of their requirements helps us prioritize new data source implementations.

My understanding of the Labjack is that it uses a proprietary protocol. The last i heard it would connect to Java software on a Windows host, but for Linux systems the serial driver was still very experimental. Things may have changed in the meantime. Those who use it appear to like it, so maybe it's time we checked in on it again.

In any case, a definite constraint with using a laptop is going to be the availability of serial ports. If you can find a piece of hardware with which you can connect all of your components, and have that connect to your laptop, you should be ok.

As for the appropriateness of Mango, i think the answer is an easy "yes". Because its user interface is accessed via a browser, you will be able to access it from anywhere. The only requirement is that your satellite internet provider give you a static IP address.

We would very much appreciate hearing how your project goes, especially if you use Mango. Please feel free to share your experiences here.

Thanks for your reply.

I provisionally picked the LabJack because it looks like a good solution for data logging. I will check out the Linux driver status.

I was hoping to use USB and the choice of a laptop PC was made on grounds of power consumption – a key issue in an off-grid system. I have a core duo HP notebook that consumes a steady 15 watts when active with the screen turned off. That will go up slightly with a LabJack connected but still be far lower than a normal PC – although there are possibilities: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2088992,00.asp

Are there any websites you could recommend to help me get my mind round the hardware issues and possibilities?

A hardware partner of Serotonin's builds low-power, low-noise, small profile host systems meant for industrial control. They are linux-based and have been shown to work well with Mango. The downside is that they're not particularly cheap, the headless version closing in on $1K CAD. Also, the Labjack/Linux compatibility still needs to be confirmed. If you are interested though, i can find out the power consumption details, and perhaps get you one with Mango pre-installed. But if you have the laptop available, you might as well start with that.

Regarding other hardware (i.e. sensors and actuators) we ourselves are still finding it difficult to get information out of manufacturers, who are famously economical with details. One of the goals of the upcoming "Mango certified" programme is to gather exactly that kind of information in one easily accessible place.

FYI, the hardware that i mentioned above appears to be a 60W system. From their literature: "60Watt mini-ITX Enclosure".