The power usage and temperature of a device can give more insights than we can see directly. With a solar panel, for instance, power measurement is obvious and known. However things like variations in power generation over time, degrading of the panel itself, etc. can be important insights.

In this update, I would like to share a tutorial on building such a logger:

Industrial data logger with Hornbill

A Hornbill IDL kit can be purchased on the crowdfunding page.

The more Hornbill IDL is used, the more ways we’ll discover to optimize it and make it more efficient. Things like data logging interval, power saving modes, local data storage etc., which are important. We will show more on this subject in the next part of the tutorial.

Stretch Goal 1: $10000 Phone App for Hornbill IO.

Hornbill IO is coming along very well. With Hornbill IO you’ll be able to generate security certificates, log data and create simple dashboards. However, it is evident that more people will want to control things, and the ability to create custom dashboards would be nice. Things like buttons, slides, gauges etc., can make controlling devices easier. Being able to do it from a phone sometimes makes more sense than from a computer.

However building such a cross-platform app will take a good amount of time. So we did a rough estimate on the input it would take to achieve this, and hence this stretch goal.

I will share more details in the upcoming updates on Hornbill IO and the app. Do share the project and help us reach the stretch goal!