“Think of the Smart Grid as the internet brought to our electric system… Devices such as wind turbines, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and solar arrays are not part of the Smart Grid. Rather, the Smart Grid encompasses the technology that enables us to integrate, interface with and intelligently control these innovations and others.”
—The U.S. Department of Energy
What am I seeing here?
Above is a Smart Grid demo. It is a simple example (light bulb ah-ha moment!) to show how any kind of device or system that uses electricity can be made smarter through real-time event driven communication. This demo is using machine-to-machine (M2M) communication over the Internet to control when a light bulb is powered on or off based on utility rates. The light goes on when the utility rates are at a low point, and goes off when they are high.
How we did it
- Linxter - A software development tool, Linxter allows software engineers to quickly and affordably connect distributed applications and integrate distributed systems through its cloud messaging platform. It allows for secure and reliable data exchange over the Internet, regardless of the number of intermediary networks involved and regardless of whether or not they are secure.
- Dajac’s Expert I/O 1000 – A USB-connected input/output (I/O) hardware device which allows for data acquisition (DAQ) and control with endpoint devices/systems which are not TCP/IP based. It’s a versatile I/O module with many unique features. The Expert I/O 1000 has 16 digital inputs, 16 digital outputs, 6 analog inputs, 2 analog outputs, 2 motor controllers and 2KB of non-volatile memory.
