Understanding the Sensor

Published July 14, 2018

Current Sensor AC

A little project on how we can make an AC current sensor work, and measure current.

IntermediateFull instructions provided1 hour20,294

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino UNO

AC current sensor

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

Understanding the Sensor

Understanding the way a sensor is working is the main difficulty. The OpenEnergyMonitor website has a real nice article about this sensor: Yhdc SCT-013-000 Current Transformer.

“Current transformers (CTs) are sensors that are used for measuring alternating current. They are particularly useful for measuring whole building electricity consumption (or generation for that matter).

The split core type such as the CT in the picture above, is particularly suitable for DIY use it can be clipped straight on to either the live or neutral wire coming into the building without having to do any high voltage electrical work.

Like any other transformer, a current transformer has a primary winding, a magnetic core, and a secondary winding.

In the case of whole building monitoring the primary is the live or the neutral wire (not both) coming into the building itself and goes through the hole in the CT. The secondary winding comprises many turns of fine wire housed within the casing of the transformer.”

OpenEnergyMonitor

https://learn.openenergymonitor.org/electricity-monitoring/ct-sensors/introduction

Here are the results:

Code

Code Current Sensor

// EmonLibrary examples openenergymonitor.org, Licence GNU GPL V3

#include "EmonLib.h"                   // Include Emon Library
EnergyMonitor emon1;                   // Create an instance

void setup()
{  
  Serial.begin(9600);
  
  emon1.current(1, 5);             // Current: input pin, calibration.
}

void loop()
{
  double Irms = emon1.calcIrms(1480);  // Calculate Irms only
  

  Serial.print("Current : ");
  Serial.print(Irms);		       // Irms
    Serial.println(" mA");
}

Current Sensor AC

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Understanding the Sensor

Schematics

currentonly_bb_mGkUyhZ348.png

Code

Code Current Sensor

Credits

Achraf Oukheir

Comments

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Current Sensor AC

Current Sensor AC

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Understanding the Sensor

Schematics

currentonly_bb_mGkUyhZ348.png

Code

Code Current Sensor

Credits

Achraf Oukheir

Comments

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