Water meter reader

This application runs on a single-board computer (SBC; just Raspberry Pi for now) and will monitor for water meter pulses and send them to a Google Sheet.

How to set up on Raspberry Pi

The steps are roughly:

Initialize your Raspberry Pi so you can SSH into it at least
Create a Google Sheet and a Google Cloud service account that can access it
Install the software onto the board and configure it
(Optional) Set up alterative Wi-Fi networks
Connect wires to water meter based on circuit diagram

1. Initialize Raspberry Pi

Follow the instructions here so you can SSH into your Raspberry Pi without connecting it to a computer or external keyboard (since you likely don't have those things)

https://gallaugher.com/makersnack-setup-a-raspberry-pi-without-a-keyboard-or-mouse-headless-install/

2. Create a Google Sheet and Google Cloud service account

Make a copy of https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KViVywHr-VgBb7X2jAeSxuk7AbjgH07P2RPE_2mUxPE/edit
Take note of the spreadsheet ID: e.g., the part in the URL after /d/
Create a service account in any Google Cloud project: e.g., https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/serviceaccounts
Create a key for that Service Account and download it in JSON format

Using SFTP, upload it to the Raspberry Pi

# This host name should be replaced with the host name
# you set in the "Initialize Raspberry Pi" step
sftp root@raspberrypihost.local
# Your key file will have a different name
put hobby-projects-344701-4b30d6c4518e.json

3. Install software

SSH into the Raspberry Pi, get the code, run install scripts.

# This host name should be replaced with the host name
# you set in the "Initialize Raspberry Pi" step
ssh root@raspberrypihost.local

cd /root
git clone https://github.com/pxpeterxu/water-meter.git
cd water-meter

bash sysadmin/install.sh YOUR-UPLOADED-KEY.json GOOGLE-SHEETS-ID
# bash sysadmin/install.sh hobby-projects-344701-4b30d6c4518e.json 1KViVywHr-VgBb7X2jAeSxuk7AbjgH07P2RPE_2mUxPE

4. Connect to more Wi-Fi networks

Is your water meter somewhere where it would have to connect to a different Wi-Fi network? If that's the case, edit wpa_supplicant.conf so that

# This host name should be replaced with the host name
# you set in the "Initialize Raspberry Pi" step
ssh root@raspberrypihost.local
vi /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

# Add lines similar to the below
# Linux will connect to Wi-Fi networks by trying the minimum
# priority first
network {
  ssid="yourNetwork"
  psk="yourPassword"
  priority=1
}

network {
  ssid="lowerPriorityNetwork"
  psk="anotherPassword"
  priority=2
}

5. Wiring and water meters

The SBC computer connects to water meters through regular wires. This should be compatible with any water meter that emits pulses, but in our case, we used the following:

DAE VM-100P 1” Positive Displacement Water Meter with Pulse Output, Measuring in Gallon + Couplings

See the circuit diagram for how it's wired up:

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1mreJUlSr_8Lj_v_qnm54Mb6FJzXbTNlOOgfM4Ys-_sU/edit

How to develop

We develop the SBC by syncing the code over to the computer and running everything there.

Set up syncing

Make sure that you and the SBC are on the same network
Figure out the IP address of the SBC. This is often something like 192.168.0.123
SSH into the SBC computer using:
```
ssh root@192.168.0.123
```

Install your own certificate in authorized_keys

# On your local machine
cat ~/.ssh/id_*.pub
# Copy and paste that onto the SBC computer
# On the embedded
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
echo 'PASTE YOUR AUTHORIZED_KEYS HERE' >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Verify that ssh root@192.168.0.123 no longer requires a password

Sync the code

On your local machine, run:

SYNC_SERVER=192.168.0.123 gulp sync

This should start syncing all of your code over to the SBC computer

SSH into the SBC computer (e.g., ssh root@192.168.0.123) and run any commands you might need to test and install all the software.

ssh root@192.168.0.123
# On the SBC computer
cd water-meter
bash sysadmin/install-prerequisites.sh
yarn install
yarn jest someTest.test

How it works

In short, this software powers a SBC, which

Counts the number of pulses it receives from a few water meters
Saves the result locally, and
Once an hour, uploads it to a Google Sheet.

SBC computer

This device is meant to be run on a Single Board Computer (Raspberry Pi).

The Raspberry Pi will be supported long-term as it has an established ecosystem. C.H.I.P. was used for the initial version of this, but is discontinued and not supported so the code was remmoved.

pxpeterxu / water-meter