Signalk-raspberry-pi-ina219 NPM

signalk-raspberry-pi-ina219

ina219 current shunt and power monitor sensor information for SignalK (SK).

Reports Current -3.2 A to 3.2 A, Voltage 0-26 VDC, and Power.

This plugin can be downloaded via the SignalK application.

Getting Started

You will need a raspberry pi with SignalK installed along with a ina219 sensor.

The ina219 sensor

Personally I am using the sensor found at the following link on Amazon. However there are many manufacturers to pick from. HiLetgo ina219 current shunt and power monitor sensor for Raspberry Pi with I2C build by Texas Instruments.

ina219

Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-INA219-Bi-directional-Current-Breakout/dp/B01ICN5OAM/

The datasheet of the ina219 can be found here: https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ina219.pdf

Connecting the Sensor

All you need to start is connecting the 4 pins (3.3V Power - VCC), (I2C - SDA), (I2C - SCL) and (Ground - GND) to your Raspberry Pi.

The GPIO of the raspberry Pi is detailed here: https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/windows/iot-core/learn-about-hardware/pinmappings/pinmappingsrpi

You need to make sure Raspberry Pi is turned off while doing this!

In order to use the sensor, the i2c bus must be enabled on your rasbperry pi. This can be accomplished using "sudo raspi-config".

TODO -- explain how to connect the load

Troubleshooting

When you first start SK, you should see one of two things in the /var/log/syslog; ina219 initialization succeeded or ina219 initialization failed along with details of the failure.

If the sensor isn't found you can run ls /dev/*i2c* which should return /dev/i2c-1. If it doesnt return then make sure that the i2c bus is enabled using raspi-config.

You can also download the i2c-tools by running sudo apt-get install -y i2c-tools. Once those are installed you can run i2cdetect -y 1. You should see the ina219 detected as address 0x77. If the sensor isn't detected then go back and check the sensor wiring.