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DAISEE v2.0 - Here we go for the next steps: 2017 Hackaday Prize entry
Rieul Techer • 05/12/2017 at 09:40 • 0 comments

Hello everybody !
Long time not post ... but we were busy working on both the next version of the prototype given the inherent technological and technical limitations of the V1 prototype, and finding a concrete field experiment to test and iterate on the various level of the DAISEE project. On the first step we're on track of building the next prototype version (documentation to come soon on the 2017 hackaday prize entry; on the second step we have now a field experiment building up in the south of France and another on track in Villeurbanne near Lyon in France.
We're also back in the hackaday prize race in 2017 on the "Internet of Usefull thing" challenge: https://hackaday.io/prize/details#two with this entry: https://hackaday.io/project/21954-daisee-buiding-the-internets-of-energy

You can then carry on following our development on the previously shared entry.

By the way, we kindly invite you there: http://daisee.org as well as here: http://chat.daisee.org to chat on the various aspects of the project.

Hope to reading you soon,

Rieul for the DAISEE team ;)
Blockchain is fun... but what's next for energy?!
Rieul Techer • 10/02/2016 at 14:52 • 0 comments
Today the blockchain trend looks a bit like that:
Blockchain technologies are interested to think transparent and secured peer-to-peer distribution in sectors where a limited amount of middle-men takes the large majority of the room. To put it in a more practical way:
- in the banking and financial ecosystem trusted by few banks, funds and multi-national companies, Bitcoin (based on a blockchain technology - with all the known limitations) makes it possible in specific activities, to get ride of the middle-man and enable direct peer-to-peer transactions.
- in the same manner, in the energy sector, depending on the countries, grid and production are usually trusted by a few actors, and clearly not inter-operable with other infrastructures operators (EV for instance). A bit like for Bitcoin - but with a much more complex ecosystem, thus requiring to think beyond blockchain - blockchain technologies are an excuse to think distributed, transparent and secured peer-to-peer systems. We do use the word EXCUSE because, as we'll notice later, blockchain technologies do not answer every needs of decentralized peer-to-peer energy transactions, and even bring limitations that necessitate to choose the part of the blockchain technology that we can use in a contexte where hybridization with other technologies is essential.
To be a bit provocative, we would then say that blockchains as blockchain won't revolutionize anything. What's interesting however, and ground for potential revolution, is the spirit and the potential of hybridization and interoperation with other technologies, and appropriation by sectors and communities that are "outside-the-blockchain-box" of blockchain.
What are we capable of doing with blockchain technologies at our scale ?
From now on, in our case, the blockchain technology that we use (local private Ethereum blockchain) makes it possible to automate virtual electricity transactions between peers based on a algorithm ("smart-contract" that have nothing such as smart nor contract) on a 4-nodes distributed, transparent and "secured" database. We are also capable of making physical effective electricity transactions from the required producer to the necessitated consumer: switching based on the actual transaction switch operated by the "smart-contract" that triggers from which producer the calling consumer buys its electricity.
And what are the limitation that we came across while applying it to the energy sector ?
Please note that those limitations might have been overcome by other people. However, for the moment we do not have enough details in our hands to assure that those have been effectively overcome.
Here we'll try to spot the main limitations of the blockchain technologies applied, in our case, to the energy sector :
- "Blockchain technologies makes it possible to make small transactions at a really low-cost" : the low-cost of small-amount transactions is verified in the case of limited interaction with the blockchain. If continued and permanent interaction with the blockchain is required (such as registering in-real time production and consumption of each peer), then the fees pilling up can entails high amount bills.
- "Blockchain technologies makes it possible to identify a verifiable, auditable and authentic user" : the users are pseudo-users (it's not anonymous but pseudonymous). Moreover, the blockchain technologies do not verify, label or guaranty the user, or the data the user puts in it. As we put it lovely : "shit in shit out", blockchain technologies are transition tools with inputs and outputs. The inputs need to be validate in order to call the blockchain a "tool for the guarantied and validated information".
- "Blockchain technologies certify and make transaction more secured, reducing the risk for fraudulent actions" : this is true, provided the consensus process of validation of the transaction.
- "Blockchain technologies make information transparent for peers" : this is true, provided that you give the necessary keys...
Read more »
DAISEE 1.0 - Energy sensor enabling virtual transaction on a local Ethereum blockchain
Rieul Techer • 09/29/2016 at 19:06 • 0 comments
There are mainly 3 steps to build a local micro-electricty sharing network (and when we mean micro... we mean real-micro - 3 nodes with small solar panel and consuming devices such as smartphones or bulb connected to electricity meter connected to a local Ethereum blockchain - does it sound comprehensible ?):
- first, the hardware step: building the electricity sensor coupled to the IoT that will enable the sensor to talk to the local Ethereum blockchain and make it possible to the sensors to talk one with another
- second , the software step: connection to the local ethereum blockchain, make it possible for sensor to communicate with each other and share data, call a "smart-contrat" that automate the virtual energy transaction and the effective tokken exchange
- last of all, the infrastructure: make the system capable of effectively sharing electricity with peers on the network in line with the actual real production and consumption, thus assuring the switch when one production source is down to make a one that over-produce capable of providing the necessary electricity to the consumer.
This log is 1.0 since it concerns the prototyping of the all system at the micro-scale.
- Instruction 3 of the process ( gather all the necessary information on the Hardware part and Software part for prototyping. Instruction for the full prototype are not yet online since we're still in the prototyping process. To come...
- Documentation of the prototype can be found HERE (in french for the moment).
Hardware step : CitizenWatt + Pine64+ + Arduino
Note: we use Pine64+ because we tried to use Raspberry Pi III to make ethereum Geth client running and make it possible for transaction to diffuse, but it turns out that it was not possible to mine on a Raspberry Pi III.
- Documentation can be found HERE (in french for the moment, please excuse us for the inconvenience).
- More ressource can be found on our GitHub Repository.
- For the CitizenWatt sensor building process see INSTRUCTION 2.
- For the CitizenWatt/PINE64+/ARDUINO interaction see INSTRUCTION 3.
Software step : Local Ethereum nodes + Smart Contract + Sensors' communication
- From the previous logs (mainly log DAISEE 0.8) most of the software steps have been prototyped.
- Please see INSTRUCTION 1 and 3 for the Ethereum set up process.
- For the smart-contract and DApp development see INSTRUCTION 4 and 5.
- Finally, see INSTRUCTION 6 for update of the consumption and production data on the blockchain (necessary to automated through the smart-contract the transactions
Infrastructure step : Production + Consumption + Arduino (for automated switch)
This phase is still under construction and concerns only the micro-scale prototyping. For real scale prototyping (micro-grid scale) we are under discussion with some grid operator to test the solution with few houses (if consistent with the finding of our micro-scale prototyping phase).
The principle is to have various sources of production and consumption connected to an Arduino switch with is connected to the various PINE64+ that gather and manage consumption and production data. The switch is activated by the consumer that need electricity. The switch is controlled by the output of the smart-contract: who gives what to who ?
We come with more news in this log as soon as possible.
Note: for the sake of the experimentation we'll do our best to test in real usage conditions. However, at first we'll simulate the production and consumption data.
DAISEE 0.9 - DAISEECamp #2 : CitizenWattCamp & EthereumCamp
Rieul Techer • 08/21/2016 at 14:46 • 0 comments
This second DAISEECamp (#2) is, at first, part of two camps :
- A multi-sites SummerCamp initiated by friends from Le Biome
- A design purpose camp call DozeCamp in the context of the comingInternational Biennale du Design 2017
Documentation of the DAISEECamp#2 can be found HERE (still really sorry, it's mostly in french we are working on the translation).
Explanation of what is CitizenWatt by Olivier Blondeau from Citoyens Capteurs (in french not yet translated):
3 main purposes for this camp
- Consolidate the documentation process by slightly switching toward full GitHub support and link with Multibao
- Debug issues with the CitizenWatt sensor and make them work
- Make it possible for Raspberry Pi or any Ethereum node support to mine at least a block
1st goal : to have the prototypes of each of the necessary bricks that work to focus during the next month on the articulation of each bricks in order to have a functional prototype within a month.
2nd goal : answer to the Automation challenge since the core of our work since le last 4 logs are about how to automate the peer-to-peer transaction process with the blockchain (please see : last Log for instance)
CitizenWatt Sensor : make it work
For the purpose of this session, @Olivier Blondeau came at our local hackerspace (La MYNE) to help us solve the issues we had with the CitizenWatt sensors.
The first step was to compare the hardware part to make sure there were no issues compared to a CitizenWatt sensor that works:
No issues were found. It appears that the trouble came from the software and more particularly the way we flashed the ATMEGA. (Update of the instruction are to come concerning the CitizenWatt sensors then).
Indeed, after following the flashing process using a FTDI programmer (Code source: sketch Arduino)
e ended up with 5 CitizenWatt sensors working:
Once the CitizenWatt sensor are working it is necessary to couple the sensor to a Raspberry PI in order for the sensor to communicate the data it senses (through RF in this v1 version of the board and through Low Energy Bluetooth in the coming v2 version of the board). This means that it is necessary to install the CitizenWatt disk image and interface on the Raspberry Pi.
It turns out that it works well with the Raspberry Pi 1 but not with the more recent ones since this is not the same architecture. This leads us to another issue then : we need to build the CitizenWatt UX image and boot for a Raspberry PI 3 (that is more powerfull than a Raspberry 1 and might be right to mine as an ethereum node). Clement D., one of the core developer of CitizenWatt thus took some with us to build and test. Exchange and procedure are HERE (instructions on this part are to come ASAP).
However, we did test the good functioning of the CitizenWatt on site with a Raspberry Pi 1 install... and it worked well. However, it turned out that RF is not powerful enough to push data from a floor to the other.
Testing has been carried out with a electricity consuming device:
Plugging the Amp plier to the brown cable (the one that get electricity into the device basically)
Enables you, through the local interface, to follow the consumption (yep... do not bother with the guy taking the photo instead of sreen-printing :-) ):
At the end of the day, we still have some trouble to boot the CitizenWatt disk image on a Raspberry Pi 3. Moreover, architecture of the v2 PCB of the CitizenWatt sensor is to come and should be more interesting for our need. However, for the sake of experimentation we carry on with the v1 for the moment. You'll find all the necessary information about the PCB plans and codes of the CitizenWatt sensor AT THIS LINK (GitHub repo).
Moreover, we still carry on installation and work on Open Energy Monitor.
Ethereum mining nodes on Raspberry PI 3 or any other support
As stated on the previous LOGs we do not have so much trouble to make raspberry pi as ethereum node of a common private blockchain. Our issues come from the fact that in order for the nodes to participate to...
Read more »
DAISEE 0.8 - Building Ethereum Nodes, Smartcontract and DApps
Rieul Techer • 08/21/2016 at 13:18 • 0 comments
As part of the development of some bricks of the DAISEE program, two of the main technological bricks are:
- How to make Smart Energy Monitoring/Meter IoTs as Ethereum blockchain nodes that can talk to each other via a blockchain and make and validate transactions ?
- How to automate the transactions management ?
Documentation can be found here (documentation is still mainly in french, we'll do our best to translate it - if by any chance you wanna help you're more than welcome):
- For the Ethereum Installation (RaspberryPi) using GETH and an alternative way for the Installation of an Ethereum node on a Raspberry Pi using PARITY
- For the Design & Deployment of SmartContrat Peer-to-peer Energy
- For the Design & Deployment of DApp
You'll also found more detail instruction on the instruction web page.
Building Ethereum Nodes
Documentation: Ethereum Installation (RaspberryPi) using GETH and an alternative way for the Installation of an Ethereum node on a Raspberry Pi using PARITY
In the related documentation, you'll find the process for the installation of an Ethereum node on a Raspberry PI using various techniques. It also focuses on the problems and difficulties we've been facing and how to overcome some of them.
Please note that the first attempts have been carried out on the emonpi which is a costumed raspberry pi for the Open Energi Monitor. However, the process is further described in the document for Raspberry Pi in general.
3 ethereum nodes on Raspberry PI talking to each other on a common private blockchain

Building a peer-to-peer energy transaction smart-contract
Documentation: Design & Deployment of SmartContrat Peer-to-peer Energy
The first step before building the smart-contract is to define
- why do we need a smartcontract
- what does it need to do
- how does it do it and when
Why do we need a smartcontract ?
We need a smartcontract in order to automate the energy and currency transaction processes between peers. Indeed, the aim is to make it simple for the prosumer to manage the transactions with other prosumer while keeping the process transparent and appropriable.
What does it need to do ?
For us and at the moment, it need to automate transactions while called automatically by a prosumer either selling or buying energy.
How does is do it and when ?
It does it while comparing on an "energy market" who's producing to much and who needs energy for consumption. Then it triggers the transaction while being called by a prosumer automatically. Finally, it updates the energy and currency account while providing both account with the necessary (positive or negative) balance.

Building a dApp
Documentation: Design & Deployment of DApp
The dApp enables to have a user interface to manage the smartcontract and, thus, the transaction process. The related documentation focuses on the development of decentralized application based on Ehtereum Javascrip API WEB3.
The dApp makes it possible to see :
- The ether balance of the prosumer account
- The energy account of the prosumer account
- The latest transaction
- Other information about the blockchain
The accounts are updated each time there is a transaction from a producer to a consumer. Here is a video showing the transaction virtually happening between two accounts:
Conclusion
From now, we are able to :
- make Raspberry PI ethereum nodes talking with a common private blockchain
- build an energy smartcontract making it possible for two or more prosumers to make virtual energy transaction on a private blockchain
- have an user interface making it more appropriable and visual (some more work remains to be done on the UX side)
Our problems :
- CItizenWatt IoT sensor are not yet ready since we still got issues to build them and make them work
- Raspberry PI are ethereum node but are not yet able to validate and transmit transaction because it requires to mine once to initiate a block while generating a DAG file, which is necessary for the Raspberry PI, as a node, to participate to the network. This is due to lack of memory and power of the Raspberry...
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DAISEE 0.7 - DAISEECamp #1 : Get to know the local experimentation context
Rieul Techer • 08/21/2016 at 10:57 • 0 comments
After both the #compteurconnect and the #blockfest hackathon, it is time for us to build stuff related to a local and concrete experimental context. That's how the DAISEECamp #1 was build: in order to define in which context and how the current DAISEE development can interact with the local relality of the ground.
As a result, we found a potential experimental ground with a local (near Lyon) group of households including Louis' father house. The documentation (in French for the moment we do are sorry about that) can be found HERE.
The experimental context ground
An picture is far more representing than a bunch of words...

Basically, the set of houses are located remotely from the town in the country side with some really interesting assets for experimentation :
- First Louis' father is already committed to experimentation int he field of energy, agriculture and a lot of things related to sustainable development
- Secondly, the house is well set for experimentation of the DAISEE program since it already gather : 3 independent sources of solar electric production, 3 independent sources of local consumption (which means : 3 production meters and 3 consumption meters).
Picture from @Nicolas Loubet - 16/07/16 - CC-BY-NC-SA.

Picture from @Nicolas Loubet - 16/07/16 - CC-BY-NC-SA.

Picture from @Sam 16/07/16 - CC-BY-NC-SA.

Note: The UPS can be connected via Bluetooth. Unfortunately, the bluetooth module is not installed, and it is not possible to get back the date via bluetooth for the moment.
Moreover, there is a local project about building a distributed solar powerplant divided around 10 site of 9kW each.
What is energy and what do we want to do here with DAISEE

The aim of this session was to clarify what energy is, what are the interest of the contributors in the DAISEE program and what are the next steps.
What we've done during this Camp
- Test the Open Energy Monitor on site
Picture from @Sam 14/07/16 - CC-BY-NC-SA.
It turns out that data from the EmonPi (OEM) does not seem relevant. Even if the EmonPi is not connected, is still mesure a 34W power. It can be the sensibility (noise) of the sensor. We have to check if an AC/DC adaptor can improve reliability.
- Take some time with Louis' father to discuss the needs and understand into details the photovoltaïc solar panel installation and use chain : from first contact with the contractor to the electric production and invoicing to the electricity buyer. We gathered a lot of data and sources that helped us to understand where DAISEE can add value for both the consumer and the contractor/buyer/distributor.
Discussion about the DAISEE's orientations

This camp was also the opportunity to discuss the relevance of the blockchain technologies for he DAISEE project.
It turns out that the blockchain technologies are part of the solution but have current limitation that make them not fully relevant for the energy sector. Some points are:
- Real time data management on a blockchain is really limited from both the validation time of a block, the size of the blockchain and the necessary fee for each transaction (that can add-up to really costly overall fee)
- Identity management and securing the viability and relevance of the energy data that are collected
- It's relevant for transaction and automation of the processes
- It will require to be hybridized with other technologies related to data storage (IPFS for instance) and database management (BigChainDB for instance)
DAISEE 0.6 - #Blockfest
Rieul Techer • 08/05/2016 at 17:46 • 0 comments
Between the 6th and 12th of June, the Blockfest was held at Ecole 42 in Paris.
We were there to welcome new members to the contributors team and work on a very first prototype: how to make 3 independent RaspPi Ethereum blockchain nodes to communicate with each other and make transaction.
You'll find the detailed documentation following THIS LINK. More specific documentation can be find HERE about how to deploy a local ethereum blockchain on one or more RaspPi. More specific documentation about the SmartContract is HERE. Last of all, our presentation about our production can be found HERE.
Who were the contributors ?
- Core Team (on site)
- Core Team (remotely)
- Contributors (sprint)
- Mentors
- Observers
Read more »
DAISEE - Anything Goes: Mission to Mars
Rieul Techer • 07/19/2016 at 17:35 • 0 comments
Anything Goes challenge : define the constrains and the vision of DAISEE on... Mars ! Yep... "Anything Goes". here is the related video:
Why Mission to Mars ?
Basically,SpaceX aims at sending people on Mars and we'll be needing to build the energy infrastructure on Mars in a way that is more sustainable and resilient than on Earth.
More over, Tesla is building the future of energy storage infrastructure and energy distribution network complementing the "well-known" "conventional" grid or micro-grid.
Then we think that, given the conditions on Mars and the necessity for energy production and distribution, DAISEE could be the future of the energy infrastructure on Mars.
Energy basics on Mars
- No fossil fuel
- Solar energy (about 50% of the earth's solar irradiation)
- Wind power energy : Mars is a windy planet
- Nuclear fission/fusion since there are nuclear fuel on Mars
- Plant based electricity production
- Carbon dioxide sublimation (solid to gas transformation) > energy generation
Grid infrastructure basics
- Low pressure and gravity (surface gravity: 38% of that on Earth...)
- The Mars landers Viking I, Viking II, Pathfinder, Opportunity Rover, and Spirit Rover identified aluminium, iron, magnesium, and titanium in the Martian soil" (see Wikipedia), confirming that materials on site con be used to build the infrastructure
- Temperatures are very low, thus enabling more efficiency for electrical distribution systems.
What's you thoughts about the feasibility and technical constrains on Mars to build this infrastructure ? You might have some ideas about how to work it out ?
We thought about this Mars project because it makes it possible to really think out of the box the potential application of DAISEE in a both new and known environment: new since it put some more constrains that we are not used to deal with, known because Mars is a planet with limited ressources as we know it on Earth. Thinking and building DAISEE on Mars, enables to think about innovative ways to distribute and exchange energy.
We would be glad to heard about your thoughts. Please let us know.
The DAISEE Team
DAISEE 0.5 - #CompteurConnect
Rieul Techer • 05/30/2016 at 19:58 • 0 comments
2016-05-21: Hackhaton #CompteurConnect - DAISEE has been revealed :-)
The #CompteurConnect hackathon held by the French ministry for environment, energy and ecology has given the DAISEE team the opportunity to:
- Make the project vision clear & work on the global design of the project
- Work on a (proto) smart contract based on the ethereum blockchain that simply enable to a person who produce a surplus of electricty to exchange this surplus with another person who is consuming in exchange for a token.
This smart contract is the first energy peer-to-peer contract based on the Ethereum blockchain. It works more or less... still need improvement and it's modest in its structure and on what it is doing but still... the first energy smart contract.
If you wanna look a bit into it it's in the GitHub repo. Please feel free to improve! You'll also find our final presentation in the shared files called DAISEE slide-deck.
The documentation (in FR, so sorry) of our process during the hackathon is here.
Where are we today ?
Paul Fl • 04/25/2016 at 09:43 • 0 comments
As winter and the deadline for the first challenge are coming, it is time to state how advanced we are today (2016-07-19). Moreover it's been a while since we haven't post something about our advances its because... we're trying to progress !
2016-07-19
Technically
- We've installed Ehtereum node on independant Raspberry Pi II and III and made them communicate with a local ethereum blockchain
- We've made some basic transaction on the local blockchain between the Raspberry PI
- We've code a energy "smart contract" that has not been tester yet
- We've finished soldering on the CiizenWatt PCB, unfortunaltely it doesnt't work yet (we've got some trouble with it... we'll explain later in antoher log)
Functionnally
- We are looking for experimental territories to test in real conditions
- We've found another playground remotely from Lyon at the @Louis Villard parents' house engaged in a transition process
- We still don't understand why our CitizenWatt are not working
- Open Energy Monitor is functional but suffers from weak sensitivity and consistance in consumption data.
The related documentation :
- for the CitizenWatt
- for the installation of Ethereum on a OpenEnergyMonitor
- for the SmartContract
Lot of work has been lead by @Sam @Louis Villard and @Paul Fl on soft and hardware.
Extensive work has been lead by @Nicolas Loubet @Rieul Techer @Aude Omn and @xavier on the ecosystem and community building around te DAISEE project.
Carry on following the feed... more logs to come.
2016-04-25
Technically
- We can measure and log current thanks to the current clamp
- We installed the Ethereum client on a Raspberry Pi
- We can perform some basic smartcontracts
Functionally
- We have the building that will serve as playground for the project (La M[y]ne, the physical space hosting la Paillasse Saône, eco hacklab in Lyon, France)
- We are in the process of building 5 pairs of Citizen-Watt + Raspberry Pi
We will use a Citizen Watt board to measure and tokenize the energy production and consummation : this is basically a current clamp connected to an home made customized Arduino (ATMega368 based PCB).
On a Raspberry Pi, we will manage the blockchain capabilities (via Ethereum), the smart contract between actors, allowing a smart and decentralized governance.
Planning of the project
Step 1
We use each room of a house to act as various actors in a simulated energy market.
Step 2
We scale up the POC to a few houses to create a real small energy market, some actors producing energy, some other consuming, and some actors doing both.

View all 14 project logs

Step 1

Ethereum installation on a Raspberry PI

An Ethereum node running on a Raspberry Pi. Photo by RIeul (CC-BY-NC-SA)

Equipment

3 Raspberry Pi with Ethereum client (each Pi = a node of a blockchain)

3 SD cards

2 computers

Communication

Before making 2 Raspberry Pi commnicate on a same blockchain it is necessary to mine a 1st block manually to get a common base (same root). One the case of Blockfest, the fist blocks have been given to us by the mentors.

Transactions

Steps to be followed here.

Installation on a Pi

For each Pi, here are the steps for setting up a local blockchain. Note: If the Geth command does not work > export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/go-ethereum/build/bin

To launch the Geth console : geth attach ipc:/home/pi/data4/geth.ipc

Install Raspbian Jessie Lite on the SD card for each Raps https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
Turn on the raspberry and SSH connect : ssh <user>@<ip_adress>
Install Go Ethereum on the raspberry
wget https://github.com/EthEmbedded/Raspi-Eth-Install/archive/v0.3.3.tar.gz
tar -xvzf v0.3.3.tar.gz
cd Raspi-Eth-Install-0.3.3/
./geth-installer.sh
Add "geth" in the PATH
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/go-ethereum/build/bin
Get and copy the folder "data4" from Xavier (mentor) containing a local blockchain (few nodes/blocks)
Modification of the key in nodekey in order to make each node unique
vi /home/pi/data4/nodekey

Connection of nodes

Launch the node on the Raspberry
geth --rpc --rpcaddr <ip_adress> --rpccorsdomain="*" --networkid <network_id> --identity <node_name> --datadir <data_dir> --verbosity N --maxpeers M --ipcpath <ipc_path>
<ip_adress> : ip of the raspberry
<network_id> : common id for all the raspberry
<node_name> : name of the node of a raspberry which will be different for each raspberry
<data_dir> : folder
N : log level
M : max number of nodes
<ipc_path> : path to geth.ipc
Connect to node
geth attach <ipc_path>
- <ipc_path> : path to geth.ipc
Add the other Rasp

PI Information
b8:27:eb:20:64:45 / bf7-1 / ssh pi@10.19.244.249
b8:27:eb:7c:65:bc / bf7-2 / ssh pi@10.19.244.247
- b8:27:eb:e4:ae:c6 / bf7-3 / ssh pi@10.19.244.240
Users
- Sur bf7-1,
  - Account #0: {60d6f22d9b5684160065542a9a1c76f6139019a4} /home/pi/.ethereum/keystore/UTC--2016-06-12T05-11-22.486302973Z--60d6f22d9b5684160065542a9a1c76f6139019a4
  - Passphrase = bf71
- Sur bf7-2,
  - Account #0: {088a02f7ab6ea9f007ce4cd4b0aa2710a2e99725} /home/pi/.ethereum/keystore/UTC--2016-06-12T05-11-50.666476289Z--088a02f7ab6ea9f007ce4cd4b0aa2710a2e99725
  - Passphrase = bf72
- Sur bf7-3,
  - Account #0: {655eb76642212093c8d2a5f59ae671c9601607fc} /home/pi/.ethereum/keystore/UTC--2016-06-12T05-12-03.156618517Z--655eb76642212093c8d2a5f59ae671c9601607fc
  - Passphrase = bf73
Adding nodes in static-nodes.json for automatically adding nodes

Step 2

CitizenWatt Sensor Building

Most of the documentation is coming from the CitizenWatt.

Sources for Hardware part of the CitizenBoard can be found HERE.
Sources for Software part of the CitizenBoard can be found THERE.
Step by step CitizenWatt Sensor mounting can be found THERE.
We've done our best to translate in English and enhance the doc.

Components

1 v1.1 CitizenWatt PCB (for which you would find the plan on the hardware github repo)
R1 : 22 Ohms @ 1% resistor
R2 & R3 : 470 kOhms @ 1% resistors
R4 : 1 kOhms @ 5% resistor
R5 : 10 kOhms @ 10% resistor
R8 & R12 : 510 Ohms @ 10% resistor
C2 & C4 : 0.1 µF capacitor
C3 & C5 : 10 µF capacitors
LED1 : 3mm green LED
LED2 : 3mm red LED
Y1 : 16MHz resonator
NRF :Female support for CI 2 x 4 pins
FTDI : Male support for CI 1 x 6 pins
JP5 : Female support for CI 1 x 4 pins
1 Jack 3.5“ connector
1 Atmel ATMega368P-PU
1 support for a 28 pins microcontrolor
VOLT : 3,3 V regulator + female support for VOLT 1×4 pins & male support for a 1 x 4 pins regulator

Check list for PCB

Check if all the components are in the right position
Check if all of them are soldered to the PCB
Check if there is a short-cut in the circuit
Check if the volt regulator is in the right position (polarization) and if i works well
Check if the electricyt supply reaches the ATMega (see in the ATMega328P datasheet the "pinout" and measure with a multimeter if the value is 3.3V)
Check if the ATMega is well positioned and flashed (is the bootloader well installed ? is the CitizenWatt firmware well installed ?)
Check is the LEDs and cpacitors are in the right position (polarization)
If all is checked then a LED should flash every 8-10 secondes for a hundred millisecondes.

If the connection doesn't work :

Check the Raspberry
Check the NRF

It happens that there might be a problem with the electricity supply of the PCB.

Place the PCB in order for you

Solder each components to the board.

Twist the feet of the resistors as close as the resistor as possible

Put it in its location on the PCB

Solder the resistor to the PCB with some tin
- Cut the resistor's feet
- Repeat for all the resistors

You can then do the same with the capacitors, the LEDs and the resonator

Note : Resistors do not have polarization, however capacitors (appart from C2 and C4) do. For the capacitor the longer foot should go the hole refered as "+". The same apply to the LED which are polarized as well. The resonator is also polarized but... you can mount it as you want to.

Then solder both the FTDI connector, the VOLT regulator connector, the NRF connector

Solder the Jack 3"5 connector

Solder the ATMega. Careful that the ATMega is well positioned as shown.

Last of all you can solder the battery connector

Your PCB is almost ready... you need to mount the battery connectors and Pololu regulator.

Mounting the battery

The battery connectors are not difficult to prepare. You must be careful about the polarization.

First you have to striped the wires

Then you fit the wires into the metallic support and crimp it

Finally fix the wires into the connector (Be careful about the polarization: when taking the connector with the crenel up-facing the black wire comes at the right of the connector and the red one at the left)

Mounting of the Pololu Regulator

The regulator is delivered without metallic feet for soldering to the board. Thus you need to solder those in order to connect the Pololu regulator to the PCB.

Once the feet are soldered, the Pololu regulator should look like that

Atmega Flashing Process (source)

Once the CitizenWatt PCB is full of its necessary components, we have to flash the ATMega with the Arduino Bootloader and then put the CitizenWatt code in it (HERE).

To flash the Arduino bootloader on the ATMega here is a procedure:

Get the necessary equipment (an Arduino board with USB cable, a breadboard, a 1kOhms resistor, a 16MHz resonator.
First prepare the Arduino environment:
- connect the Arduino to a computer
- launch the Arduino Sorftware and open the ArduinoISP sketch (Exemples > ArduinoISP)
- compile the Sketch and upload on the Arduino
- you're now ready to work.
- Then connect the arduino to the breadboard as followed

Please note that a resonator is used in place of a quartz and a capacitor. The mounting then requires to be adapted. The central feet of the resonator is connected to the ground while the 2 other feet must be connected to the blue wires shown on the sketch.

Flashing the bootloader
- Connect the Arduino Uno to a computer with an USB.
- In the Arduino IDE Software: Tools > Program & Choose “Arduino as ISP”
- Tools > Card type, select “Arduino Uno”
- Tools > Engrave initialization sequence
The process must return no error

Step 3

Ethereum & CitizenWat Installation on a Pine64+ board

Pre-requisite

PINE64+ under Debian Jessie (image : Debian Linux Jessie with Mate GUI Image [20160701] by lenny.raposo with Longsleep kernel (link).

It is necessary to execute the following scripts at the 1st launch :

sudo -i
/usr/local/sbin/pine64_update_uboot.sh
/usr/local/sbin/pine64_update_kernel.sh
resize_rootfs.sh

if the script is not functionning then resize the partition with GParted

reboot

and last of all update the linux distribution (via `aptitude update` & `aptitude upgrade`).

Ethereum installation on a PINE64+

Install Go :

$ mkdir Ethereum
$ cd Ethereum
$ wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.6.2.linux-armv6l.tar.gz
$ sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.6.2.linux-armv6l.tar.gz
$ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
$ sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libgmp3-dev golang

Install geth. with sources compilation :

$ git clone https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum
$ cd go-ethereum
$ make geth
$ export PATH=$PATH:/home/debian/Ethereum/go-ethereum/build/bin

Local private blockchain set-up. Like previous installation (Ethereum on a Raspberry PI), get back the genesis.json and create the static-nodes.json files.

Initialize the first bloc

$ geth init genesis.json

Create the ether account that will get the ether from mining :

$ geth account new

Start the node :

$ geth --networkid 69 --nodiscover console

Start mining :

> miner.start(2)

Contrary to the Raspberry PI III, the 2GO RAM Pine64+ makes it possible to generate the DAG file and mine blocks. In our case this is necessary since we want simple IoT to be able to diffuse a transaction from one to another, thus requiring it to mine juste once to initiate this DAG file.

Please note that other methods can be used and require to be investigate such as lightning mining (a decentralised system where off-blockchain transactions are sent over a network afterwards), or IOTA and others to be investigated.

Transactions from the Pine64+ car thus been processed by another node that can "easily" mine (here we use a PC).

CitizenWatt + PINE64+ Connection & Interface

Please note that, since the PINE64+ do not have RF support, it is necessary while using CitizenWatt Sensor to use an intermediary component integrating an RF receive and making the link with the PINE64+. As a result, we use an Arduino Uno to bridge the CitizenWatt Energy Sensor with the PINE64+ to build the full CitizenWatt Energy Monitor.

Sources

GitHub repo :

Base PINE64+ : https://github.com/DAISEE/CitizenWatt-Base

Sketch Arduino Uno : https://github.com/DAISEE/CitizenWatt-ArduinoBase

Some modifications have been done

the activation of the DEBUG MODE by default
remplacing the receive.cpp program by a Python coded program because of the addition of the Arduino as a necessary intermediary

Installation

Installation of the packages and librairies spotted in scripts sh is manually made in order to identify errors and issues as-you-go.

Copy the sources form Github to /opt/citizenwatt

Installation of Python 3.4

$ aptitude install python3 gcc python3-pip python3-dev

Installation of the necessary packages

$ aptitude install postgresql supervisor avahi-daemon redis-server iptables-persistent

Verify the installation of citizenwatt-visu

$ aptitude install postgresql-server-dev-all

Installation of Python's modules

$ sudo pip3 install requests sqlalchemy pycrypto numpy cherrypy psycopg2 redis

Creation of the CitizenWatt user under Debian

$ sudo adduser citizenwatt

Set the password

Create the database

$ sudo -u postgres psql
[sudo] password for debian:
psql (9.4.9)
Type "help" for help.
postgres=# CREATE DATABASE citizenwatt;
postgres-# CREATE USER citizenwatt PASSWORD 'citizenwatt';
postgres-# GRANT ALL ON DATABASE citizenwatt TO citizenwatt;
postgres-# exit
postgres-#

Note: the right user is postgres not postgresql

Set-up the firewall

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination :8080
/etc/init.d/iptables-persistent save

Note : iptables-persistent does not exist form sratch with PINE64+. This means that you have to reset the firewall each time you start the system and configure again the firewall with the rightt IP (since there is not persistent IP)

Modification of hostname and hosts

Note: Do not forget to change "pine64" with "citizenwatt" in the /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts files.

Copy the configuration file for the supervisor

debian@citizenwatt:/opt/citizenwatt$ mv supervisor_citizenwatt.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisor_citizenwatt.conf

Note: the current version necessitate to manually start receive.py and process.py programs (see issue #3 in Github and comments in the config file).

Starting the CitizenWatt application

debian@citizenwatt:/opt/citizenwatt$ sudo ./startup.sh

Communication via the nRF24L01+ transceiver

Note: The current versions of the Linux distribution for the PINE64+ do not support the SPI interface necessary for the communication with the nRF24L01+. While waiting the kernel drivers compatible updates, our solution consist in using an Arduino Uno as an intermediary between the CitizenWatt Sensor and the PINE64+. (See later the issues encountered with Arduino Nano).

Connection between the Arduino and the nRF24L01+ transceiver

Matching between the transceiver pins and the Arduino one

nRF24L01+	Arduino Uno
Vcc	3.3V
GND	GND
CSN	D8
CE	D7
MOSI	D11
MISO	D12
SCK	D13
IRQ	not connected

Arduino sketch
- Use the TMRh20's RF24 librairy : https://github.com/TMRh20/RF24
- Arduino Sketch : https://github.com/DAISEE/CitizenWatt-ArduinoBase/blob/master/arduino-rf24/arduino-rf24.ino

Note: The sketch is mainly inspired from the receive.cpp program. A Python coded program assures data reading from the Arduino Uno via serial and writing in the /tmp/sensor.log file.

Database modification
- receive.py : https://github.com/DAISEE/CitizenWatt-Base/blob/master/receive.py

Note: this program makes the link between the data sent and their copy in the database.

process.py : use of a file instead of a pipe

By starting the receive.py and process.py Python programs, measured data by the CitizenWatt sensor are displayed in real-time :

Note: Some issues remain unsolved yet (see Issues on GitHub)

ISSUES

Erreur 500

The server is starting but a 500 error poped-up while launching the application.

Activating the DEBUG mode (in the visu.py file) shows that the error is due to an issue with the database connection. It turns out that the database and "CitizenWatt" user creation were not rightly done. Passing through the creation process again resolves the issue :

Not receiving any data

Check points:

Connection via the nRF24 transceiver

Connection on the Raspberry Pi (source)

Pins scheme of the Raspberry Pi

Pins matching between the Raspberry Pi and PINE64 (source)

Connection between the PINE64 and the nRF24

Following the RPi <> PINE64 pins matching, connection might be as followed :

nRF24L01+	PINE64
Vcc	3.3V
GND	GND
CSN	GPIO 67	PC3
CE	GPIO 71	PC7
MOSI	GPIO 64	PC0
MISO	GPIO 65	PC1
SCK	GPIO 66	PC2

Install the librairies to access the GPIO ports

There are 2 librairies to access to GPIO ports which are initially those used for Raspberry Pi :

Using GPIO ports however is still not 100% operational for the moment since those librairies are still under development to improve the use of those ports.

In our case, even if RPi.GPIO-PineA64 librairies are much simpler to use, we've decided to to use the wiringPi-Pine64 librairies. This is due to the fact this library makes it possible to use SPI bus, which is necessary to communicate via nFR24 tranceivers.

Installation of the available packages on pine64.pro :

debian@citizenwatt:~/debs-wiringPi-2.33$ sudo dpkg -i libwiringpi2_2.33-1_arm64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package libwiringpi2.
(Reading database ... 241647 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack libwiringpi2_2.33-1_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking libwiringpi2 (2.33-1) ...
Setting up libwiringpi2 (2.33-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-18+deb8u4) ...
debian@citizenwatt:~/debs-wiringPi-2.33$ sudo dpkg -i libwiringpi-dev_2.33-1_arm64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package libwiringpi-dev.
(Reading database ... 241654 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack libwiringpi-dev_2.33-1_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking libwiringpi-dev (2.33-1) ...
Setting up libwiringpi-dev (2.33-1) ...
debian@citizenwatt:~/debs-wiringPi-2.33$ sudo dpkg -i wiringpi_2.33-1_arm64.deb
(Reading database ... 241762 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack wiringpi_2.33-1_arm64.deb ...
Unpacking wiringpi (2.33-1) over (2.33-1) ...
Setting up wiringpi (2.33-1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ...

Sensor mounting process

Transceiver connection.

On this picture the arrangement is almost the same that the one we would find on the Raspberry PI 1 which was our base for building the CitizenWatt Sensor.

Note: currently the CitizenWatt sensor is made to function with Raspberry PI 1 and no other board. That's the reason why a lot has been re-thought and re-developed.

The CE of the nRF24 transceiver is connected to the GPIO 79 port of the PINE64+

CitizenWatt configuration

Set the cryptographic keys.

After validation, the app menu looks like the following :

It is necessary to pair the sensor (via the Sensor - Capteur - menu) :

Electricity consumption display can be seen in the Conso menu :

The receive.cpp code program shows the use of spidev :

//RF24 radio(RPI_V2_GPIO_P1_15, RPI_V2_GPIO_P1_24, BCM2835_SPI_SPEED_8MHZ);

RF24 radio("/dev/spidev0.0",8000000 , 25);

Error when starting receive.py

If receive.py has been started manually and displays that the serial library lacks, verify that the program has been started with the right version of Python (`python3` and not `python`)

The receive.py file does not receive any data (connection via Arduino)

Check if the red LED of the CitizenWatt sensor does not blink.

If its the case, the problem might be with the battery powering the sensor that has not enough power to transmit the data.

La MYNE - Presentation.mp4 Presentation of La MYNE (New Ideas and Experiments Manufacture). This is the context and the place where we develop our programs. It's basically a shared hybrid space or a hackerspace. MPEG-4 Video - 45.76 MB - 10/10/2016 at 13:02		Download
Micro-energy markets - The role of a consumer preference pricing strategy on microgrid energy investment.pdf The fragility of the modern electrical grid is exposed during random events such as storms, sporting events and often simply routine operation. Even with these obvious flaws large utilities and governments have been slow to create robust solutions due to the need of large capital investments required to address the issues. In this light creative economic and engineering solutions are desired to finance the needed upgrades. Driven by the requirement to have uninterrupted power that meets customers desires this research focuses on linking consumer preferences to a type of energy source in order to best fulfill stakeholder priorities. This approach is in contrast to the current and prevalent lowest cost methods to producing and consuming energy. This research yields a preliminary ‘micro-energy market’ that consists of an energy network architecture, pricing methodology and mathematical template which quantifies potential economic inefficiencies. If exploited these inefficiencies could be Adobe Portable Document Format - 1.03 MB - 10/10/2016 at 13:00		Preview

Recherche_SmartGrid.pdf « Smart grids » : Les réseaux et compteurs d’électricité « intelligents ». émergence d’une ère post-Carbone, ou Avènement de la société de contrôle. Adobe Portable Document Format - 951.31 kB - 10/10/2016 at 12:59		Preview

mihaylov_etal_smartgreens14.pdf In this position paper we propose a novel trading paradigm for buying and selling locally produced energy in the smart grid. Unlike recently proposed techniques that rely on predictions and a day-ahead market, here prosumers are billed by the distribute system operator according to their actual usage and rewarded based on their actual energy input, similar to the current state of affairs. Our mechanism achieves demand response by providing incentives to prosumers to balance their production and consumption out of their own self-interest. All rewards and payments are carried out using NRGcoin — a new decentralized digital currency similar to Bitcoin, that we introduce in this paper. Prosumers exchange NRGcoins with fiat currency on an exchange market for profit, or for paying their energy bills. We study the advantages of our proposed currency over traditional monetary payment and explore its benefits for all parties in the smart grid. Adobe Portable Document Format - 226.84 kB - 10/10/2016 at 12:58		Preview

Mauve Paper Vitalik.pdf Over the past decade, projects such as Bitcoin, Namecoin and Ethereum have shown the power of cryptoeconomic consensus networks to bring about the next stage in evolution of decentralized systems, potentially expanding their scope from simply providing for the storage of data and messaging services to managing the "backend" of arbitrary stateful applications. Proposed and implemented applications for such systems range from globally accessible cheap payment systems to financial contracts, prediction markets, registration of identity and real world property ownership, building more secure certificate authority systems and even keeping track of the movement of manufactured goods through the supply chain Adobe Portable Document Format - 533.37 kB - 10/10/2016 at 12:57		Preview

[2016] InternetS of Energy - Call me DAISEE

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Description

Details

Files

La MYNE - Presentation.mp4

Micro-energy markets - The role of a consumer preference pricing strategy on microgrid energy investment.pdf

Recherche_SmartGrid.pdf

mihaylov_etal_smartgreens14.pdf

Mauve Paper Vitalik.pdf

Components

Project Logs Collapse

Today the blockchain trend looks a bit like that:

What are we capable of doing with blockchain technologies at our scale ?

And what are the limitation that we came across while applying it to the energy sector ?

Hardware step : CitizenWatt + Pine64+ + Arduino

Software step : Local Ethereum nodes + Smart Contract + Sensors' communication

Infrastructure step : Production + Consumption + Arduino (for automated switch)

2016-07-19

Technically

2016-04-25

Technically

Functionally

Planning of the project

Step 1

Step 2

Build Instructions Collapse

Ethereum installation on a Raspberry PI

Equipment

Other solution

Communication

Transactions

Installation on a Pi

Connection of nodes

CitizenWatt Sensor Building

Components

Check list for PCB

Atmega Flashing Process (source)

Ethereum & CitizenWat Installation on a Pine64+ board

Pre-requisite

Ethereum installation on a PINE64+

CitizenWatt + PINE64+ Connection & Interface

Communication via the nRF24L01+ transceiver

ISSUES

Erreur 500

Not receiving any data

Sensor mounting process

CitizenWatt configuration

Error when starting receive.py

The receive.py file does not receive any data (connection via Arduino)

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