Rohit Seshadri

Important changes to forums and questions

All forums and questions are now archived. To start a new conversation or read the latest updates go to forums.mbed.com.

8 years, 11 months ago.

Using LPC1768 for energy metering

Hi,

I want to know if I can use the LPC1786 to measure the power consumed by appliances. I was not able to find adequate information on this topic. I am new to this field and any form of guidance is welcome!

Thank you, Rohit

Question relating to:

Last updated: 30 Jun 2020
Rapid Prototyping for general microcontroller applications, Ethernet, USB and 32-bit ARM® Cortex™-M3 based designs

1 Answer

Andy A
8 years, 11 months ago.

It is certainly possible to use the LPC1768 as the processor to perform the required calculations and display that information, it has more than enough capabilities to do that.

However you would need some external components in order to measure the current consumed, the voltages are far too high for the LCP to deal with directly. Also measuring power consumption requires you to route the power going to the appliance through your circuit in order to measure it, this means that you have to ensure there is sufficient isolation between the high voltage power and the low voltage CPU and user interface side.

While it is possible to do what you want given the potential safety considerations I really wouldn't recommend this as a learning project for someone new to the field.