Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Advanced Electronics => Topic started by: Jeremy.flaugh on November 25, 2015, 02:55:28 PM
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I've been using an Mport made by Ubiquiti to datalog monitor and alert me on the wood boiler's condition to avoid trips to the boiler and increase efficiency.
I'm not a re-seller or any ting like that I just like the device. Here is a link to the device https://www.ubnt.com/mfi/mport/
I have it to setup TXT me if it's out of wood, too hot, too cold and when the blower kicks on to make more heat.
The only down side the device requires the Mfi software to be running on a PC all of the time but I'm looking to move the software over to a raspberry Pi and put the Pi up in the boiler so it's self contained. The software is accessible VIA a web site with full access on a PC and has a mobile friendly view with limited access.
Check out the pics.
2 are from my phone and the 3 others are from my PC.
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How much? Where do purchase?
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Pretty cool
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That's awesome maybe with my next boiler I can do that.
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Thier around $80 and can be purchased at Amazon newegg ect.
They have 3 ports on them and the ports can do multiple functions but each port can only do one thing at a time sort of a gripe about that on the forum.
Ubiquity calls it a machine to machine interface and they have temp probes current sensors motion detectors and in the mfi software you can build logic for "automation".
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Could you tell us what items that you have to build your system and where they are located on your boiler or in the house etc? I looked at the stuff on Amazon and can't really figure out what I would need for individual components and I only see one temp sensor which I don't know how that works with a boiler system? Product model numbers would probably help. Where do you get their software? Thanks.
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Control by web also offers similar products, theirs come with an included html page so no need to have a PC running all the time to display data. Probably a little more spendy though, units can also be had with remote switching capabilities, on your way home from work early and want to work in the shop/garage? Turn your temp up remotely from your smartphone.
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Could you tell us what items that you have to build your system and where they are located on your boiler or in the house etc? I looked at the stuff on Amazon and can't really figure out what I would need for individual components and I only see one temp sensor which I don't know how that works with a boiler system? Product model numbers would probably help. Where do you get their software? Thanks.
RTD probe any 100k will do but this is the one i'm using this will get connected to port 3
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231395254678?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-M-Port-Integrated-Adapter/dp/B00HXT8HM4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448655707&sr=8-1&keywords=mport
Software is free you can DL and try even without an MFI device.
https://www.ubnt.com/download/mfi/mport
On port 2 and 3 I'm using pins 1 and 7 on the RJ 45 to detect 12V on my relays that run the blower and blower cutoff.
Below is optional info if you like to tinker I'm not using any of this in my system yet.
mlappin
With the MFI system you can also control devices and this guy is using it as a thermostat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzNXUb4Oq48 I do not condone the manner this guy ran wire it puts my OCD on overload.
Here are the port pinouts for custom applications.
https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205220780-Custom-Sensor-Pin-Definitions
Custom sensors.
https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/sections/200919060-mFi-Custom-Sensors
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Will the controller you use handle inputs from a K type thermocouple? Or better yet a S or R thermocouple?
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No it does not but it looks like someone adapted a K to it.
https://community.ubnt.com/t5/mFi/Type-K-thermocouple-on-an-mport-working/td-p/1132910
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Couple questions. How do you know when it is "out if wood"? You have to run a cat 5 cable out to the boiler?
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I've got things figured out. I ordered an mport, current sensor and temp probe. I am going to put the mport on the back of the boiler and put the current sensor on the fan wire so I know when that is running and put the temp sensor in one of the wells on the boiler so I can see boiler temp. My next question is does anyone know anything about wifi antennas? I want to put an exterior antenna mounted on the top of the boiler. I doubt I can use a UHF/VHF exterior car antenna, anyone know what I can use? My boiler is about 100 feet from my wifi router so I doubt the signal would be reliable unless I put an exterior antenna. Thank you.
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I'm running a TSWB from Dwyer/love.
http://www.dwyer-inst.com/Product/Temperature/Switches/DigitalPanelMount/SeriesTSWB
It has two relays in it one for LSP low set point and one for HSP high set point.
The HSP turns the blower on and off I have it set for 180 off and 165 on. I have the LSP set for 140 and when this gets activated the blower shuts down to preserve water temp the propane boiler gets activated for backup heat and the Mport gets activated to send the out of wood message.
The TSWB also has a timer in it to activate the LSP I have it set for 80 min but cannot get it to shut the blower down.
I have found that calling Dwyer was not that beneficial when I told them the model of the device the techs acted like they never heard of the model.
I have cat5 ran out to mine but it will do wireless just power it with the POE injector. I found on mine that there is an ext ant connector on the circuit board if you want to utilize it.
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I believe I will need the Unifi AP wifi access point to plug into my wifi router in the house In order for the mport to be able to bridge into the wireless network in my house? The mport can't access through my wifi router by itself correct? Can I set up a temp alarm notification that will send out an alert if the water temp gets to low or an alert if the blower fan has been blowing for over a certain amount of minutes?
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I've got things figured out. I ordered an mport, current sensor and temp probe. I am going to put the mport on the back of the boiler and put the current sensor on the fan wire so I know when that is running and put the temp sensor in one of the wells on the boiler so I can see boiler temp. My next question is does anyone know anything about wifi antennas? I want to put an exterior antenna mounted on the top of the boiler. I doubt I can use a UHF/VHF exterior car antenna, anyone know what I can use? My boiler is about 100 feet from my wifi router so I doubt the signal would be reliable unless I put an exterior antenna. Thank you.
I'm not sure how the current sensor would work but I guess you could make a on off rule with it also. But if it were me I would use a 120V relay and hook it to the power for the blower and then connect pins 4 and 5 AKA wh/bl and bl/wh to the relay Common and NO.
At 100' the wireless might work if the mport is not behind metal possibly mounted in a plastic box on the outside of the boiler.
Regarding the ANT on mine there is a U.FL/IPX jack on the Mport circuit board this will require disassembly to access.
Parts needed to extend the ant.
1 of these there are two in the auction but it's what I could find in the US
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131614800524?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
1 of these
http://www.fab-corp.com/product.php?productid=893&cat=255&page=1
1 of these you might want to pick your own length.
http://www.fab-corp.com/product.php?productid=16540&cat=283&page=1
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We will see how the current sensor works out, it is a ubti product and hooks into the Ethernet jack or port 1or2. It was 15 bucks on ebay. I figured when the blower gets power it will sense voltage and trip the on signal. So any insight about needing the uap wireless access point? Will I need that or will the mport connect to my wifi router without it? I hoped to install the mport inside the back of the boiler and run an antenna outside. Doesn't the mport have an external antenna on it already that is removable? I thought I saw that in the literature.
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I believe I will need the Unifi AP wifi access point to plug into my wifi router in the house In order for the mport to be able to bridge into the wireless network in my house? The mport can't access through my wifi router by itself correct? Can I set up a temp alarm notification that will send out an alert if the water temp gets to low or an alert if the blower fan has been blowing for over a certain amount of minutes?
You could add another AP on the outside of your house to create a bridge but it does not need to be Unfi my Mport can "see" any 2.4 Wifi AP I just tested it to be sure. See attachment.
I'm not sure about the blower on for too long warning I'll play around with mine and let you know that's a good idea. I have two temp warnings one set at 40 and the other set at 200 see one of the first attachments.
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We will see how the current sensor works out, it is a ubti product and hooks into the Ethernet jack or port 1or2. It was 15 bucks on ebay. I figured when the blower gets power it will sense voltage and trip the on signal. So any insight about needing the uap wireless access point? Will I need that or will the mport connect to my wifi router without it? I hoped to install the mport inside the back of the boiler and run an antenna outside. Doesn't the mport have an external antenna on it already that is removable? I thought I saw that in the literature.
See my last post regarding the wireless.
The Mport-S serial has the external connector but not the Mport I have no idea why.
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You will have to bare with me a little. I am pretty good with computers but certainly not a geek. I assuming you mean access point when you say Ap. If the mport was in the house next to the wifi router that I have which my computers get their wireless signal from would it connect to the wifi or not? What would be an example of an " outside ap"? Thanks.
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You will have to bare with me a little. I am pretty good with computers but certainly not a geek. I assuming you mean access point when you say Ap. If the mport was in the house next to the wifi router that I have which my computers get their wireless signal from would it connect to the wifi or not? What would be an example of an " outside ap"? Thanks.
Yep AP = AccessPiont sorry I'm a network engineer by trade an I'll toss out acronyms without thinking about it.
The Mport will connect to your home AP on 2.4Ghz that's B, G, or N
The UAP-Outdoor+ would be an example of a outdoor AP but keep in mind this model is part of the Unfi selection and requires the Unfi controller software to configure and monitor it because there is no built in web interface but your going to be running the Mfi software already so you can install both mfi and unfi on the same PC the advantage is you have wireless outside for personal use.
You could also use 2 nanostation locoM5 and create a dedicated bridge the advantages are the devices have web interfaces and it's a dedicated PTP Point To Point link but you will not be able to connect personal devices to.
Here how to set up a PTP link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__xzHnK6IVs
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Thanks for your help. I will wait and see what happens when the mport gets here and what I can get for reception with it. I now see that the mport with no serial port doesn't come with an antenna, that is stupid. If I can't get good signal I will have to do some modifications. I take it that a regular VHF/UHF antenna would not work to extend its receiving capabilities if I cracked open the box and added a connection so that I could attach the uhf/vhf antenna to it?
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Might check out the 3Gstore as well, they have antennas for everything imaginable.
I’m using a cellular hotspot for my home internet, picked up a cable and directional antennae from them and took my download speeds from 10-15 mb to over 70 on the big ones, no matter the weather I always have a strong signal as well.
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Ok I got the MFI software running on the laptop. I downloaded the MFI app on my Iphone but I am having a problem connecting to the MFI server. On the App it prompts me for site, username and password. My mfi address is https://127.0.0.1:6443 but when I type that in and my user name and password it says MFI server could not be reached, check your network connection. I see that the 127 ip is a loop back to my own computer correct? I looked up my global IP and used that instead and that did not work either.
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Well i am learning stuff about networking here. So I have figured out that when I am on my wifi network in the house I just have to type in the servers address and port 10.0.0.2:6443/manage into a browser and I can log into the MFi software running on my server. What I can not figure out how to do is access my server remotely from outside my wifi network. I opened up my router settings and set up port forwarding. I entered the ip address of the server 10.0.0.2 and added port 6443 and saved it. When i type my global IP into the browser followed by :6443/manage the computer times out every time. Not sure what I have done wrong, any insight?
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Look at your last post here at the bottom just after where is says report to moderator. That is the IP address you need to use.
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Thanks RSI, I have been trying that IP address, I referred to that ip address as my 'global ip' in my post. It does not work either. Any other ideas?
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It is probably a router setting. Do you have a router and separate modem? If so, you may need to set up both.
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Look at your last post here at the bottom just after where is says report to moderator. That is the IP address you need to use.
Ha interesting I never would have thought of that... I was going to have him use ipchicken.com
hondaracer2oo4
You might want to look at a service like no-ip.com if your public "global" IP changes alot. Also once you get this setup a little more permanent the 10.0.0.2 that's assigned to the laptop you might want to make that static and assign an IP address outside your DHCP scope.
Regarding you other question about port forwarding.
Most routers will not allow traffic to the outside and back in so test your port forward from a cell phone connected to 3G or LTE.
I have 2 icons on my Iphone one called "MFI Remote" and one called "MFI". The "MFI remote" points to flaughs2000.com:6443 and "MFI" points to 192.168.78.4:6443 to get around this problem.
Also if you get into a bad bind we can schedule a phone call and work some of the kinks out.
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I have a single router/modem. I logged into the router/modem and enabled port forwarding on the server computer 10.0.0.2 on port 6443 which is what I use to access the server controller software from the wan. But I can't seem to access the server controller software outside of my wan through my global ip.
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My IP has stayed consistent the past few days with me trying to figure this out. Right now for some reason I can't locally access the software on another PC on the WAN. 10.0.0.2:6443/manage I could use to access it within my WAN. Now it just says
The connection was reset
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
My Iphone still can access
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Check out http://portforward.com/
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My IP has stayed consistent the past few days with me trying to figure this out. Right now for some reason I can't locally access the software on another PC on the WAN. 10.0.0.2:6443/manage I could use to access it within my WAN. Now it just says
The connection was reset
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
My Iphone still can access
That's strange I would reboot the server
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What are you referring to with the different icons? I have one icon which says MFI which is the MFI app. I did just manage to log into the MFI app while on my WAN using the address 10.0.0.2:6443 which is the servers address on my LAN. Looks like the issue lies with getting through my modem/router. I made port forwarding open for 10.0.0.2 on port 6443. Then I use my global ip followed by :6443 and it wont find it. Should I be able to type in the global ip :6443/manage into my pc browser and access my server even though I am on the same WAN?
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The server is letting my Iphone access through the 10.0.0.2:6443 address. Do you still think its the server or do you think maybe its the other PC?
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On my iPhone is where I have two shortcuts. When I'm out and about I use the remote icon when I'm at home I use the normal icon.
When you have the web page open in safari on the iPhone click the square icon with the up arrow in it and select "add to home screen" that makes in icon on the desktop.
Make sure your specifying https:// example https://10.0.0.2:6443 your browser has no clue what :6443 is so we need to specify https that might be the issue on the other PC.
And just a heads up on those pesky acronyms LAN = Local Area Network example 10.0.0.2 WAN = Wide Area Network example 64.9.29.39