[PLUG] Linux and renewable energy

[Mike C.]

Thank you Russel, Erik and Rich for the responses and info. I was
intentionally broad in my question. I try to provide a bit more insight and
maybe some more focus and clarity.

So what I'm thinking about is primarily is the usage of renewable energy
sources and energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings. I'm
a big believer in distributed solar, heat pumps/exchangers, and public
utility districts.

What triggered this line of inquiry was recently learning about a teenage
girl who won a national science fair by coming up with a more inexpensive
system of doing this with a timer and motors to re-align the solar panels
to the sun as it moves.

Before understanding how her system worked, I just starred thinking about
data, sensors, servos and mechanical/electrical interfaces and energy usage
and environmental applications. Admittedly, much of this doesn't require an
embedded OS of any sort, I guess I just like the idea of using Linux to
solve some of these energy/environmental issues that are bearing down on
all of us.

So I was curious to know if anyone knew about or was doing any interesting
projects along these lines.

Cheers,

Mike

[Rich Shepard]

Post by Mike C.
Before understanding how her system worked, I just starred thinking about
data, sensors, servos and mechanical/electrical interfaces and energy
usage and environmental applications. Admittedly, much of this doesn't
require an embedded OS of any sort, I guess I just like the idea of using
Linux to solve some of these energy/environmental issues that are bearing
down on all of us.

Mike,

I suggest you take a look at Python3, which runs well on linux. There are
abundant modules available for just about anything you'd want to do. Perhaps
'pandas' (the data analysis module), 'scipy', matplotlib are worth
exploring.

Connecting software to sensors and other hardware is common. You could
probably control a large solar array with a raspberry pi.

Take a look at python.org. It's a good place to start.

Rich

[Dave Lien - W7DAL]

Python 3 is included in the NOOBS Raspberry Pi Linux install. RPI works
well in my limited experience with it.

-Dave

Post by Mike C.
Before understanding how her system worked, I just starred thinking about
data, sensors, servos and mechanical/electrical interfaces and energy
usage and environmental applications. Admittedly, much of this doesn't
require an embedded OS of any sort, I guess I just like the idea of using
Linux to solve some of these energy/environmental issues that are bearing
down on all of us.

Mike,
  I suggest you take a look at Python3, which runs well on linux.
There are
abundant modules available for just about anything you'd want to do. Perhaps
'pandas' (the data analysis module), 'scipy', matplotlib are worth
exploring.
  Connecting software to sensors and other hardware is common. You could
probably control a large solar array with a raspberry pi.
  Take a look at python.org. It's a good place to start.
Rich
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