My fisrt pool monitoring system was Arduino based (more info here.) It could collect pH, ORP and temperature from my pool and store it on an SD card. But I wanted to send all this data to some web site like my own emoncms.
So I needed Internet access. To do this with an Arduino, I either need
- An Arduino Uno + an ethernet shield (~20€ + 35€ = ~55€)
- An Arduino Ethernet (~60€)
- An Arduino Uno + Wireless Shield + RN-XV Wifly (~20€ + +17€ + 44€ = 81€ )
- An Arduino Yùn (~62€)
But…
- If I want Wifi, I found RN-XV module difficult to use and quite instable (no sure though if it is my program, the libs I use or the wifly itself.)
- A Raspberry Pi is less than 40€, has build in ethernet, is way more powerfull… and adding Wifi is ~20€
Problem though : Pi has only 1 UART available… and I needed 2. I known there are workarounds but having a look around, I stumbled upon BeagleBone Black (BBB) :
- Build in ethernet
- Many GPIO ports and several UARTs
- Running Linux
And “only” 45€ !
So I decided I’ll give it a try : poolDuino is now becoming bbPool !