Some exciting new developments going on…

You’re looking at the final prototype of the latest Flukso meter, which can be connected to AC current sensors, pulse counters, and the Dutch smart metering “P1” port. Here’s the brief description from that website:

Flukso is a web-based community metering application. Install a Fluksometer near your fuse box and you will be able to monitor, share and reduce your electricity consumption through this website.

The interesting bit is that it’s all based on a Linux board with wired and wireless Ethernet, plus a small ATmega-based add-on board which does all the real-time processing.

But the most exciting news is that the new version, now entering production, will include an RFM12B module with the JeeNode-compatible protocol. A perfect home automation workstation. Yet another interesting aspect of this, is that Bart Van Der Meersche, the mastermind behind Flusko, is working on getting the Mosquitto MQTT broker running permanently on that same Flukso meter.

Here’s the basic layout (probably slightly different from the actual production units):

Flukso runs OpenWRT, and everything in it is based on the Lua programming language, which is really an excellent fit for such environments. But even if Lua is not something you want to dive into, the open-endedness of PubSub means this little box drawing just a few Watt can interface to a huge range of devices – from RF12 to WiFi to LAN, and everything flowing in and out of that little box becomes easily accessible via MQTT.

PS. I have no affiliation with Flukso whatsoever – I just like it, and Bart is a nice fellow :)