Follow-up Post
Previously I wrote about my experience where I built an app for my dad to analyze our home power use. You can read about that here:
But for this post... Ahhh, this post...
My proprietary wire has arrived and and my UPS has been communicating to my computer since yesterday.
First I want to explain Mr. RJ50, and how I got here.
I wanna give dad the run down on my personal electrical consumption, so I can dismiss myself from being soley responsible for the high electric bill. Was there ever a greater force? 😂
I don't have a nice streamlined method in place for collecting electrical usage around the house. That changes now. With the most important reading first: my personal desktop. 😂 As any inquisitive person would do, I take a peek at the back of my UPS, knowing I saw some suspicious ports back there at one point. Upon researching, I discover that the only usable port on my UPS for my use case is the specific data port. Now, this port, has secrets. It looks like you can just pop an ethernet cable in and your good to go. I tried that, and no. The answer is no. 😂 Don't do what I did.
It is better to accept that you need a proprietary cable that is not sold in your nearby big-box box retailer or same-day on amazon. You must wait for your wire to arrive. SUCH impatience. Come to terms with that now. I nearly threw a fit like a child when I found out I couldn't have my wire in .5 seconds (Not the first time, or even the second, probably not the last). Somewhere between proprietary cable 2 and 3, you accept that you are a bonified techie. Look, I was so close to trying to solder my own wire so I could be proud of it, but then I discovered, that will likely not work. I was forced to buy one. All of this drama, to excuse myself of the mental burden of the electric bill. Woe is me and my $15 proprietary wire.
Let me explain Mr. proprietary RJ50 in comparison with our standard RJ45:
| Feature | RJ45 | RJ50 |
|---|---|---|
| Common configuration | 8P8C | 10P10C |
| Contact positions | 8 | 10 |
| Typical application | Ethernet networking | Specialized equipment |
| Typical wiring | T568A or T568B | Usually device-specific |
| Common equipment | Routers, switches, computers and cameras | Scanners, POS terminals and controllers |
| Standardization | Highly standardized for Ethernet | Often proprietary |
| Directly interchangeable | No | No |
RJ50 is wider, has a different pinout, and is often proprietary. Not only did I need RJ50, but I needed the other end to terminate as some sort of USB to connect to my desktop.
Here is the special wire:
Bam. Data! Ok no, its not that simple. 😂
I found some open source software to give me a neat presentation on my desktop initially. That looks like this:
If you have an APC UPS and would like to try this yourself, I will share that I used the open source software found at Sourceforge.
After I got that working, I was able to use the data from that and pull it back into my custom solar panel app where I put an entry at the bottom. That looks like this:
As you can see, my average responsibility for my workstation is $22 a month. And that's without taking into consideration energy generated from solar panels. Considering the current home use and solar panel production for this time of year (solar panels covering 41% of energy needs in their current state) This makes my contribution to the electric bill (from my workstation, the area in question, of course "all that stuff in the basement" 😂) a whopping $13 at best.
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