Sensors
Measuring via WiFi or LoRa – all values in one dashboard
EcoSensors.cloud collects the readings from your sensors, shows them in your dashboard and notifies you as soon as something is wrong. The sensors come in two families: the Eco series makes existing devices such as inverters and electricity meters cloud-ready. The HC-50 measures where there is neither WiFi nor mains power, for example at waters, wells and fields.
Both families are built to be open and manufacturer-independent: your data does not run through a device manufacturer's cloud but goes directly to you.
How the readings reach the cloud
The Eco sensor (top) sits directly in your WiFi and sends its readings to the internet by itself. With the HC-50 (bottom), the battery-powered nodes transmit over several kilometres via LoRa to a gateway, which passes the readings of all nodes on via your WiFi. In the cloud both end up in the same place: one dashboard for all your sensors, whichever family they belong to.
Which sensor is right for me?
Photovoltaic system with a Growatt inverter, without the Growatt cloud:
EcoPVGX, ready-made or converted yourself
Read a smart meter with ModBus RTU and, if required, switch a load according to grid power:
EcoMBR1
Measure the consumption of individual devices and circuits:
EcoSPM based on the Shelly PM Mini Gen3
Measure outdoors, without WiFi and without a mains connection:
HC-50 with nodes and gateway
Your device or your use case is not listed? Many devices can be added with reasonable effort. Just get in touch.
Eco series and HC-50 compared
| Eco series | HC-50 | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | make existing devices cloud-ready: inverters, electricity meters, loads | measuring outdoors: waters, wells, fields, retention basins |
| Connectivity | WiFi 2.4 GHz, directly to the cloud | LoRa on 433 MHz to the gateway, the gateway via WiFi |
| Range | WiFi range | node to gateway typically several kilometres |
| Power supply | depending on the device: inverter, power supply unit or circuit | node with LiFePO4 battery, gateway on a USB power supply |
| Typical readings | power, voltage, current, energy, grid frequency, temperature | water level, water quality, weather data, device status |
| Scaling | one sensor per device | practically any number of nodes per gateway |
| Firmware | open source, based on ESPhome | own firmware, update via WiFi or Bluetooth |
| Setup | own hot spot, enter WiFi, register sensor | set up the gateway, enter WiFi via smartphone app, register device |
What all sensors have in common
- One dashboard for all devices: current values, trends and thresholds, see Dashboard.
- Register once, then the device appears for you: Register a device.
- Alarms and notifications when values go out of range or a device stops reporting: Monitoring and Notifications.
- Firmware updates with an overview of the installed and current version on the Firmware page.
- Open technology without manufacturer lock-in: your readings belong to you.
Documentation
The guides for both families, from commissioning to technical details:
