Low Power Server Monitoring with a Raspberry Pi

Low Power Server Monitoring with a Raspberry Pi(triggeredmessaging.com)

35 points by dhendo 13 years ago | 17 comments

Nice build. I'm doing almost the same thing with a "D2 Plug" from Globalscale and an old Visio LCD TV.

http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-53-d2-plug.aspx

I'd love to use a cheaper Pi but so far I've only been able to get my hands on one so I don't want to permanently tie it up putting stuff on a TV screen.

Its a little disheartening that all these months later, the most impressive part of most Pi projects is still sourcing the damn thing in the first place.

EwanToo 13 years ago | |

Farnell can now ship them pretty much anywhere with a couple of weeks lead time, which isn't great but is at least an improvement on a couple of months ago.

http://export.farnell.com/rp/order/?COM=raspberrypi-group

veemjeem 13 years ago | |

Strange, where are you located? I've bought the RPi on amazon.com before, pretty fast shipping. When in doubt, search on amazon. It's $60 on amazon prime which includes shipping. It's about $15 more than the usual places, but with the assurance that you'll get it in 2 days.

blacksmith_tb 13 years ago | |

I got mine from Element 14 / Newark in 3 days over a weekend (they tied Amazon Prime for the SDHC card it's running on). So things are getting better in the US for RPi availability.

dhendo 13 years ago | |

Yes, I was pretty lucky to pick it up the next day!

theevocater 13 years ago |

I suppose you might not want to give up your secrets, but anyone have a good place to source raspberry pis from in the US?

Everytime I see cool projects like this on HN I go to try to find some and get disheartened by month or 2 ship times.

EDIT: http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?id=83T194...

http://www.adafruit.com/products/998

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/83-14277

are all on wayyyy backorder. :(

and the sellers on amazon are way overcharging.

Fry's doesn't seem to have them?

veemjeem 13 years ago | |

mcmelectronics, element14, and adafruit all have 3-5 day ship times.

you can also buy on amazon.com if you don't mind paying a premium for faster delivery.

pretty much everyone sells the rpi now, it's not hard to find. you might even find it at your local fry's.

theevocater 13 years ago | | |

man I am out of date. it had been a while since I'd looked! Thanks so much

veemjeem 13 years ago | |

element14 is always on backorder, but that doesn't mean you'll need to wait. They make 4000 rpi boards per day.

protomyth 13 years ago |

I am looking for a solution to monitor the server room's air conditioner. I would love to use a Raspberry Pi, but I need to find an anemometer[1] for it.

1) I am going to monitor if the air conditioner is blowing and page if it is not. Paging someone earlier than the temp change does.

addies 13 years ago | |

An Arduino might be more ideal solution for that. There is a huge collection of physical measurement devices for it and it would probably would be easier to implement with that. I'm not sure you can get an anemometer for it but a bit of tinkering would probably yield an equally effective solution. Sparkfun has a bunch of accesseries you can browse through.

oasisbob 13 years ago | |

Might be worth going commercial with this, there are already some good well-developed devices for environmental monitoring.

I'm a fan of the WeatherGoose / MiniGoose / WatchDog: http://www.itwatchdogs.com/product-detail-weathergoose_ii-1....

Can email, send SNMP traps, expand to multiple sensors easily, &c.

adestefan 13 years ago | |

You don't want to monitor if it's blowing, since the unit could still be blowing air, but not cold air. Instead, monitor the temperature coming out of/in the the duct. The temperature change in the duct will allow for a page just as fast as monitoring the flow.

This will also allow you to monitor things such as the delta of the air coming out of the duct vs the ambient temperature vs the air going into the return. With this data you can create significant savings by moving ducts or equipment since you're probably wasting a lot of good, cold air going into the return.

It will also be cheaper. A lot cheaper.

protomyth 13 years ago | | |

I've got temp sensors in the mix, but I can have the same temp near the duct for a bit after the blowing stops. I also want to make sure the blower stays at the same rate and isn't sputtering.

jtwaleson 13 years ago |

Very irrelevant, but good post timing ;)