I need a cheap voltage or current monitor that can look at a couple of automatically actuated motors I have and tell me (either real-time or after the fact) when they're cycling.

I'd also like to datalog the voltage out here on the end of the utility pole.

Anyone here have a suggestion?

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

What are the motors running?

One is a 115VAC motor on the lift station that moves effluent up to my septic leach field. The other is a 230VAC deep pump on my water well.

This is mainly for curiosities sake, to see how often and when these pumps run.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I have not seen anything on the cheap scale since most are made for professional applications but I guess you could DIY one of those wattage monitors to accomplish that, or get an inductive tester with a light and aim a game camera at it, when the light goes on or off the camera will timestamp the event.

I came across these things called Phidgets. Apparently, there's a whole line of these cheap USB based sensors.

I was looking for more of a plug-n-play solution but, this stuff is pretty intriguing.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

bump for more exposure

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Try Omega.com. Once you know what you need, you may find all kinds of similar stuff on ebay. Lot's of industrial surplus on ebay for cheap. I've saved tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment for my business by shopping on ebay.

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1987 W201 190D

Bingo!! Surfed fleaBay and found exactly what I was looking for...Onset HOBO data loggers.

Thanks!

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.