A µSD card reader will solve that issue. Here’s an example:
You don’t have to buy this specific reader. As long as the one you buy has a USB connector that matches the USB ports on your laptop machine, and a µSD card slot, it should work.
Indeed it does. The image is a “complete package.” i.e apps and OS all in one.
Although there is a method that enables installing emonSD directly on the Pi, it’s more involved than simply
writing the image file to a µSD card. As I mentioned earlier, the image is the recommended method.
Once you have a USB-µSD card reader, writing the image will be quick and easy.
Yes, emonHub is part of the emonSD image and will be available after the image is written to the SD card.
Yes and no.
Steps 1 through 5 are performed on your laptop computer. Step 6 is performed on both the RPi and your laptop computer. Step 8 will involve the RPi and your laptop machine, Step 9 and 10 will be performed on your laptop computer. If you won’t be using Wi-Fi at all, e.g. testing, you won’t need to do step 7.
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Yes. Performed on your laptop computer.
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This assumes a computer running Linux is available. If not, you can download and burn a copy of
gparted live to a CD. If your laptop computer lacks a CDROM drive, gparted live can be written to, then
booted from, a USB storage device. Get gparted live here: GParted -- Live CD/USB/PXE/HD -
As you mentioned, this one’s done.
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Yes. Performed on your laptop computer.
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Step 2 applies here as well. Performed on your laptop computer.
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You’ll generate the keys on your laptop, then copy them to your Pi.
i.e. you enable SSH on the Pi AND set up a pair of keys. -
If you’re not going to use Wi-Fi, then you don’t need to set up Wi-Fi credentials.
That assumes you’ll be using ethernet during testing as well as the final installation. -
Yes. You should be able to use any wire for testing your setup. Unless the distance betwenn your RPi
and meters is short (a few metres) you’ll want to use the correct wire for your permanent installation.
BTW, what’s the make and model of your meters? -
Yes. This can be done remotely via SSH as well as directly on the RPi.
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Yes. As the early versions of the RPi generally lack the raw “horsepower” to be usable web browsing
platforms, most users do this step using another computer. That changed with the introduction of the RPi 4 as the “4” does have sufficient “oomph” to do the job.
Getting Modbus instruments “up and running” is not difficult, but neither is it trivial. At this point, I’d suggest
getting emonSD running first. Once you have it working properly, then tackle the Modbus part.