Smart Meter Analytics & IoT Energy Monitoring System

A comprehensive, full-stack IoT solution designed to monitor electrical energy consumption in real-time. This project simulates a smart energy meter, captures live power usage, and visualizes the data through an interactive, responsive web dashboard with automated billing capabilities.

Key Features

• Real-Time Data Visualization: Live Area Charts displaying the most recent power usage trends using Recharts.
• Smart Budget Tracker: Interactive slider allowing users to set monthly kWh goals, with dynamic progress bars and over-limit warning alerts.
• Automated PDF Billing: Generates professional, downloadable PDF energy bills filtered by specific date ranges using jsPDF and autoTable.
• Historical Data Filtering: Search and filter historical energy consumption data using an intuitive dual-calendar interface.
• Modern UI/UX: Clean, enterprise-level interface utilizing soft gradients, Bootstrap typography, and Lucide-React icons.

---

Architecture: How It Works

This project integrates hardware simulation, a middleware bridge, a robust backend, and a dynamic frontend. Here is the step-by-step data flow:

1. Hardware Simulation (Arduino + Proteus)

   • An Arduino circuit is simulated using Proteus. A potentiometer acts as the variable electrical load (simulating household power usage).
   • The Arduino reads the analog values, calculates the current power demand (kW) and total consumed units (kWh) over time.
   • This data is serialized into a JSON string and transmitted via a virtual serial port (COM1).

2. Middleware Serial Bridge (Python)

   • A Python script (bridge.py) utilizing the pyserial library listens to the virtual serial port (COM2 via VSPE).
   • It captures the live JSON data stream from the Proteus simulation, decodes it, and instantly forwards it to the web backend via HTTP POST requests.

3. Backend API (Laravel + MySQL)

   • A Laravel RESTful API receives the incoming POST requests from the Python bridge.
   • It calculates the estimated bill amount based on a predefined unit price and securely stores the meter_id, current_usage, total_units, and bill_amount into a MySQL database.
   • It provides GET endpoints to serve this data, supporting date-range filtering for the frontend.

4. Frontend Dashboard (React + Vite)

   • The React application continuously polls the Laravel API to fetch the latest readings.
   • State management is used to instantly update the UI summary cards, alert systems, and live charts without requiring a page refresh.

---

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React.js, Vite, Bootstrap, Recharts, jsPDF, Lucide-React.
• Backend: Laravel (PHP), Eloquent ORM, MySQL.
• Middleware Bridge: Python 3, PySerial, Requests.
• IoT / Hardware: Arduino (C++), Proteus Design Suite, Virtual Serial Port Emulator (VSPE).

---

Quick Start / Setup Guide

1. Backend (Laravel) Setup

cd smart-meter-api
composer install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
# Update your .env file with your database credentials
php artisan migrate
php artisan serve