Open Peer Power Open Peer Power

Install Open Peer Power

This guide will help you get Open Peer Power running on a Raspberry Pi, to create an efficient power management hub.

Suggested hardware

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is a good, affordable option for the power management server.

  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2GB) + Power Supply (at least 2.5A)
  • Micro SD Card. Ideally get one that is Application Class 2 as they handle small I/O much more consistently than cards not optimized to host applications. A 32 GB or bigger card is recommended.
  • SD Card reader. This is already part of most laptops, but you can purchase a standalone USB adapter if you don’t have one. The brand doesn’t matter, just pick the cheapest.
  • Ethernet cable. Open Peer Power can work with Wi-Fi, but an Ethernet connection would be more reliable.

Software requirements

  • Download and extract the Open Peer Power image.
  • Download balenaEtcher to write the image to an SD card

Installation

  1. Put the SD card in your card reader.
  2. Open balenaEtcher, select the Open Peer Power image and flash it to the SD card.
  3. Unmount the SD card and remove it from your card reader.
  4. Follow this step if you want to configure Wi-Fi or a static IP address (this step requires a USB stick). Otherwise, move to step 5.
    • Format a USB stick to FAT32 with the volume name CONFIG.
    • Create a folder named network in the root of the newly-formatted USB stick.
    • Within that folder, create a file named my-network without a file extension.
    • Copy one of the examples to the my-network file and adjust accordingly.
    • Plug the USB stick into the Raspberry Pi.
  5. Insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi. If you are going to use an Ethernet cable, connect that too.
  6. Connect your power supply to the Raspberry Pi.
  7. The Raspberry Pi will now boot up, connect to the Internet and download the latest version of Open Peer Power. This will take about 20 minutes.
  8. Open Peer Power will be available at http://openpeerpower.local:8123. If you are running an older Windows version or have a stricter network configuration, you might need to access Open Peer Power at http://openpeerpower:8123 or http://X.X.X.X:8123 (replace X.X.X.X with your Pi’s IP address).
  9. If you used a USB stick for configuring the network, you can now remove it.

Next step: Provisioning »