UltraECM2 HSPI - Final Beta

[rhodesep]

Help me understand

I believe you may be experiencing issues with your 1-wire network. At the junction point, did you split the 1-Wire bus to extend the 1-wire network in multiple branches? If yes, did you add 100 ohm resistors on each of the sensors to reduce reflections?

UJ,

To answer your question about the 1-wire, No I have not placed resister in the three bridged location. What kind of error and warning are occurring? One of the errors is referencing Pulsecounter and the other is referencing tempsensor. The warnings are showing the last 4 temp sensors. They are not active. I checked the database and sensor 11,12,13,14 have a temperature reading (they are active). Sensor 15,16,17,18 have a value of 8128(they are inactive). Is 8128 a correct value? Other than the 8128 value all inputs seem to be correct. It's now hard to insert the resistors. I will look to see if I have any and give it a try.


Gene

[kevini]

SEG kWh values

Another one on SEG, the kWh values the plug in is posting are correct in that they are kWh, however SEG seems to be just seeing them as 0.

For example the post is: e_3 0.00270805555555556

If I change SEG to W then it sees the value as Watt hours. I think you need to multiply by 1000 before sending it in the POST.

[cjin]

Month to date energy cost

Can this plug in create homeseer devices to show last month and current month to date energy usage and cost?

[rhodesep]

Added Resistors

I believe you may be experiencing issues with your 1-wire network. At the junction point, did you split the 1-Wire bus to extend the 1-wire network in multiple branches? If yes, did you add 100 ohm resistors on each of the sensors to reduce reflections?

UJ,

I added 100 ohm resistors to 2,3 and 4 where they joined. Will see what that does.

Gene

[kevini]

8 second interval

I was wondering if the 8 second interval is important, My PC running Homeseer is a pretty wimpy Intel Atom for power saving reasons. Running at 8 seconds per report is causing a fairly high CPU load.

By backing it down to 14 seconds the CPU load is almost halved. Before I stick with this I wanted to make sure it will not mess up the calculations.

If the 8 second interval important or can I use a less frequent interval.

[untapi]

Something that had me stumped...solved

Hopefully this post will help someone else who might be having the same issue I was.

The plugin kept detecting no com from the GEM every 5 minutes. It would then reconnect, get the channel data, and then nothing for another 5 minutes, and repeat...

I use the ethernet GEM option, and in the EtherX configuration tool, there is an "Option" tab. Under this tab is an "Inactivity time" which was set to 4 seconds. Not sure if this is the default or if it was changed when I originally installed and configured the GEM for SEG. Anyway, I changed the timeout to 40 seconds and the plugin is now working properly.

Can anyone who also uses the GEM w/ethernet report what this timeout is set in their config?

Great work on the plugin, Ultra!

[untapi]

Hint for existing SEG Users

If you were using your GEM to post to SEG and are switching to this plugin but want to maintain your existing SEG data, be aware that the SEG "node name" for your existing SEG device and the "Device Serial" field in the UltraECM2->Devices tab must match. I changed the serial number to be my SEG device name and SEG saw my GEM come back online. I suppose one could also change the node name on SEG but I didn't want to take a chance and mess something up on SEG.

Again, hats off to Ultra for his hard work. This is great stuff!

[rhodesep]

Hopefully this post will help someone else who might be having the same issue I was.

The plugin kept detecting no com from the GEM every 5 minutes. It would then reconnect, get the channel data, and then nothing for another 5 minutes, and repeat...

I use the ethernet GEM option, and in the EtherX configuration tool, there is an "Option" tab. Under this tab is an "Inactivity time" which was set to 4 seconds. Not sure if this is the default or if it was changed when I originally installed and configured the GEM for SEG. Anyway, I changed the timeout to 40 seconds and the plugin is now working properly.

Can anyone who also uses the GEM w/ethernet report what this timeout is set in their config?

Great work on the plugin, Ultra!

There is a new configuration tool called GEM Network Utility v4.2. Brultech is recommending it be used. I don't believe it has the timeout. You might want to be sure you are using the latest firmware. I use a GEM with Ethernet only and remember the delay in the EtherX configuration tool. Good luck.

[rhodesep]

Made it 24 hours

UJ,

I added 100 ohm resistors to 2,3 and 4 where they joined. Will see what that does.

Gene

Well UJ looks like you are right! I have run 24 hours without an error or warning since I put in the resistors.

[untapi]

There is a new configuration tool called GEM Network Utility v4.2. Brultech is recommending it be used. I don't believe it has the timeout. You might want to be sure you are using the latest firmware. I use a GEM with Ethernet only and remember the delay in the EtherX configuration tool. Good luck.

Thanks, I will check out the Network Utility. Everything is working fine with the 40 second timeout but I was just curious why nobody else had reported this issue -- I guess the new utility has a more reasonable default.

[untapi]

Another one on SEG, the kWh values the plug in is posting are correct in that they are kWh, however SEG seems to be just seeing them as 0.

For example the post is: e_3 0.00270805555555556

If I change SEG to W then it sees the value as Watt hours. I think you need to multiply by 1000 before sending it in the POST.

I had the same problem. You need to go into each of your SEG "Energy" streams and under the Edit tab and enter a calibration factor of 1000. The type of data should be "Energy, Wh" and the units should be "None". Once I did this, my "Energy" streams started to show values similar to what I was seeing when I was pumping data directly from the GEM to SEG. This will be confirmed further once I have a full day of data to compare.

This assumes, and Ultra can correct me if I'm wrong, that the plugin is summing KWh data points from the GEM every 8 seconds into 30 second buckets which are posted to SEG.

[Ultrajones]

I had the same problem. You need to go into each of your SEG "Energy" streams and under the Edit tab and enter a calibration factor of 1000. The type of data should be "Energy, Wh" and the units should be "None". Once I did this, my "Energy" streams started to show values similar to what I was seeing when I was pumping data directly from the GEM to SEG. This will be confirmed further once I have a full day of data to compare.

This assumes, and Ultra can correct me if I'm wrong, that the plugin is summing KWh data points from the GEM every 8 seconds into 30 second buckets which are posted to SEG.

Yes, that is correct. Would it be better if I multiplied the values by 1000 before sending them?

[Ultrajones]

I was wondering if the 8 second interval is important, My PC running Homeseer is a pretty wimpy Intel Atom for power saving reasons. Running at 8 seconds per report is causing a fairly high CPU load.

By backing it down to 14 seconds the CPU load is almost halved. Before I stick with this I wanted to make sure it will not mess up the calculations.

If the 8 second interval important or can I use a less frequent interval.

Hello. Feel free to reduce the interval to anything you feel is necessary. A lower send frequency just means the real-time data won't update as often. If you reduce the send frequency, make sure you keep the packet buffer = 1 within the plug-in options.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[untapi]

Yes, that is correct. Would it be better if I multiplied the values by 1000 before sending them?

Yes, I think that would be better. It would make the SEG config that much simpler.

[rhodesep]

Pulse Counters

Ultra,

I know you mentioned in the first thread the Pulse Counters are not finished.
Are pulse counters being forwarded to SEG?

Could you include the Voltage in both HS and SEG in your next additions.

Thanks

Gene