NorthQ 9021

[Sleepy81]

Haven't had time to troubleshoot some more, but did manage to take a few quick pictures.
This is how the detector is mounted:


This is as far in as the cable goes into the device. The "backplate" goes on no problem. However when inserting the cable there is no definitive "click" sound, like it says in the manual... But I guess that's just a missprint?


This is the kind of meter I have, shown on both unlit and lit condition.



The detector is however not mounted directly over the LED. There is a clear plaxiglass cover that is secured with tamper-proof wires from the electric company (preventing you from messing with the meter) inbetween.

The distance between the LED and the plexiglass is approx 1 cm.

[CyberDuck]

Hi.

The 1 cm distance might be an issue - but it also seems that you might have placed the sensorhead slightly above the optimal position but it can also just be the angle of the photo that makes it appear like it.

Could you double check that the sensor head is exactly in front of the diode ? The image suggests that it might need to be moved down about 2mm.

[Chak]

Good news

Hi All,

After 1 month usage I can report that the accuracy is 100%
I have a digital meter(Holland) with 10000 imp/kWh

Other good news is the soon a plugin will be available for Homeseer so that you can directly display the usage hour,day, week, month ...in Homeseer including charts.

[Sleepy81]

Hi.

The 1 cm distance might be an issue - but it also seems that you might have placed the sensorhead slightly above the optimal position but it can also just be the angle of the photo that makes it appear like it.

Could you double check that the sensor head is exactly in front of the diode ? The image suggests that it might need to be moved down about 2mm.

I think its the picture angle that makes it look that way. I have also tried to move it in small increments left/right and up/down, but still not able to make it work, I have never seen the blinking LED indicating that it has detected a pulse.

Today I tried to add the meter to a brand new Z-wave network, but with the same result.

I also went through all the parameter numbers provided in te smarthus.info pdf file. I noticed that the values my device has as "default" are not equal to the default values in the pdf.

I tried the following settings in Homeseer:
Parameter 1: 10000
Parameter 2: 1
Parameter 3: 0
Parameter 4: 50
Parameter 5: 20
Parameter 6: Did not change
Parameter 7: Did not change
Parameter 8: 900
Parameter 9: 0
Parameter 10: 20 and 60 (manual says 3*20...)
Parameter 11: 0
Parameter 12: did not change
Parameter 13-18: ERROR displayed when selecting the parameter. (Presumably because 13-18 are not programable on the Meter)

I pressed SET in homeseer between each change, and verified that my Aeon Z-stick flashed blue indicating that it was communicating with the meter.

After all this I still can't get it to work, same symptomes as before.

One thing I did notice though, was that it seamed lik the meter did not recive all the Parameter numbers. F.ex Parameter 4 was defaulted to 320, but I changed it to 50 according to the manual. However when I later went back to look at parameter 4 it had changed back to 320...
I tried to update several times, but no luck...

Any ideas?

Is there a way to test the meter using something else other than my power meter LED? Will a flashlight work? Could be one way to figure out if it's the 1 cm gap that is the problem, or the meter itself...

[CyberDuck]

Is there a way to test the meter using something else other than my power meter LED? Will a flashlight work? Could be one way to figure out if it's the 1 cm gap that is the problem, or the meter itself...

A flashlight will not do it but a blinking LED (example an Harddisk or network activity led)

And try replugging the cable if you have not done that yet.

[Sleepy81]

I have reseted the cable several times.

I just now tried it on one of my HDD activit LEDs (not very big, but ok brightness) and nothing...

But THEN i tried it on one of my Z-wave plugin adapters that has a very large and bright LED, and it worked! I was getting a flashing LED on the meter almost 100% of the time!

So it looks like the LED on my power meter is too small or too dim to trigger the sensor...
I looked at the plaxiglass again, and it is not 1 cm from the LED, more like 3-4mm, but maby that is enough?
There is unfortunantly no way for me to remove the plexiglass, as that would be "tempering" with the meter, and I'd probably get fined...

So, looks like I'll have to return this one, unless there is some way to boost the sensitivity of the sensor/device?

[CyberDuck]

Just a quick thought .. on some of the first production unit there was a protective film which could be almost invisible and which lowered the sensitivity quite a lot on the devices. Can you check that is not the case ?
The 3-4mm should not be a problem. I noticed you had two LED's on your meter .. have you tried on the other LED. The LED might be flashing infrared even if you cannot see it with your eyes so give it a try. Else try to see if you can find the manual for the meter - some of them are available onine.

[hkmod25]

The LED might be flashing infrared even if you cannot see it with your eyes so give it a try. Else try to see if you can find the manual for the meter - some of them are available onine.

You can see infrared light via your mobile phone camera :-)
It is very easy "tool" to controll that IR remotes and so on actually send any signal out...

[Sleepy81]

Just a quick thought .. on some of the first production unit there was a protective film which could be almost invisible and which lowered the sensitivity quite a lot on the devices. Can you check that is not the case ?
The 3-4mm should not be a problem. I noticed you had two LED's on your meter .. have you tried on the other LED. The LED might be flashing infrared even if you cannot see it with your eyes so give it a try. Else try to see if you can find the manual for the meter - some of them are available onine.

No film on my sensor, but your suggestion about moving the sensor to the other LED seemed to do the trick!! Never thought of that myself!
I am now getting flashing LED on the NorthQ meter, and am patiently awaiting the first update in homeseer to see if it works properly!

[Sleepy81]

Good news! The detector and device is now working and is accuratly detecting the pulses from my powermeter!

The bad news:
When I got it to work, it was for some reason reporting every ~30sec, eating up the battery. So I changed the wake up intervall in HS to 12 min.
However after I changed that I no longer get any updates (waited about 1 hour, and no updates...)

I noticed that the Parameter defaults in the two documents in this tread (pepper1.net and smarthus.info) are not the same. I alsp had doubts about what parameters that had the correct settings after I changed them earlier when I was struggeling to get the sensor to work.

Therefore, I the removed the sensor from homeseer, reset the sensor (7xbutton presses) and readded it to HS. I then only change the wake up time to 6 min, but the same result, no updates...

Anybody know how to fix this?

[Sleepy81]

Disregard all!

Now, over 1 hr after resetting the device it started to report approx every 15 min all by itself!

Thanks for the help everybody!

[Sleepy81]

Hi All,

After 1 month usage I can report that the accuracy is 100%
I have a digital meter(Holland) with 10000 imp/kWh

Other good news is the soon a plugin will be available for Homeseer so that you can directly display the usage hour,day, week, month ...in Homeseer including charts.

What plugin is this?

[Chak]

What plugin is this?

This will be logging and a chart plugin.

[Sleepy81]

Do you know what its called? And approx. when it will be released?

[Chak]

Do you know what its called? And approx. when it will be released?

Developer will post more info when available..
I hope it will be available in few weeks..