My in-memory cache is just big enough to remember “that sounds familiar”, then I jump to search of my email archive. 8)
Have any updates been made to this plugin that would allow native decoding of the binary stream?
I’m not set up for a 3rd party service, and I don’t want to be. I’m having problems getting this working in plug and play mode. It appears to be connecting to the Etherbee/Wiznet device, but I’m not getting any data. I cannot figure out if this is a problem with the Etherbee, or somewhere else. It appears to be an Etherbee problem since the EtherX tool cannot find my Etherbee, even though I can ping it and connect to it on the port it’s listening on.
Don’t worry, it won’t phone home.
I only use the URL format, but my 1240’s were never actually sending data out of my house. In my case, the Etherbee was configured in SERVER Mode, instead of CLIENT Mode.
As a result Vera has to establish the connection to the Etherbee, in order for the data to be seen. It then parses this data, but it must be in the URL mode in order to do it.
I do this for the GEM also, and auto-detect the format from the URL stream.
If the 1240 itself hasn’t been configured to emit a URL, then you’ll be able to connect to the Etherbee, but you won’t see any data. If you do this with a Terminal program, and nothing comes out, then in all likeihood the '1240 isn’t set into the right mode.
My Etherbee is giving me all sorts of problems. Before, it was listening on a couple of TCP ports, and I could connect to it. Now, even though I can ping it, it’s no longer listening. I cannot discover it with the EtherX software unless I plug it directly into a laptop. It worked fine before when plugged into my switch. It’s running the 4.1 firmware, which is the latest. It started flaking out on 2.x, so it’s not the firmware version.
In an off chance, try using g a different power supply. I doubt its this but its worth trying it since they fail slowly over time and in odd ways.
Internally, the Etherbee is just a WIZnet,so it might be possible to reset it.
[quote=“guessed, post:85, topic:167492”]In an off chance, try using g a different power supply. I doubt its this but its worth trying it since they fail slowly over time and in odd ways.
Internally, the Etherbee is just a WIZnet,so it might be possible to reset it.[/quote]
I already tried that at the suggestion of Paul from Brultech. I’m trading emails with him right now, so hopefully he can help me figure it out.
Those wiznet things have horrible software.
Any chance of getting some of the updated features from the CurrentCost implementation into the Brultech plugin?
I would really like a history of usage. KWH used/day Total KWH used in a month/billing cycle.
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,6752.msg43359.html#msg43359
@eddie,
Unlike the CC, the Brultech devices don’t accrue data. They’re just a live feed of either 32 (GEM), or 7 (ECM-1240), channels of the “right now” energy usage data.
The exception to this are the pulse counting circuits in the GEM (these accrue, and can be reset)
I could accrue & graph Watt-values locally, within the Plugin itself, but then I’d start to have overlapping functionality with something like the datamine Plugin… and I’d likely never do it as well, so I’ve never bothered to add it.
When Brultech come out with their add-on/storage device, it would be worthwhile exposing it so that everyone can see the data it’s capturing.
Usage history is generally exposed, for all power monitoring devices, by the standard [Flash] graph under the Energy tab. This is what I’ve been using to tune my overall energy usage pattern. It’s not bad, but a little unruly when you have a lot of channels (I have about 24 used right now)
I installed the Brultech ECM-1240 App from the app market on my Vera3/UI5. I am using a serial interface. I configured Vera as it was explained in the forum to recognize my USB to serial port, but the App does not get any data.
Can someone tell me how to solve the problem please.
Thanks.
Did you reconfigure the 1240 to use the URL format? The default is binary, and the plugin only understands the URL form.
If you attach hyper terminal, or equiv, on a PC with the USB Serial device asttasched you should see URLs come up on the screen ever 50 seconds if the 1240 has been configured correctly.
@2pesimmon,
For reference, see the HTTP option listed in the screenshots of the ECM-1240 config tools here:
Installation-ECM1240 – Brultech Power Monitor
Thank you for your reply. I downloaded and set the ECM tool V2.8. Surprisingly, there is no option to setup the packet format! Maybe i need to update the firmeware
Thank you for your response.
I found another app, that has settings for http. It is called ECM1240 Interface Application.
I have attached all my settings. I get some non ASCII characters on xbee communication (as it can be seen on the figures), but I am not sure why. Vera still does not show the power.
Third screen in the setup instructions link I provided above. Doesn’t matter what host is added there since the unit cannot call out of the network, but a value MUST be specified there.
Guessed, thank you for your support.
The third screen in the setup matches mine ( which is default settings).
I am not sure what the first screen is though. In my case, it is completely blank.
My firmware is 1.025, which is older than that of yours. I haven’t been able to find the newer firmware.
When I look at your output:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5518.0;attach=9848;image
…it really looks like the 3rd screen really hasn’t been filled in.
The POST Root URL & POST URL Extension bits of this:
BrultechECMIA2.png on Installation-ECM1240 – Attachment – Brultech Power Monitor
Basically the Brultech devices “glue” the pieces of the URL-like string together, and then they emit it onto the Serial bus. In this case, the two parts that look corrupted are the “POST Root URL” and “POST URL Extension”.
Even though we’re not going to actually go out to an internet service with this data, these components need to be filled in (and the values shown in the screenshot link are good enough for this purpose)
If these are the same, please provide (1-1) screen captures matching the ones presented. You already have the 2nd one (the ECM-1240 Setup screen) but it’s possible that one of the others is whacked.
These screenshots are from @ChrisAZ’s environment. I’m not sure what FW version mine were on, but that’s always a possibility.
You may want to ping Ben on the Brultech forums to see if there’s a material difference in these versions that would impact the output of these sections in a ECM-1240 configured for HTTP. They’re very responsive to questions on their forum.
I think you are right about the URLs. My third screen looks like yours. HOWEVER, when I press the read button it shows “timeout error” . When I press the write button it shows timeout as well. It seems to me that URLs are shown in the screen but they are not actually written to the unit. And for whatever reason, the unit shows timeout error reading or writing URLs. Otherwise the unit functions properly, as I have used it in Homeseer before.
Thanks again!
Guesses,
I set the URL variables, and it is working. Ben, said the unit is busy, that’s why it gives timeout. I started fresh, and setup the URLs, without activating any other service (like real-time or Zigbee search) on the ECM1240 unit.
Here is the link from ECM1240 forum.
Thanks.
Just a note, be careful upgrading. Mine bricked due a bug in the bootloader on the earlier versions. Brultech fixed it for free, but I still had to ship it Canada. I also upgraded my Xbee interface and that seems bricked now also.
Is anyone still using this plug-in? it seems like it hasn’t been updated in a long time.
I just installed a couple ECM-1240 modules and a digi xbee → ethernet gateway, but nothing works. There doesn’t seem to be good documentation anymore. Hoping someone can give some hints on how to get it set up and get data into my vera.
Thanks
did you get it working?