Anyone know what’s being done so Vera can monitor Edison Smart Meters?
Are there monitoring devices that currently work with the meters that connect to Ethernet that Vera could then connect to without having to support ZigBee in Vera?
Thanks in advance.
There are Ethernet based gateways, and also USB based solutions that could be used if somebody wrote a plugin:
https://rainforestautomation.com/current_products
There are also compatible ethernet/zigbee products from Digi too that could be used.
I’ve been considering buying the one of the rainforest ones, but hadn’t decided on which one yet.
I’ve got a Rainforest Raven. One of these days I will write a plugin for it, unless strangely beats me to it.
Ok, I’ve done some more research and find that Digi and Rainforest Automation seem to be the top of the pack.
Rain first has both USB and a ethernet gateway but are out of stock on the gateway. Digi only has a ethernet gateway.
Digi has a cloud product which will talk to their gateways and you can receive data on your smart phone. I don’t know if you can run that at the same time as accessing the gateway from Vera. If you can you have a great combination until the Vera apps reached a higher level that Digi.
I keep thinking that even though it costs $50 more the ethernet gateway is the better way to go over USB.
Thoughts?
Ideally, I’d like one with a display, so I’m siding with the RainForest EMU2 currently…
Other than the type of serial port driver used (FTDI versus Prolific), it seems the Raven and the EMU2 have the same XML based output.
I created a crude lua script that reads the Rainforest Eagle into a Variable Container. I’m in Texas so not all of the smart meter functions are available.
You need (a) The VariableContainer Plugin (b) the attached script in the LUA tab of an automation scene (edit the IP address of your Eagle and the Eagle’s MAC ID, and modify the variable container ID in the script).
It should display the current demand (“Watts”) and the kWh reading from the grid (“KWHReading”) as well as to the grid (0 for me, not sure whether it works) plus the time it actually got the information from the meter (that time may be wrong if you’re not in Texas, I haven’t figured out why the Eagle thinks it’s in the Pacific timezone and/or whether the meter runs on UTC – it seems to use seconds since 1/1/2000).
Getting the Eagle to work was an adventure. http://support.greenmountain.com/greenmountainenergycompany/topics/texas_han_device
What’s great is that the Eagle has a “cloud” function, and you can hook it up to bidgely.com. That service seems to be really neat (especially compared to Ergy). Bidgely supports a number of other whole house energy monitors as well.
I’m hoping to learn a little bit more about lua and turn the script into a proper plugin.
That’s a great start. I wonder if you want to collaborate on a plugin that’ll also work for my USB Raven, which produces exactly the same output.
@futzle: Certainly – looking at their XML API for the Raven, there seems to be a bigger difference though than one would think (Eagle is billed as “Raven with Ethernet in a box” but it looks like there are more differences). Raven XML has 24 commands (submitted using , Eagle XML has only 5 (submitted using and one of them, get_instantaneous_demand, doesn’t seem to work for me). So if I get the Eagle going, someone who owns a Raven would have to do quite a bit of work to modify and test it.
Oh cool, they have published API documents now. Last time I looked there were none and I had to reverse-engineer it from reading strings in the firmware.
I will have a look and see if we can combine our efforts. If we can present the information as a regular EnergyMetering1 service then all of the remote apps will get support for free.
OK, this is my first attempt at a plugin. It relies heavily on the existing energy metering plugins and since I’m new to LUA, I’m sure it could be optimized quite a bit.
EDIT: Please go to the plugin thread at http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,14767.0.html
[quote=“robertmm, post:10, topic:174641”]OK, this is my first attempt at a plugin.
[…]
I don’t know how the net metering would work (for me, the “Received” value from the smart meter is always empty) and what one would have to set for Vera to understand it.[/quote]
Well done! I can’t test it right now as I’m replacing the machine that the RAVEn plugs into, but I’ll give it a go soon (altering it where I need for where the EAGLE API differs).
I’ve got solar panels so I can verify that the SummationDelivered and SummationReceived values do operate as you’d expect. I’ve been thinking about how to handle the net metering and two-way accumulation (Delivered and Received are two different kWh values). How do you feel about doing multiple power meters, one for outgoing (“Received”) and one for incoming (“Delivered”)? Child devices might be more complexity than you want, but I’m not sure how else to store two KWH variables in a way that honours the Energy Metering service.
The question is: would the Vera know what to do with the “Received” values? Is “Demand” net already? Perhaps all that’s needed is to display “Delivered”, “Received” separately (using the local service) and put the net value (Delivered-Received) into the energy metering service variables?
I don’t find that Vera’s energy measurement support gives me anything compared to bidgely.com (and let’s just be polite and not mention Ergy).
You’ve done a lot of work on other plugins, so I’m sure you’ll pick the right options. Also, the Raven might want to be a separate plugin but you’ll see how much code they could share.
The only thing I want to do to it is reduce its resource usage and more robust error handling (there are some missing “nil” checks). I’ll be asking some questions over in the plugin forums when I have some more time (like: “how do I parse xml and not fake it by using string.gsub”).
Perhaps we should take this whole discussion over there at this time?
[quote=“robertmm, post:12, topic:174641”]I’ll be asking some questions over in the plugin forums when I have some more time (like: “how do I parse xml and not fake it by using string.gsub”).
Perhaps we should take this whole discussion over there at this time?[/quote]
You bet. One of the design goals of the WeMo plugin was to do XML parsing properly with the expat library, so it’s still fresh in my mind.
I’m still undecided about which model to go for between the Ravan, Eagle and EMU since ideally I’d also like to use some sort of service like bingley etc, but also I like the idea of having the display on the EMU.
If you can’t decide… You can have up to five ZigBee devices connected to your meter at the same time (at least in Texas).
I like the Eagle best because it is more flexible, and thanks to its web interface a dedicated display is not necessary in my opinion. There are also smartphone apps from Bidgely and from Rainforest Automation.
But you can talk to the EMU-2 as well – according to the Rainforest Automation site:
The EMU-2? In Home Display not only functions as a stand-alone in home display, but its USB port also supports the RAVEn XML API. NOTE: The default behaviour of the EMU-2 is different from the RAVEn as it has to update the screens at a pre-configured rate. Also, while the RAVEn uses an FTDI chip, the EMU-2 uses a Prolific PL2303-HXD for its USB
I’m thinking Eagle maybe the way to go then as the smart phone app looks like it would meet my needs
Smart choice… And flexibility.
Yes but also maybe overkill and a little bit redundant given I also have a Brultech GEM 
The main thing I was interested in was just to see at a glance what my net energy usage was given I also have solar. My power company provides this, its just its normally 1 to 2 days behind.
I started a new thread for the plugin at http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,14767.0.html
I can get 2 hourly usage online but it does not report solar which I was looking for. In may last place I had solar monitored locally but not here and found this from outside this forum.
I have been waiting for the AU version which had been out of stock for ages but now available. By the way down here (Victoria) is looking at other Rules for appliances and usage similar to what has been
Implemented in California e.g remote switch off air conditioners so this may drive more reporting devices being implemented down here too.
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