Northq zwave, how to raise the electricity meter every 15 minutes ?

Hi, i ve installed the power meter Northq zwave on a veralite.
http://northq.com/products/zwave/nq9021.html

This module raise the power meter and send it to the veralite box.
By default the data are sent each 3 hours.

The only way i’ve found to get this information every 15 minutes is by setting the param “poll this node at almost every” to 900 seconds.

Is it the best way to do it ?

Sorry to see you’ve not had a response to this, trackingnewtech.

Just wondering how you’re getting on with the readings, since others on the forum seems to be having more than just a bit of grief getting the right numbers, it seems.

I ask, of course, because I’m interesting in getting one of these - but only if they work!

Thanks

AKB

Hi,

I have set Polling on the NorthQ to 900 seconds and it is now reporting the watts every 15 min.
You can check the logfile via SSH on the vera to see if its working.

I have set wake up to 600 seconds, and polling at most every 120 seconds. I like 10 minutes better than 15. Whenever I get around to use external power (not batteries), I will reduce the time even more. I guess one minute would be good.
The only thing I never understood with these counters, are how to get the electrical meter value into Vera. I now don’t care too much about that, since I am logging with dataMine.

My NorthQ does follow what is reported by my electrical company day by day, so it does work fine (on an electrical meter).

Well, I did get one of these - and it seems to work fine.

Some points to note for the benefit of others:

  • wake up interval, set under the “Advanced” tag, in seconds. 900 works to give 15 minutes intervals is fine for me.
  • pulse count per kWh, set under the “Device Options” tag, parameter #1-‘Pulsefactor’
    NB: set to TEN TIMES the actual Pulse / kWh, so if your meter gives 1000 pulses per kWh
    then this should be set to 10000.
  • current meter reading can be set under the “Device Options” tag, parameter #9-‘Pulse count’
    NB: this is indeed a pulse count, so if your meter gives 1000 pulses per kWh and your current reading is 12345,
    then this should be set to 12345000.

Although the UI5 panel shows both Watts and kWh labels, the meter only gives a kWh reading. This is why “Chris” on the forum here wrote the NorthQ Watt Calculator app which calculates the average power in watts between the last two meter updates. And the thing to note about setting up THAT app is that the ‘NorthQDevice’ variable under the ‘Advanced’ settings tab should be set to the Device Number of the NorthQ Reader itself and NOT its Zwave ID.

All a bit painfully discovered, but this works for me now, and I hope to spare some effort for any others following in this path.

AKB

[quote=“akbooer, post:5, topic:173323”]Well, I did get one of these - and it seems to work fine.

Some points to note for the benefit of others:

  • wake up interval, set under the “Advanced” tag, in seconds. 900 works to give 15 minutes intervals is fine for me.
  • pulse count per kWh, set under the “Device Options” tag, parameter #1-‘Pulsefactor’
    NB: set to TEN TIMES the actual Pulse / kWh, so if your meter gives 1000 pulses per kWh
    then this should be set to 10000.
  • current meter reading can be set under the “Device Options” tag, parameter #9-‘Pulse count’
    NB: this is indeed a pulse count, so if your meter gives 1000 pulses per kWh and your current reading is 12345,
    then this should be set to 12345000.

Although the UI5 panel shows both Watts and kWh labels, the meter only gives a kWh reading. This is why “Chris” on the forum here wrote the NorthQ Watt Calculator app which calculates the average power in watts between the last two meter updates. And the thing to note about setting up THAT app is that the ‘NorthQDevice’ variable under the ‘Advanced’ settings tab should be set to the Device Number of the NorthQ Reader itself and NOT its Zwave ID.

All a bit painfully discovered, but this works for me now, and I hope to spare some effort for any others following in this path.

AKB[/quote]
Thanks for this. I have actually had the NorthQ meter for almost a year and it hasn’t been working properly. Finally got some time on my hands, replaced the batteries and found this thread. Apparantly I had the wrong settings for pulse count. Seems to be working properly now. :slight_smile:

Also I must say, what a hassle to write anything in this forum!

[ul][li]delighted that this historic information was of use[/li]
[li]after a few posts the annoying verifications go away… keep contributing![/li][/ul]

Good luck.

Well, it finally looks like I got this thing to work. It looked promising at first, it includen without problems. But then I got updates at seemingly random times with a few ho?rs intervals. Maybe they seemed random because I lost patience and woke the thing up…
Anyway I tried updating the wakeup interval, which does the trick for my battery thermostats, but on this thing it did nothing. Then I reread this post and combined what trackingnewtech and akbooer wrote, both decreasing the wakeup as well as the pollinginterval and now it works!

Akbooer, did you get it to work with the standard polling?

[quote=“akbooer, post:5, topic:173323”]Well, I did get one of these - and it seems to work fine.

Some points to note for the benefit of others:

  • wake up interval, set under the “Advanced” tag, in seconds. 900 works to give 15 minutes intervals is fine for me.
  • pulse count per kWh, set under the “Device Options” tag, parameter #1-‘Pulsefactor’
    NB: set to TEN TIMES the actual Pulse / kWh, so if your meter gives 1000 pulses per kWh
    then this should be set to 10000.
  • current meter reading can be set under the “Device Options” tag, parameter #9-‘Pulse count’
    NB: this is indeed a pulse count, so if your meter gives 1000 pulses per kWh and your current reading is 12345,
    then this should be set to 12345000.

Although the UI5 panel shows both Watts and kWh labels, the meter only gives a kWh reading. This is why “Chris” on the forum here wrote the NorthQ Watt Calculator app which calculates the average power in watts between the last two meter updates. And the thing to note about setting up THAT app is that the ‘NorthQDevice’ variable under the ‘Advanced’ settings tab should be set to the Device Number of the NorthQ Reader itself and NOT its Zwave ID.

All a bit painfully discovered, but this works for me now, and I hope to spare some effort for any others following in this path.

AKB[/quote]

Wake up 900, poll 450.

Ok, thanks then we seem to have a similar solution.

Skickat fr?n min GT-I9300 via Tapatalk

Thanks to this forum people can manage their Veras. Much appreciated
Installed my NorthQ (NQ) today and everything worked out (nearly) painless, thanks to links like this.

But what I don’t still have figered is if I want to poll every 10 minutes. Is it enough to set wake up to 600 (and pool like 300).
Shouldn’t param 5 be set? This I don’t get into my head.
Is it Vera to say to NQ to wake up, i.e wake 900? If NQ in sleep mode it shouldn’t respond (like my stupid fire alert).
Feels like param5 “Poll wake up” should be set. But that’s also an odd one, since range for param 5 is reported to be between 1-50.
And nothing says what its value stands for; minutes, hours or…
(tried to attach an image here, but it’ll probably not work)

Other perculiar issues (according to me):

  1. Param 9 is also not has a good name, but because of this forum managble. Instead of Pulse count it’ better state “Total count” or total pulse count or…
  2. Watt is shown as a label but not value is unprofessional and odd it hadn’t been fixed (adding an extra plugin is a stupid way to go).
  3. Now only total kWh is present, and usually not the thing I whant to see (except open the wrench). Why not show 24h kWh usage, previous 24h, last hour etc. in 3-4 different rows. Have a real use for NQ, then is dataMine a must.

NorthQ:

  1. How on earth can one build a device for meassure energy and not know there would be electical power around 100% guaranteed!
  2. I can live that it can be battery operated, but why didn’t they atleast add a mini/micro USB plug option? Jesus.
  3. The mounting plate for the meter is about 1x1" and cable fixed. The other end has a 90 degree fixed plug. This means if people like me have the meter outside and want the device inside (battery you know), one has to get an unnecessary big hole through the wall. Why not cable screwed into the plate or the plug straight. Isn’t there a designer with a brain around?

Now I can hardly wait for my AAA-to-AA plastics and the small 3,3 volt power regulators to show up, so I can power this thing up.
That’s is acctually why I asked first place, to know how to make settings later for 60 sec readings or like.

Thanks to this forum people can manage their Veras. Much appreciated
Installed my NorthQ (NQ) today and everything worked out (nearly) painless, thanks to links like this.

But what I don’t still have figered is if I want to poll every 10 minutes. Is it enough to set wake up to 600 (and pool like 300).
Shouldn’t param 5 be set? This I don’t get into my head.
Is it Vera to say to NQ to wake up, i.e wake 900? If NQ in sleep mode it shouldn’t respond (like my stupid fire alert).
Feels like param5 “Poll wake up” should be set. But that’s also an odd one, since range for param 5 is reported to be between 1-50.
And nothing says what its value stands for; minutes, hours or…
(tried to attach an image here, but it’ll probably not work)

Other perculiar issues (according to me):

  1. Param 9 is also not has a good name, but because of this forum managble. Instead of Pulse count it’ better state “Total count” or total pulse count or…
  2. Watt is shown as a label but not value is unprofessional and odd it hadn’t been fixed (adding an extra plugin is a stupid way to go).
  3. Now only total kWh is present, and usually not the thing I whant to see (except open the wrench). Why not show 24h kWh usage, previous 24h, last hour etc. in 3-4 different rows. Have a real use for NQ, then is dataMine a must.

NorthQ:

  1. How on earth can one build a device for meassure energy and not know there would be electical power around 100% guaranteed!
  2. I can live that it can be battery operated, but why didn’t they atleast add a mini/micro USB plug option? Jesus.
  3. The mounting plate for the meter is about 1x1" and cable fixed. The other end has a 90 degree fixed plug. This means if people like me have the meter outside and want the device inside (battery you know), one has to get an unnecessary big hole through the wall. Why not cable screwed into the plate or the plug straight. Isn’t there a designer with a brain around?

Now I can hardly wait for my AAA-to-AA plastics and the small 3,3 volt power regulators to show up, so I can power this thing up.
That’s is acctually why I asked first place, to know how to make settings later for 60 sec readings or like.[/quote]

I use wakeup 120 and polling 60. That seems to give me about 3 minute updates according to datamine logs. I have no idea why I dont get 2 minutes… The other parameters on the Device options tab don’t need changing. I remember reading about them somwhere here? and there was nothing that was nothing that was relevant for better updates. I don’t have a link to that :-
For me it now works well powered by a small 3 V battery eliminator with a couple of crocodile clips soldered to it…

Vera’s polling only happens at a finite (and rather slow) rate. Depending on what other devices you have to be polled (and also other parameters which limit the rate) it could well be that it takes 3 minutes rather than 2.

[quote=“Sigge, post:12, topic:173323”]I use wakeup 120 and polling 60. That seems to give me about 3 minute updates according to datamine logs. I have no idea why I dont get 2 minutes… The other parameters on the Device options tab don’t need changing. I remember reading about them somwhere here? and there was nothing that was nothing that was relevant for better updates. I don’t have a link to that :-
For me it now works well powered by a small 3 V battery eliminator with a couple of crocodile clips soldered to it…[/quote]

Thanks for your reply. My parts for electrifying is on it’s way.

But isn’t this why we need some more, some better, like a Vera Pro?
All these units with so lame cpu power and squeezed memory (which is cheap today - like Raspberry). Isn’t actually Veralite and/or Vera 3 more a toy dated 99 in power?
Z-wave can handle around 230 units max, and Vera can also handle Insteon etc. A good machine should have memory for a full z-wave network + a lot of plugin (since it’s built for plugin, else worthless) and have memory and cpu left. The top model should have power for both full Insteon and Z-wave.