I finally got around to installing a TED5000 over the weekend. Now that I have figured out it’s oddities, it works extremely well. Very impressive set of data.
Unfortunately, I have not yet been successful in getting Woodsby’s plugin to properly connect to the unit.
I believe the issue is caused by the fact that I have password protected the TED5000. The plugin has no fields for username and password, so I attempted to set it up via the IP address field, with the following syntax: username:password@192.168.x.x . The Plugin successfully locates the TED5000, but does not display any information.
Has anyone else come across this issue?
EDIT: It appears the ‘issue’ was user error. I had to refresh my browser. Very useful plugin. Good job Woodsby!!
I also now have SQ Remote displaying power usage in watts!
However, I have another issue. The plugin is only displaying the voltage of one phase of my power. How do I tell the plugin to display both phases?
@oti: It would not be proper to display L1 and L2 divided by 2. That makes no sense electrically. The whole point in displaying the phase voltage is to monitor your house’s condition. You would be unable to do so via your suggestion. Instead, the plugin is only displaying one of the two phases.
If the purpose is indeed to show the voltage for L1 and L2 separately, then obviously showing a single number isn’t any help. But TED is a power meter and may not care about the split phase (it doesn’t show you the consumption on each line separately either). Which is not to say that it couldn’t give you both numbers, I’m just saying it’s not a given.
Instead, the plugin is only displaying one of the two phases.
So is the voltage for L1 and L2 shown separately in TED (and thus can be considered missing from the plugin)?
Quickly (no warranty; @woodsby can tell us if this is accurate) checked the API and it looks like there’s just a single value VoltageNow per MTU; so no separation per leg.
My issue is this: When dealing with household 2 phase voltage, one needs to know at least one of the following pieces of information:
Each phase’s voltage. Phase 1 could be ‘normal’, while phase 2 is either too high or too low.
The total voltage determined by combining the two phases (240v).
By displaying only one phase’s voltage, you are not getting a full or complete picture of your home’s electrical situation. If there was a large current draw on phase 2, but the voltage being displayed is of phase 1, that draw, and subsequent voltage drop would not be observed.
In the TED5000 interface, it displays the combined total of the two phases (240v). In the iPhone app, it also displays the combined total. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that the Vera plugin can do the same.
I finally received my TED5000 yesterday. I’m having the usual power line communication problems intermittently but I’ll be working on those today. I have a couple of quick questions I’m hoping you good folks can help me with:
I’m having a few issues with the plugin, sometimes it displays the numbers and sometimes it displays “Power: w” and “Voltage: v” I’m assuming that may be to do with my power line issues but if anyone knows differently and has seen this then please let me know.
Which variable is the poll rate? I’m assuming it is the “Interval” under the advanced tab but I haven’t managed to get this working at 5 seconds yet.
Is it possible to load 2 of these plugins up and have them each display a different MTU without blowing anything up? (I have 2, one for the electric company and one for my solar system). I see how I can change the MTU under the advanced tab but it would be great to be able to see what each is using/generating at the same time.
[quote=“MarkC, post:67, topic:167381”]sometimes it displays “Power: w” and “Voltage: v” I’m assuming that may be to do with my power line issues but if anyone knows differently and has seen this then please let me know.[/quote]That’s correct, if you lost communication with TED and Vera tries to poll it, it will return no data. I installed an outlet directly under the panel specifically for the gateway, communications were too flaky even just 10’ away.
Which variable is the poll rate? I'm assuming it is the "Interval" under the advanced tab but I haven't managed to get this working at 5 seconds yet
Correct.
Is it possible to load 2 of these plugins up and have them each display a different MTU without blowing anything up? (I have 2, one for the electric company and one for my solar system). I see how I can change the MTU under the advanced tab but it would be great to be able to see what each is using/generating at the same time.
I don’t see why you couldn’t and manually enter the MTU info?? @anthonyris is using netmetering, http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=5371.msg30681#msg30681
Thanks for the quick reply! I’ll give the 2 plugin’s a try and see what happens.
Question:
“I installed an outlet directly under the panel specifically for the gateway, communications were too flaky even just 10’ away.” - So if the outlet and gateway are under you panel, how do you plug the gateway in to your router? My panel is outside on the opposite side of the house.
@MarkC,
To check the communication between MTU and Gateway, you should get a green blink from the LED on the side of the Gateway every 5 seconds, no skips (with a single MTU). You should then be able to see updates in Footprints, as well as Vera.
[quote=“MarkC, post:69, topic:167381”]Question:
“I installed an outlet directly under the panel specifically for the gateway, communications were too flaky even just 10’ away.” - So if the outlet and gateway are under you panel, how do you plug the gateway in to your router? My panel is outside on the opposite side of the house.[/quote]I have a wired LAN connection next to the outlet.
The perfect scenario would be in with my other equipment, but no way could I get it to work. I even bought the X-10 filters, no go. You could try using a wireless access point?
Thanks for all the help guys. I wired the MTU’s to the same circuit on a house sub panel and now I’m getting good signals on both of them.
I am trying to work out how to read them though. I have a 9.66 Kw solar system on one of them, and the other on incoming wires from the electric company (APS) as I mentioned earlier. I’m surprised that it still appears to show the power I’m using even when my solar system is running full tilt. When I’m covering the electric the house is using with the solar, shouldn’t MTU 1 (electric coming from the electric company) be showing a zero?
Anyone understand how that works?
Also; how do I get the display on the Vera plugin to show net usage instead of MTU 1 or MTU 2, any ideas on that one?
Thanks once again for all your help folks, really appreciate it.
The Vera plugin shows Net Usage fine. In the Footprints software for Ted5000, set MTU1 to Adjusted Load and MTU2 to generation. Now MTU1 will show your NET USAGE.
Then, install and set Woodsby’s plugin to show MTU1 (in the Advanced Settings, under Variables once you get the plugin installed).
Of course, I installed an Elk Relay for my HW Heater past weekend, which is wreaking havoc with my Ted5000 communications now… argh! Why can’t they use Wifi for communication!!!
.//A.
[quote=“MarkC, post:72, topic:167381”]Thanks for all the help guys. I wired the MTU’s to the same circuit on a house sub panel and now I’m getting good signals on both of them.
I am trying to work out how to read them though. I have a 9.66 Kw solar system on one of them, and the other on incoming wires from the electric company (APS) as I mentioned earlier. I’m surprised that it still appears to show the power I’m using even when my solar system is running full tilt. When I’m covering the electric the house is using with the solar, shouldn’t MTU 1 (electric coming from the electric company) be showing a zero?
Anyone understand how that works?
Also; how do I get the display on the Vera plugin to show net usage instead of MTU 1 or MTU 2, any ideas on that one?
Thanks once again for all your help folks, really appreciate it.
Thanks for your help folks. Finally got the setup figured out, if anyone is reading this with the same issues; the red dots on the main panel clamps need to be towards the breakers if you’re doing net metering, away if not and on the solar side. The TED5000 instructions don’t make this very clear (hence a wasted day to figure it out).
I got 2 separate plugins working too each monitoring it’s own MTU. Now all I have to do is figure out how to switch things on and off based on the Kwh’s of each. Guess I need to learn how to code this stuff at some point.
Been trying to figure out Luup code snippets and struggling a bit, wondered if you could help? I’m trying to switch on a thermostat only if my solar system is putting out over 5Kwh. I’m putting this code in the Luup section of a scene but it seems to return a “true” if the watts are over 5000 or not. I’m not a coder these days (was 30 years ago but that’s mostly forgotten now). Can anyone point out where I’m going wrong here please?
local lul_watts=luup.variable_get(“urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:EnergyMetering1”,“Watts”,29)
if( tonumber(lul_watts)>5000 ) then
return true end
AFAIK luup code doesnt support code logic like IF and THEN…[/quote]
Sure it does Henk…If Then Else And Or…all good but no maybe’s!
It is the structure that you are fighting.
I assume you are creating a scene and in the scene you want it to run “Only” if the watts are over 5,000.
The idea of the Luup code is to stop the execution of the scene If a return false is encountered. With that in mind write the code so that If the watts are over 5,000 then return true …else return false…end
I am learning as well…I just wrote a variable watch program to help with the same issues you are dealing with! It’s hard to figure out sometimes.
Thanks Tim. What you said makes sense and I have got along a little further. So here’s another one; how do you say "if less than -5000 (a minus number), I can’t seem to get that one to take.
I think the variable watch thing is one of the big problems with this stuff. I can’t figure out how to get it to print a variable (evan having gone through the Lua commands), there is a “print” command but I can’t tell for the life of me where it’s printing to, I thought it would be the screen.
Very useful plugin. Good job Woodsby!!