💬 Power Meter Pulse Sensor

[dakipro]

One (probably stupid) question about the batter powered option: Since sensor cannot keep track of real time power usage as it sleeps most of the time, would it be possible to do the math on the controller side and get "5min delay real time power usage"?
By dividing number of pulses since last transmission, is that basically what this sensor is doing when not being powered by batteries?

I could experiment with 2min delay f.eks, and see how batteries hold. If dht22 temp sensors works over a year with 5min transmission time, i hope 2min delay in pulse meter can hold 6mnt or something?
Another thing is that the electrical box is all metal, and there is a lot of electricity around the sensor so radio could struggle (I guess a repeater would definitively help)

[gohan]

Is it only me that is getting a compile error?

Error: call of overloaded 'set(volatile long unsigned int&)' is ambiguous
send(wattMsg.set(watt)); \ Send watt value to gw

error: call of overloaded 'set(volatile long unsigned int&)' is ambiguous
send(pcMsg.set(pulseCount)); \ Send pulse count value to gw

followed by all the possible candidates of .set arguments

[mfalkvidd]

@gohan I get the same, both for 2.1.1 and 2.2.0-beta. Strange. I thought there were Jenkins tests that endured the examples compiled.

[mfalkvidd]

Replacing all

unsigned long

with

uint32_t

makes the sketch compile fine, but I don't know if that is the correct solution.

[mfalkvidd]

I created an issue for this, https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/910

[hek]

The problem with "unsigned long" is that it can have different size based on platform it's compiled on.

Like @mfalkvidd says, use int32_t, uint32_t, int16_t and uint16_t which has a fixed width.

[gohan]

I was suspecting something like that, but I was not sure if changing variable type would affect something else

[gohan]

Ok, I got it working. On wemos it doesn't count pulses though. On domoticz does it have to configured as the value computed or from device? I'm asking because if you disconnect the sensor, on domoticz I keep seeing the same power reading

[gohan]

BTW, is there a way to have the pulse meter running on gateway? I got stuck because at startup it asks the controller the last count value and since the controller is not yet connected it just doesn't work.

[arifuleee]

@gohan for the first time use only the watt value....that time oldcounts will not bother.....

[gohan]

What do you mean? And how do I keep the count of the pulses if I don't get it from controller?

[gohan]

@hek is it me or the WATT readings are never sent? What could it be? Only V_VAR1 and V_KWH are sent.

[rejoe2]

@gohan How about

#define MY_TRANSPORT_WAIT_READY_MS 2000

This will start up your code so you won't miss any pulses until controller is ready.
You may ask for the last known Value in presentation(), then it will be fetched as soon as the controller is really there after startup. This could/should be combined with a bool pcReceived, so you may decide to either add the value received from controller to the counts the node meassured in between or just use the received value (starting from second time value is received from controller).

[gohan]

That actually is not that critical, as I am going to move to MQTT and that should be working anyway. Right now it is working on a UNO with NRF24, but my biggest issue is the WATT reading that it is missing

[gohan]

Any more suggestions on the Watt issue?

[hek]

Did you by any chance change SLEEP_MODE to true?

[gohan]

No, I get every pulse reported as soon as it is detected.

[gohan]

I think I found a problem: the WATT calculation is returning values over 172000 watts and since I put 10000 as the max value, it was not sending anything. I double checked my energy meter and indeed it is 1000 pulses per KWH and this is what I set in sketch

[gohan]

@hek I said I found the problem, I didn't say I know how to solve it 😅

[gohan]

Here is the log I get from node

7230 TSF:MSG:READ,0-0-250,s=1,c=2,t=24,pt=0,l=7,sg=0:1682675
rece

Received last pulse count from gw:1682675

11817 TSF:MSG:SEND,250-250-0-0,s=1,c=1,t=17,pt=5,l=4,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:528
Watt:528

Watt:197065

21820 TSF:MSG:SEND,250-250-0-0,s=1,c=1,t=24,pt=5,l=4,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:1682677
21913 TSF:MSG:SEND,250-250-0-0,s=1,c=1,t=18,pt=7,l=5,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:1682.6770
Watt:196807

36824 TSF:MSG:SEND,250-250-0-0,s=1,c=1,t=24,pt=5,l=4,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:1682679
36917 TSF:MSG:SEND,250-250-0-0,s=1,c=1,t=18,pt=7,l=5,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:1682.6790
Watt:197368

51827 TSF:MSG:SEND,250-250-0-0,s=1,c=1,t=24,pt=5,l=4,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:1682681
51920 TSF:MSG:SEND,250-250-0-0,s=1,c=1,t=18,pt=7,l=5,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:1682.6810
Watt:196850

Am I the only one using this sketch?