I’m looking to embrace the CC EnviR plugin, but I wanted to ask the following, apologies if this has been mentioned in earlier posts I’ve scanned through.
- How far have people had the monitor from the transmitter and it still to work effectively?
My transmitter is on the outside of my brick house, inside a metal meter box. My receiver is inside said house behind six plaster walls, 20 m from the transmitter. Reception is borderline; I miss maybe half the packets.
Thanks Futzle, that makes my 12 meters and 2 brick walls seem possible 
As I already have the rfxtrx433 plugin going into a powered hub, do you have any advice on what I should do when connecting more that one USB serial device to Vera?
No, I don’t use a hub, I use ser2net on a server that runs in my house. But it should Just Work. That’s what I’ve heard.
Hi @Futzle
Does that mean you have your enviR connected to that server and not directly into Vera?
I have seen a number of mentions on Ser2net in this forum and the website itself is sadly not the most explanatory I’ve seen. It sounds like it provides you with the ability to hold (host) all your phsyical serial devices USB, RS232 and then allow them to be reference-able via an IP and Port combo.
Is the above a correct understanding ?
Do you use the plugin created by Guessed ?(http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,2989.msg12655.html#msg12655)
Sorry for all the questions.
That’s right.
I have seen a number of mentions on Ser2net in this forum and the website itself is sadly not the most explanatory I've seen. It sounds like it provides you with the ability to hold (host) all your phsyical serial devices USB, RS232 and then allow them to be reference-able via an IP and Port combo.
Indeed, that’s what ser2net does (and it’s the only thing ser2net does).
Also there are dedicated pieces of hardware that do the same TCP/Serial bridging. Here are a couple: http://www.wiznet.co.kr/Sub_Modules/en/product/Product_Detail.asp?cate1=5&cate2=8&cate3=0&pid=1040 Products
Do you use the plugin created by Guessed ?(http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,2989.msg12655.html#msg12655)
I used to, but then MCV added the ability to connect to a host+port directly into the Luup extensions (luup.io.open()) so I use that instead now in all my plugins.
Hi futzle
I’ve just installed ser2net on a NAS box which already has my current cost EnviR connected to it.
Would you be able to share an example of the ser2net.conf line entry you’re using for yours and what I need to do in Vera and your plugin, just so I can get a better idea on what I need to do?
My USB is ttys0 and the USB/serial cable is on ttyUSB0
Looking online it suggests mine might be
5555:raw:600:/dev/ttyS0:115200 NONE 1STOPBIT 8DATABITS
6666:raw:600:/dev/ttyUSB0:115200 NONE 1STOPBIT 8DATABITS
$ cat /etc/ser2net.conf
49402:raw:0:/dev/tty.usbserial:57600,NONE,1STOPBIT,LOCAL
I picked the port number more or less at random. The server is a Mac and it names the serial device /dev/tty.usbserial. You’ll need to change these accordingly.
And here’s the configuration on the Vera.
Thanks so much - I was just updating my earlier post with my thoughts (missed you by seconds) - thankfully it seems like I was not too far off…
So it would suggest, this could work for me…
49402:raw:0:/dev/ttyUSB0:57600,NONE,1STOPBIT,LOCALA few more questions if you have time…
Do I need an entry for the USB Port itself (ttyS0) ?
How do I open up port 49402 in linux ? - (I’ve drawn a blank on an easy step by step on how to that online)
How do I check and ensure that ser2net is running ? - (I tried ‘ps aux | less’ but could not see it)
- Sorry I’m still very new to linux
Hi
Does the CurrentCost add-on only show current KW usage ?
I have tried to integrate the CurrentCost / Vera appliance 0 device with my other HA system mControl. This is working in that it shows the current / now KW usage.
However there is also Today and Month usage which never gets populated with any data, please see screen shots.
Is this because this data is simply not available to either Vera or mControl from the CurrentCost unit?
I’ve also ordered a CurrentCost IAM plug, plan to use this with my WHS server to monitor its usage. Hoping it will work with my E.ON branded ENVI
Thanks
Also I never got a reply back from Current Cost support about the ghost appliance 9 device. I will try and do the re-pair thing if I can figure it out at some point see if that gets rid of it? As I can still see appliance 9 device in Vera UI.
Thanks
I think that you are mistaken in thinking that ttyS0 has anything to do with the NAS’s USB system. Its name looks more like a regular serial port, probably one that can only be reached by connecting to jumpers on the NAS’s motherboard. (This is very common on embedded hardware.)
How do I open up port 49402 in linux ?
It’s not clear what you mean by “open up”. If you mean, what causes the port to be listened to for incoming connections, then ser2net does that. If you are talking about a firewall on the Linux machine blocking incoming connections, assuming you have one, then you will need to find the firewall configuration and turn off the firewall (seriously, firewalls on Unix machines inside your LAN aren’t any kind of security, just turn them off).
How do I check and ensure that ser2net is running ? - [i](I tried 'ps aux | less' but could not see it) [/i]
That should show ser2net. If it isn’t then ser2net isn’t running. ser2net has some command-line options that will stop it detaching into the background when you run it; these are useful with debugging. You can use ctrl-C to kill a running program in Linux, just as you do in a DOS shell.
Also you can speak to ser2net over the LAN with telnet:
telnet the-nas 49402For the CurrentCost you’ll see the long XML strings every few seconds.
Thanks so much Futzle,
I’ve created a focused post in the General / Genral section to keep this out of your specific EnviR plugin
[quote=“cw-kid, post:172, topic:168489”]Does the CurrentCost add-on only show current KW usage ?
I have tried to integrate the CurrentCost / Vera appliance 0 device with my other HA system mControl. This is working in that it shows the current / now KW usage.
However there is also Today and Month usage which never gets populated with any data, please see screen shots.
Is this because this data is simply not available to either Vera or mControl from the CurrentCost unit?[/quote]
No idea about mControl, sorry. Vera has a background process that computes total kWh from instantaneous watts, which it applies to any power monitoring device (including the CurrentCost plugin). This is used by the built-in energy graphs for Vera. It’s not surprising that this information doesn’t carry across to mControl.
The CurrentCost plugin will show you only the same information that the physical monitor unit shows you. I don’t accumulate values (I’m not in the data logging business).
I suggest you ask the mControl people what it uses to populate the daily and monthly usage fields. It might be possible to produce a plugin that produces these fields for all energy-monitoring devices.
Totally baffled by this ghost appliance id 9. Ive disconnected the transmitter / clamp and removed the batteries from it. However I can still see appliance 9 and live wattage data. I even took the currentcost monitor from my dads house and turned that on at my house and that also shows this appliance 9. I have no idea where this device / data is coming from?
I did check my dads current cost monitor at his place before i brought it here and all his appliances 1-9 were all zero with no data etc.
Very confusing.
EDIT: Plugged my monitor back in and some how by pressing buttons Ive managed to move this ghost appliance from number 9 to number 8. Id like to be able to delete it altogether.
EDIT2: You can do a factory reset on the EnviR, I held down the up and down buttons whist powering on the monitor. This wiped all data and appliances. I then followed the repair procedure with the transmitter and the monitor and appliance 9 still gets added. Maybe I just need a perminent way to delete this device from the Vera addin as I cant get rid of it on the monitor. Thanks
EDIT3: Can confirm that the CurrentCost IAM plug works with the Eon branded EnviR monitor I justed added a plug to appliance1 device.
EDIT4: I now have two ghost devices in Vera. Please see screen shot - Appliances 8 & 9. Device 8 has no data but device 9 does have wattage data. I’d like to be able to remove both from Vera. Looking on the EnviR monitor I can only see a device 9. Device 8 is not present on the EnviR monitor since I reset it, yet the CurrentCost Vera add-in has still detected it somehow.
On the screen shot “Windows Home Server” is my new IAM plug on Appliance ID 1.
EDIT5: The Vera add-in seems to have sorted itself out, under the Configuration tab Appliance ID 8 has now gone. 9 is still present. The hack setting the field to 0 does not permanently remove appliance 9 from the Vera UI. It always comes back
Hi @cw-kid
I’ve just noticed the following on the Current Cost website. Current Cost - Reducing your energy bills so you can live a greener life!
Pairing the EnviR display and transmitter – electronic meter ‘appliance 9’ screenPlace the white OptiSmart transmitter and the display screen in the same room.
Using a used match, pen or similar, push and hold the small button in the hole on the front until the LED on the white OptiSmart transmitter has flashed ONCE, then release.The LED will start to flash faster for about a minute.
At the display, use the UP () or DOWN () buttons to reach the ‘appliance 9’ screen. Now press and hold the DOWN () button until the display’s red LED flashes, then release the button. The display screen 9 will pair to the transmitter. This will show 1000 (default imp/kWh)
If the number is different from the imp/kWh on the electricity meter, use a used match, pen or similar to press and release the small button in the hole on the sensor so that the number changes. (The options are 100, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, 3200, 10000.)
After about a minute, the transmitters LED will revert to flashing once every 6 seconds. The display’s appliance 9 screen will now say ‘DATA’. If the transmitter fast flashing stops before you are ready, do the Electronic Meter pairing again from Step 1.
You would of course know if you had an optismart attached but it was an interesting coincidence as Appliance 9 is recommended for them. (Maybe a neighbour has?)
[quote=“cw-kid, post:177, topic:168489”]Can confirm that the CurrentCost IAM plug works with the Eon branded EnviR monitor I justed added a plug to appliance1 device.
On the screen shot “Windows Home Server” is my new IAM plug on Appliance ID 1.[/quote]
Thanks for this confirmation, I picked up 3 off eBay the other day, so looking to see what my home ‘node central’ set up is costing (I daren’t look 
)
I’d thought of that possibility, which is why I got cw-kid to capture some raw XML for me. That capture rules out Appliance 9 being an Optismart transmitter.
Anyway, I think I’m just going to bite the bullet and let users choose on an appliance-by-appliance basis whether they want a child device or no child device.
Nice idea…
While i have you, can I just check something, I have two devices for the whole house, one is the main/parent device and the other is ‘Appliance 0’, yet both show the same information.
Is that by design? Or is mine doing something differently ?
Yep. The value on the parent device defaults to the same as Appliance 0 but you can set a formula if you have more than one appliance transmitter. I use this to compute net usage from my solar panels.
[quote=“parkerc, post:180, topic:168489”]While i have you, can I just check something, I have two devices for the whole house, one is the main/parent device and the other is ‘Appliance 0’, yet both show the same information.
Is that by design? Or is mine doing something differently ?[/quote]
Thats normal I think. I have a main device and another appliance0 device in Vera both show the same wattage usage.
However in my case I also have this additional appliance9 device which shows completely different usage data and I cant work out what this is? Ive emailed current cost support again and put a post about it on their forum.
The IAM plug was interesting, my WHS server uses 5w when in S3 sleep and around 150w when fired up.