ESPEasy P1 Smart meter dead

[DomoticaRob]

I do have a ISKRA AM550 - TD2.01 SMR 5.0 3x400V smart meter connected via a BC547 to a ESP8266 board with ESP_Easy_mega-20181112_normal_ESP8266_4096.bin on board and it works.
I have my measurements in Domoticz. That's fine.

But a couple of times per day the ESP8266 hangs. Then he is not vissible anymore in my Experiabox V10. The solution: power down and up the ESP8266 and he is vissible again in my router and also in Putty.
In Domoticz I have to do: Settings > Hardware > P1 Slimme Meter > switch to 'not active', submit, switch to 'active', submit and we are back in business. Till next time the ESP8266 hangs.

First I used a ESP8266 ESP-01 board.
Second I use a ESP8266 LoLin nodeMCU V3.0 board.
I also changed the power supply.

Still every day dead moments at different times.

What is the solution?

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[grovkillen]

Possibly the WiFi is loosing the unit and the ESP is caught in limbo. Thus the reboot helps.

What is your Router/AP brand etc?

[DomoticaRob]

Experia Box V10 KPN the Netherlands.

[DomoticaRob]

It can be the problem, the WiFi signal on that side of the house is pretty poor.

Is it an idea to make a routine in the ESPEasy firmware that checks the Wifi signal/connection almost continiusly and only operate when the signal is strong enough and not getting dead?

[grovkillen]

I would suggest you beef up the WiFi. Other solutions are prune to cause problems still since the limbo state is what we don't want the unit to get to.

[TD-er]

What GPIO pins are you using?
See also this page: https://espeasy.readthedocs.io/en/lates ... light=gpio

If the RX pin is low, then it might fail to boot.
And it may crash + reboot due to HW watchdog when the reception is poor.

[DomoticaRob]

In advice I use RX as input port.

I will be out for two days, so Sunday I will come back on it, and in between I will read the docs.

Thanks.

[TD-er]

I am also working on updating the serial interface layer, so I will also think about issues like these when working on that part of the code.

[DomoticaRob]

I have enlarged the cable between the Smart Meter and the BC547 NPN transistor to 10 meters. It seems that I get a good signal of the Smart Meter.
Because of this enlargement the ESP8266 is become more closely to my router. In a day I will know if this is the solution.

I use the RX port of the ESP8266 board because that was adviced to me on this forum.
In the ESPEasy interface I have chosen the 'Communication - P1 Wifi Gateway' as device and there you CANNOT declare a port to it.

Hello TD-er,

How do we know if and when you have updated the serial interface layer?

[grovkillen]

I have enlarged the cable between the Smart Meter and the BC547 NPN transistor to 10 meters. It seems that I get a good signal of the Smart Meter.
Because of this enlargement the ESP8266 is become more closely to my router. In a day I will know if this is the solution.

I use the RX port of the ESP8266 board because that was adviced to me on this forum.
In the ESPEasy interface I have chosen the 'Communication - P1 Wifi Gateway' as device and there you CANNOT declare a port to it.

Hello TD-er,

How do we know if and when you have updated the serial interface layer?

Please give us the holidays and the serial will be updated.

[DomoticaRob]

Of course, there is no rush.

Are you talking about the summer holidays, or the Christmas holidays?
(hahaha).

Best wishes for 2019.

[DomoticaRob]

My ESP8266 module is a little bit closer to the router, that gives a better situation. But still once a day I have a dead connection.
I do understand that if the RX pin of the ESP8266 is low at boot time the ESP8266 module might fail to boot. Is it an idea to use a GPIO pin of the ESP8266 to control this situation?

• For example as an enable signal to an ‘AND port’. The other input of the ‘AND port’ can be the output of the NPN transistor that is the passage/invertor for the Smart Meter signal.

• Another possibility is that the GPIO output port gives the enable signal to the Smart Meter.

In the script must come something to activate the GPIO output port as soon as the ESP8266 is ready to be the gateway. That is as soon as the ESP8266 has Wi-Fi connection.

If you need a volunteer to test the new situation, I’m willing to do that.

Succes,

Rob

[DomoticaRob]

Hello Grovkillen,

Does it help if I say that I have enlarged the cable between the smart meter and the ESP8266 / ESPEasy module to 30 meters. Now the module is placed half a meter from my router. Since then, I have no problems any more. That means that if there is some noise in the WiFi the ESPEasy plugin has problems te restart.
Maybe this gives a direction to where you have to change the code.

Succes,

Rob

[grovkillen]

All right, thanks for that info.

[PA3VOS]

Hello DomoticaRob,

Could please heb me out. I've tried many ways to get my P1 slimme meter running. As I read your post it looks like you have it running well. I am only looking for the bin file you mentioned in your post. I can't get it done to make my own. the only thing that needs to be changed are Wifi settings and static IP. I would be very greatfull if you can PM me a modified .bin file so I can upgrade my ESP8266 ESP12 myself as I was able to flash it with Tasmota firmware. thanks in advance

[DomoticaRob]

Hello PA3VOS,

I have ESPEasy running on my ESP8266 ESP12. In ESPEasy you can define a Communication - P1 Wifi Gateway.
So Flash ESPEasy on your ESP8266 module.

If it's not going to work for you I will find out wich tutorial I used to make it work.

I assume you're a Dutch guy (PA3VOS), my father was PA3ARS. Then we can communicate in Dutch in a PM.

Suc6,

Rob

[PA3VOS]

Hallo Rob,

graag een PM. Dan kan kan ik je de status uitleggen en inderdaad in ben ook zendamateur

groeten uit Enschede,
Fokko

[PA3VOS]

Hello Rob,

meanwhile I have been able to flash the ESP8266 with the proper firmware. after adding the device in Domoticz several devices were shown in the setup window including the desired data. But strange enough only "Usage L1" and "Gas" with values that are being updated. However when I click the log button in the Utility nothing happens and I don see graphs.
Another thing is that I am missing the L2, Amp and Kwh high and low.
What am I doing wrong?

[PA3VOS]

[DomoticaRob]

Hello Fokko,

I did sent you a PM. Let me know if you received it or not.


Enjoy, have fun,

Rob

[the cosmic gate]

I'am having exact the same problem as the topic starter.
I know for sure that's ( in my case) not a WiFi issue.
I must reset the Wemos every day ( sometimes i need to do this a few times a day).
The Wemos is not accessible after this "crash" when i hit the reset button on it, it runs fine for a few ...hours

[DomoticaRob]

I enlarged the cable between the Smart Meter and my ESP8266 module for 30 meters.
Now my ESP8266 module stand at a distance of 50 centimeters of my router.
That was the solution. It works now for a few month without problems.

Ofcourse, it's not how it should be. But it is what it is.

[epost]

After many tests I use Release 2.0 - 20180322 without any problems

[DomoticaRob]

I do use:

ESP_Easy_mega-20181112_normal_ESP8266_4096.bin

[the cosmic gate]

I do use:

ESP_Easy_mega-20181112_normal_ESP8266_4096.bin

Flashed this, but still after a few days the WeMos isn't accessible and have to reboot this manualy.
I also changed this WeMos to oneother so i know for "sure" that the WeMos itself isn't the problem

[DomoticaRob]

Since I placed the ESP8266 module just in 1 meter of the router it works fine for me.

Very occasionally it 'hangs'. Then it is enough for me to go in Domoticz to Settings, Hardware, and make the P1 inactive and after that I make the P1 active and it works again. So, I don't need to restart the ESP8266 module.

In the early days when the ESP8266 module was further away from the router I had to restart the ESP8266 module and in Domoticz I had to make the P1 inactive and active, and then it worked again. This happened every day.

So, I have a workable solution. It's not how it should be, but it's fine for me.

[the cosmic gate]

The Wemos is about 3 meters from the nearest Access point so that shouldn't be the problem.
I also tried to do the domoticz "trick". But the whole Wemos webinterface isn't accessible , so had to do push the reset button.

Running : mega-20181112

[DomoticaRob]

Does that means that it also is not possible to connect with Putty?

[the cosmic gate]

Does that means that it also is not possible to connect with Putty?

Yep , un-pingable and not accessible on putty

[DomoticaRob]

On the 23 of December 2018 "grovkillen" tipt us that they would update the serial.


viewtopic.php?p=36365#p34044



Does somebody knows what the status is of that?

[grovkillen]

Sorry for misleading you. We have updated how the serial is handled but not the way you wanted. I have returned to 100% working, and TD-er is doing projects to get money. We have very little money/time at the moment. That being said, thank you 105 Patreons who's paying average $3 each month.

[DomoticaRob]

Hello Grovkillen,

That's ok with me.

For now it's working for 99% in my situation.

Maybe one day I will make time to look into it. If I find a good solution I will metion it on this board.

Succes with your job.