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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

I made my own DIY Wattson EasyFit Y Cable

After taking an original one appart, I tried to make my own DIY Easyfit Y Cable

I went to a supermarket on my way back from work, and found in the HiFi/Video/Computer cables section, this simple audio headphones coupler for 6 EUR



Back home, after diner, I took a pair of pliers and cut the cable in the middle, cut off 1cm of sheaf and split the wires


Connecting the red and white of the left and right (or opposite) together and the grounds together


Connecting the female sides ground cables together



Some solder is applied to the endings


and the wires are all soldered now


and the Y cable is almost ready for a first test


a little insulating tape, and it is plugged into the Wattson Transmitter: Like yesterday with the original Easyfit, it adds up the two CTs current - BTW the two CTs/sensors are inverted here -


Then plugging it into the Transmitter input 1, 2 or 3, it displayed 37.8kW (!!), and I realized something was wrong with my wiring ...



Measuring the jack contacts, I saw that the middle one should not be connected to anything,






So I removed the tape, unsoldered the wires - first time I used my solder sucker/pump, very handy - and identified the color of the middle contact: Red
I then simply cut off all the Red wires, they will not be used at ll, and re-soldered the White ones like before, re-taped,


and re-tested: Fine !
Here all 3 CTs/sensors current, 2 on Y cable, one alone, add up : 3 x 30W = 90W


Here: 2 CTs/sensors connected in Series via the Y cable: Their current readings add up


I then now have a low cost solution to be able to Double the Current Reading on a line, and this is exactly what I need to be able to make Wattson work for USA & Canada Split Phase Electric System.


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