Resetting the Average Usage on a Wattson Energy Monitor

After my experimenting with a Wattson to make it work for US & Canada split phase consumer units, and the DIY Easyfit Y Cable, I had the Usage go up to 37.8kW (!!) and I guess this is the reason why this Wattson was always glowing Blue, never Purple, neither Red - Green of course was working when Negative -

In my search for console codes to change the Voltage setting using the Wattson Settings application, I found this note from Energeno explaining how to change the the Average Usage on a Wattson unit:

Based on my  daily usage displayed on Wattson Anywhere portal the day before, 

I reset it to an average usage of 1000W, using the command nowA00250 and the Wattson immediatly answered back with A00250, meaning it is now registered

Right after that, it was glowing purple, like the other one which is plugged into my DIY ESS :-)

    

Testing Wattson Transmitter to make it work for the US & Canada SplitPhase Consumer Units - Part 3

Last night, at 03:30AM, I finally made a Wattson unit work on a simulated US Split Phase Electricset up

This Wattson unit displays the our home usage, divided by 2 more or ess - see real usage below at 715W - : It have managed to change the Voltage Setting - to 110V - so that it thinks it is reading power usage in the US


Here I tried 115V


This is how you can change it, using the New Holmes2 Software from Energeno


Real Usage, displayed on another Wattson, with unchanged Voltage Setting

It looks easy, but it was not ...

I started after diner and, after making my own Y cable, I then picked one Wattson unit to try and change its Voltage Setting: I bought few units from the UK in the last months, some old, some more recent, and every time I had to use Holmes and Holmes2 when I learned it came out - Thanks to Mark Elliott at Energeno via Twitter - checking this 'Enable Generated Logging', or 'Activate Generation Mode', depending on the software version

On the new version of Holmes2 I noticed that many more Settings were now available, like language - new ones -, currencies - new ones too, including USD -, and Voltage : This last one is by Default set to 230V - from the UK mains standard voltage I guess - and this is what the Wattson display unit uses to determine the Usage in Watts : It take the Amps it receives from the Transmitter and multiplies them by this set - fixed - Voltage to give Usage in Watts - not perfectly accurate, because Voltage goes up and down too depending on the loads, by good enough -

But, I played with this voltage and realized the new set value would never be saved ....

And since my whole experience here, is a bit - a lot - based on this, I will have to make the Wattson hold it this time ...
So I thought, maybe it is a Wattson firmware version issue: this new settings are made possible to new units coming to the market, and this would make sense !

I took an old unit, plugged it into my Mac and launched to Wattson Loader program, which I discovered needed a firmware file ... I looked for it online, and after forums, finally found it as an attachement onto DIY Kyoto/Energeno Knwoledge base - great BTW -

I was happy to find it, and saw also that 2 of my older Wattson units would never be able to be flashed, because they do not have this Clock function, meaning they are from an older generation

So I used a more recent Wattson, that glows Green when Net Usage is negative - not Orange -, for the first time, I flashed a Wattson unit with a new Firmware

After that, weird messages and moving dashes were displayed, until I reset the unit using a pin in the top center hole, and started saying 'Hello Wattson'

This new firmware changes many things, especially when using the top central pushbutton, the display modes, there is New Settings Menu right on the Wattson unit, without plugging into a computer, etc ...

Now I used the Holmes2 to try and change this Voltage Setting, and the software was freezing after few seconds of use; I tried numerous times, quitting, killing it, restarting the Mac, which drove me crazy

After a while, I started to use another software called Wattson Settings, which allows to change Settings but not this Voltage .... Jeeesss

But it has a console tap whch is very cool because you can see the Serial Commands sent to Wattson, and received from it: Here I tried to find the Voltage Setting Commands ... => Good Luck :-) 

And I finally found, in Energenno/DIY Kyoto Knwoledge base - again -, a procedure to Erase a Wattson unit's Memory - which holds 28 days of logs - via this Wattson Settings console; This did it for me: it erased the memory, and then when I used the Holmes2 again, no more freezing !! -Tha's what I thought, the software got stuck trying to retrieve logs from the memory and the change of firmware in between probably messed it up ...

I then could change this Voltage Setting, save it and the Wattson unit would reboot - very quickly - and display the Watts based on this new Voltage value ! Wow, it works :-)

So it should be fine now for Split Phase Electricity Consumer Units in USA and Canada !



and I updated my notes on this

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.

See Energeno documentation and diagram on this smart Y cable called Easifit

Wattson EasyFit Y Cable

I wanted to see how my Easyfit Y Cable was made, so I unscrewed the jack plugs and took pictures

Reminder: this device is used to measure Generation if you do not have a Henley Block or Junction box 

See Energeno documentation and diagram on this smart Y cable called Easifit

Solar Install continues ....

Last saturday, my contractor came to continue the Solar install started tuesday morning

Close up on the DC Breaker : 600V 20A

Wattson with EasyFit configuration photographed before unplugging the transmitter

and Easy Fit fitted back in the solar sub panel ( a bigger one here) on the Line wire going back the the main consumer panel

More wiring

Closer look at the solar sub panel and Wattson


Wattson Transmitter is temporarily plugged in and placed here

My consumer unit: See the Wattson Usage sensor is located on the Main Line wire, providing power to the whole apartment; Because the solar sub panel is wired after this, I need to use Easy Fit Y-cable

After going back on the roff the link all the Uni-Solar PVLs together as one string, DC voltage of this big string was then around 360V and the sun was not even shining because of the big white clouds

Now, after closing the SMA Sunny Boy cover panel and wiring it to earth, after switching on the DC and AC breakers, the inverter 3 LEDs blinked for one second, and then nothing ... No display, no LEDs, nothing was on ... :-( and after trying everything my contractor quickly determined that there was probably a problem with this unit ... No Luck


As my contractor advised, on sunday, in the morning sun, I measured again the DC voltage and it was showing 390V; I then tried to start the inverter gain, but still nothing ...

I also read the Sunny Boy 3000 documentation trying to find an explanation in the minimum DC voltage required and in the troubleshooting section

Later on, Mark Elliott from Energeno, Wattson maker, retweeted this pic of Wattson sensors install, with a little comment