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

2 More Wattson arrive from the UK ... Again ??!!

Sorry, I got 2 Wattson from UK again ... It must be a kind of disease :-)

Actually there should have been another one coming at the beginning of september and it looks like it has been "lost" in transit - great, 70 EUR wasted ...- 

These ones were not that expensive, I got them in the last seconds of their auction each time ...

1st Wattson

Old screw version Transmitter, but with a 9V DC Input - no lid, where did it go ? -

This one must have been in a kitchen for years because it was kind sticky ... I had to clean it up myself with alcohol ... I would never ship something like this - incredible - 

Now it is clean and you can not tell the difference 

Pairing it with the Transmitter

2nd Wattson

Got it cheap too, but in much better condition: Bow, manuals, everything is CLEAN !

Old version of the Transmitter, Red antenna, screws, no DC 9V input

Everything has been re-boxed like new, that's more like I would do

After finding 2 UK to EU power adapters, we are ready to go

The 2 simple actions to pair a new - or used actually - Wattson unit: Depress the Transmitter button for few seconds until the red LED is solid, ...

... then you have 60s to go to the Wattson unit(s) and depress its pushbutton too, or insert a pin in the middle top hole and depress, until it says "PAIRING SUCCESSFULL"

Now that they are paired with the Transmitter, they display Usage or Used Power

This one in the back, the dirty one, had a really flat battery pack, it would not display anything until it was charged - strange ?? -

DIY Kyoto Ltd

There it is, displaying  the Usage

After plugging them in my Mac, and launching Holmes2, I enabled their Generated Power logging, so now they can display GENERATED POWER and NET POWER too;

Back view with the COLORS and NUMBERS mode: These are old units because they glow orange when the Net Usage is Negative, meaning Generation > Usage 

After, I brought down the Silver one and arranged them like this for few days: 

LEFT : Usage

RIGHT : Generation (= Solar + ESS)

TOP : Net Usage (Usage - Generation) 

New Wattson Special Edition - Set up with New Holmes2 Software

Last night I finally connected this New Special Edition Wattson to the New Holmes2 software from Energeno; Last time I posted something about Wattson, Mark Elliott reminded me of this recent update, and since I do not use it anymore, I downloaded it from their website

It has been completely revamped and looks a lot like the Wattson Anywhere Portal I beta tested since last year

I used my netbook for that, the Mac being used by someone else at home


First things first: Connect the Wattson unit to the PC with a USB cable




Here is the front page of the new Holmes2



At the bottom left, the 3 interesting values, updated in real time - I like that - : Usage, Generation, Net Usage  - measured, measured, calculated -



When going to the Account tab, the Wattson unit is listed



and clicking Wattson Settings, I get a popup to change all this - see below - and what I want to tchange here is the ability to log Generated Power - from my solar system and ESS that is - which is always unchecked by default

Done: it is checked for Generation / Production

Now the new things ... : A lot more languages and currencies are now available, and it looks like Wattson is going to be more international than before :-)

I can choose USD, Yen,  Pesos, etc

Also the Mains Voltage can be changed here (!) , and for me it is by default 240V (UK original setting)

I tried to set the US Voltage of 110V 

and then Dollars

Finally applied the settings and the GENERATED POWER mode shows up when I tilt Wattson

Tilting again, NET USAGE shows up, all I wanted here

First time I see USD currency on a Wattson :-), cool 

Orange LED lighting for Generation : This is an old version ...

I then unplugged it from the USB cable

and it dumped (oops)

Let's restart, BTW this is the new icon 

and the loading page I missed the first time, whith updated company name Energeno - instead of DiyKyoto -

Welcome message

My ESS is working well ... NET USAGE = - 2W

Another look at the 3 figures at the bottom left

Now trying Yen currency

Russian Roupy

Pesos

Danish Krone 

Then back to EUR, where I will leave it even if I do not use the Currency Display Mode

Cooking is in progress, and the ESS is doing its job

For now I leave it here on top of the ESS, with the others