EmonTX3 not broadcasting after startup

Hardware
,
1

Hi, I have successfully set up an emonhub and emonTX3 with 4 CTs previously. Recently I moved to a new house and I am now having trouble receiving signals on raspi3 via RFM69 from emonTX3.

In minicom I can see test/startup signals from emonTX3:

 ? 145 246 254 212 228 82 45 179 242 150 84 50 236 10 243 14 109 203 135 233 204 (-96) 
OK 8 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-29) 
OK 8 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-32) 
OK 8 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-31) 
OK 8 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-29) 
OK 8 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-32) 
OK 8 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-35) 
OK 8 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-35) 
OK 8 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-32) 
OK 8 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-33) 
 ? 189 50 35 (-99) 
OK 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-27) 
OK 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-34) 
 ? 61 11 245 193 194 223 44 223 201 143 31 76 153 141 191 254 241 221 191 210 255 (-98) 
 ? 57 211 113 65 207 71 119 8 181 173 140 106 142 16 29 107 213 150 192 95 123 (-94) 
 ? 189 107 225 43 121 203 232 46 217 59 237 115 203 199 135 156 125 142 134 208 32 (-93) 
 ? 129 55 42 121 78 223 155 223 222 2 183 174 231 220 66 248 140 88 29 229 220 (-94) 
OK 8 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-33) 
 ? 8 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-38) 
OK 8 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-36) 
OK 8 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-35) 
OK 8 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-35) 
OK 8 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-37) 
OK 8 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-36) 
OK 8 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-34) 
OK 8 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-35) 
OK 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-36) 
OK 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-36) 
 ? 1 33 215 85 239 55 249 103 61 157 201 42 54 103 142 235 214 67 142 247 3 (-99) 
 ? 29 41 70 191 68 164 154 222 145 247 201 95 233 45 140 56 9 233 185 136 104 (-98)

and sometimes after restarting emonTX3 I’ll get a few good signals:

 ? 173 38 24 0 98 146 34 230 128 24 47 248 41 12 159 79 165 44 145 239 133 (-98) 
 ? 2 191 214 208 7 38 231 25 193 222 21 244 127 11 203 22 99 242 184 91 235 (-96) 
 ? 132 59 205 30 15 231 99 116 244 145 248 246 196 7 201 215 189 52 57 1 57 (-97) 
OK 8 7 0 253 255 249 254 140 254 100 48 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 0 0 0 0 (-29) 
 ? 186 156 207 180 124 239 95 167 179 107 180 101 136 115 223 178 170 244 32 68 148 (-103) 
OK 8 2 0 0 0 247 254 141 254 87 48 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 0 0 0 0 (-28) 
 ? 139 83 173 129 13 28 109 146 42 32 18 121 33 133 255 149 174 215 77 216 7 (-100) 
 ? 63 253 254 109 23 190 212 230 230 225 224 126 106 14 103 54 223 255 251 99 196 (-98) 
OK 8 0 0 0 0 245 254 140 254 96 48 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 0 0 0 0 (-30) 
 ? 37 239 40 191 222 31 30 158 79 98 104 80 218 229 147 160 44 27 36 140 39 (-99) 
 ? 162 219 51 209 177 228 175 233 28 14 160 161 4 186 244 248 150 183 119 128 18 (-95) 
 ? 144 189 100 193 195 130 183 151 41 250 165 162 50 179 66 (-97) 
 ? 51 138 86 8 187 83 3 204 211 136 49 195 167 72 244 62 139 201 240 60 56 (-98) 
OK 8 0 0 0 0 246 254 141 254 89 48 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 0 0 0 0 (-30) 
 ? 63 65 222 246 16 159 226 31 213 113 49 227 202 48 249 77 227 39 128 179 252 (-100) 
 ? 159 236 139 68 167 152 51 211 151 235 185 154 114 188 231 97 124 51 196 127 81 (-98) 
 ? 129 190 170 247 103 24 220 77 194 49 141 246 211 216 45 129 34 214 112 32 208 (-99) 
OK 8 0 0 0 0 250 254 141 254 88 48 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 184 11 0 0 0 0 (-29)

but shortly thereafter no other ‘OK’ signals are received and the red led on emonTX3 is solid on (not flashing every 10s as it should).

To (attempt to) remedy the problem I have updated my raspbian os and the emonTX3 firmware:

Found serial programmer on /dev/ttyUSB0
avrdude  -uV -c arduino -p ATMEGA328P -P/dev/ttyUSB0 -b 115200 -U flash:w:latest/openenergymonitor-emontx3.hex:i

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f
avrdude: NOTE: "flash" memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed
         To disable this feature, specify the -D option.
avrdude: erasing chip
avrdude: reading input file "latest/openenergymonitor-emontx3.hex"
avrdude: writing flash (17380 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 2.43s

avrdude: 17380 bytes of flash written

avrdude done.  Thank you.

Checking for received RF...
OK 8 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (-27) 

PASS!...RF RECEIVED

Done emonTx upload. Press Enter to return to menu or (s) to view serial output>

I have restarted the emonTX a dozen times (how do you know you’re insane?) with the same result.

I am planning on grabbing the incoming emonTx3 signals to the raspi3 in order to perform some data crunching in python. So my current raspi3 excludes all of the emonhub scripts - but this shouldn’t affect signals in minicom, right?

2

The solid on LED would normally indicate that the RFM module is not initialising. Are you saying it comes on and stays on in operation, without a reset of any sort happening? Looking at the code, I can’t see how that is possible, so I think it has reset (even if you didn’t notice), and is failing between sending the test output (10, 9, 8, …) and turning the LED off, i.e. while waiting for a configuration command.

I suggest that your emonTx has possibly been damaged in the move. Have you checked for signs of physical damage to the p.c.b?

Or maybe in the case where the LED comes in in operation, it’s reset for some reason, and it isn’t sending the test output? - If so, I’d suspect soldering around the RF module and that would be the first place to look.

3

Thanks Robert. I believe that the emonTX is booting normally: after reset or plugging back in I see solid LED ~ 10s, 10 flashes, then (sometimes) it flashes/broadcasts every 10s, before going solid on.

The emonTX appears to work for a few broadcasts (the 5 intermiitent OK signals posted above) so I don’t think there is a loose solder/damage. Isn’t the test output the 10 flashes that correspond to the countdown (posted above)? It appears to complete the test output with every restart.

What else should I look for?

Nick

4

It should do that.

If you look at the source code for the sketch:
The LED is turned on early in the start-up. The main things it does are writes part of the sign-on message to the serial port, reads the configuration data from EEPROM, delays 10 s, initialises the radio, checks the inputs (including any configuration data you’ve typed), then turns the LED off. After that, if it has the ac input, it flashes the LED 10 times (200 ms every 500 ms). Then it sets up the temperature sensors (if you have them), prints more calibration and status messages, and finishes the setup part.
Then it enters the main 10 s loop. It reads the inputs, does the calculations, and only then flashes the LED for 200 ms before transmitting the data.

But there is nothing, apart from a 200 ms delay, between turning the LED on and off to generate the flash. So I don’t believe it is sticking there. As I wrote above, I believe it is in fact resetting and restarting, as that’s the only way that I can think of for the LED to remain on.

Have you got an intermittent power supply that’s causing a brown-out? (Load Centre, socket, as everything worked in your old house?).

5

Thanks Robert. Good catch! It was an intermittent power supply (shoddy garage work).