EmonTx5 Inputs Mirrored

Hey,

Pretty stumped by this one.

On only one of my 12 channel EmonTx5’s I have 3 inputs that are always the same no matter the number of CTs attached to them. The rest of the inputs, I believe act correctly.

For clarity and to jump ahead, here are a set of images (apologies CT 1-6 are populated on the front row, so were looking at the movement of CT’s behind the front row) :

  1. EmonTx5 CT sockets 10, 11, and 12 have no CT clamps attached. Youll see on the inputs page all read as zero - expected.

  1. EmonTx now has a CT clamp attached to CT socket 10. Sockets 11 and 12 are empty. Youll see all 3 CTs, 10, 11 and 12 all now read the same value (this is low draw kitchen sockets so about what id expect).

  1. CT socket 11 is now connected to a CT clamp, socket 10 and 12 are empty. Again inputs 10, 11 and 12 are all the same. This time much higher draw, also expected.

  1. Lastly socket 12, again nothing in sockets 10 and 11. And again all inputs showing the same value.

I appreciate I’m fairly new to setting up, so could be a mistake on my end but I’ve checked the EmonHub config (below) and cant see anything there:

[nodes]
    [[28]]
        nodename = EmonTx4DB_rf1_28
        [[[rx]]]
            names = MSG, Vrms1, Vrms2, Vrms3, P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, pulse, Analog
            datacodes = L, h, h, h, h, h, h, h, h, h, l, l, l, l, l, l, L, H
            scales = 1.0, 0.01, 0.01, 0.01, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0
            units = n, V, V, V, W, W, W, W, W, W, Wh, Wh, Wh, Wh, Wh, Wh, p, n
    [[29]]
        nodename = EmonTx4DB_rf2_29
        [[[rx]]]
            names = MSG, Vrms2, Vrms3, P7, P8, P9, P10, P11, P12, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11, E12, digPulse, anaPulse
            datacodes = L, h, h, h, h, h, h, h, h, l, l, l, l, l, l, L, L
            scales = 1.0, 0.01, 0.01, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0
            units = n, V, V, W, W, W, W, W, W, Wh, Wh, Wh, Wh, Wh, Wh, p, p

And as some of you may already know now, I have 3 EmonTx’s and neither of the others seem to have this issue.

Anything jump out to anyone?

No - unfortunately.
Do you have a spare 3.5 mm plug - mono or stereo, if so, can you make up a short circuit from tip to sleeve and plug that into CT10, CT11 & CT12 in turn, with the other two having the CT plugged in and ideally a discernibly different load on each of those circuits.

I don’t, unfortunately, but I can confirm that with all 3 plugged in at the same time they seem to just report the highest value.

Im assuming this is more of a hardware issue then.

Does sound like a hardware problem, especially given that the other two are working fine. Depending on how deep you want to go, you could try swapping the expander board between units and see if the issue moves with the expander - if so, the problem is likely with the expander otherwise it’s with the main board. Although it is strange that it is following the maximum value.

This is what I was thinking, when I suggested grounding each input in turn.

Does it affect all 6 inputs, and you’ve only noticed something on 3 of them?

As @awjlogan says, how much investigation are you prepared to do, and what test gear do you have? You might spot a manufacturing fault on either the main board or the expander, or it might be too subtle to see without a powerful lens. You can get circuit diagrams and p.c.b. layouts from the Docs section.
If you’re at all worried, email The Shop and refer to this thread.

Definately doesnt effect all 6, you can see the others fluctuating correctly in the images above.

Yeah to be honest, spent near a grand on all the setup so whilst I have a fair few of my own built boards around the house I’m not going to risk the warranty touching these - also shouldn’t really have to. Ive reached out to the shop thanks and referred to this post.

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