# I am getting a 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte - unexpected end of data error **URL:** \ **Category:** emonHub\ **Created:** [26 July 2020 07:39 UTC](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/i-am-getting-a-utf-8-codec-cant-decode-byte-unexpected-end-of-data-error/14893 "2020-07-26T07:39:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thomas\_Adeyinka](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/user_avatar/community.openenergymonitor.org/thomas_adeyinka/32/14796_2.png) [@Thomas\_Adeyinka](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/u/Thomas_Adeyinka)\ **Post date:** [26 July 2020 07:39 UTC](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/i-am-getting-a-utf-8-codec-cant-decode-byte-unexpected-end-of-data-error/14893/1 "2020-07-26T07:39:57Z")
Hi guys restarted my emonpi (after over 3 months uptime) and noticed that one of my interfacer was throwing an error. For context I am using a vedirect to usb interface for emonhub (written for the victron Battery Monitor (BMV 700) The exact error I am getting from emonhun.log is `2020-07-26 03:59:03,559 ERROR VEDirectBMV 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xda in position 0: unexpected end of data` My the emonhun interfacer and node configurations are ``` [[VEDirectBMV]] Type = EmonHubVEDirectInterfacer [[[init_settings]]] com_port = /dev/BMV0 com_baud = 19200 toextract = SOC,CE,TTG,V,I,Relay,Alarm,H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6,H7,H8,H9,H10,H11,H12,H17,H18,P,AR poll_interval = 10 [[[runtimesettings]]] nodeoffset = 21 #make sure this matches with nodename below pubchannels = ToEmonCMS, subchannels = ToBMV, basetopic = emonhub/ [[21]] nodename = emonDC # firmware =V1_6_emonTxV3_4_DiscreteSampling # hardware = emonTx_(NodeID_DIP_Switch1:ON) [[[rx]]] names = SOC,CE,TTG,V,I,Relay,Alarm,H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6,H7,H8,H9,H10,H11,H12,H17,H18,P,AR datacode = 0 scales = 0.1,1,1,0.001,1,1,1,0.001,1,0.001,1,1,0.001,0.001,0.001,1,1,1,0.001,0.001,1,1 units =p,Ah,s,V,A,S,S ``` when I run a screen to interface with the victron Bmv device directly, I get the following out put from the device (this is the output from the victron monitor directly: PID 0x203 V 25159 I -9938 P -250 CE -23060 SOC 959 TTG 997 Alarm OFF Relay ON AR 0 BMV 700 FW 0310 Checksum z H1 -233715 H2 -23531 H3 -105550 H4 74 H5 0 H6 -74944579 H7 12799 H8 32326 H9 50658 H10 930 H11 437 H12 1 H17 186278 H18 220913 Checksum can anyone help what could be the issue? everyone worked fine before the restart and I have been using this configuration since December last year. It is what powers this dashboard [Emoncms - dashboard view](http://energy.bobby.com.ng/dashboard/view?id=14) I am using the EmonSD17Oct2019 image of emonpi on a rasberrypi 3B+ ---
**Author:** ![pb66](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/user_avatar/community.openenergymonitor.org/pb66/32/27_2.png) [@pb66](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/u/pb66)\ **Post date:** [26 July 2020 09:48 UTC](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/i-am-getting-a-utf-8-codec-cant-decode-byte-unexpected-end-of-data-error/14893/2 "2020-07-26T09:48:17Z")
While I’m afraid I cannot offer any useful help in resolving your issue, this does look related to some recent discussions around recent changes to OEM emonhub. A forum search of “[codec can’t decode](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/search?q=codec%20can%27t%20decode)” currently turns up 2 other threads. and there’s this on github > > > From the log: > > 2020-06-23 03:21:27,792 DEBUG VEDirect Starting Serial re…ad > 2020-06-23 03:21:27,812 ERROR VEDirect 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xa5 in position 0: invalid start byte > > > The main problem was trying to decode the checksum byte (0-255) as utf-8 > (0-127… plus continuation bytes), so we have to store everything as bytes > until we are ready to decode it. > > I also took the opportunity to rewrite a few things in a simpler / more > pythonic style. This might raise different exceptions when things go > wrong, but it is shorter and it should be simpler to understand. I > tried to add some helpful comments! > > It's now 1am and I don't have hardware to test this. I would appreciate anyone looking over this with a beady eye! ---
**Author:** ![Thomas\_Adeyinka](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/user_avatar/community.openenergymonitor.org/thomas_adeyinka/32/14796_2.png) [@Thomas\_Adeyinka](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/u/Thomas_Adeyinka)\ **Post date:** [26 July 2020 10:41 UTC](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/i-am-getting-a-utf-8-codec-cant-decode-byte-unexpected-end-of-data-error/14893/3 "2020-07-26T10:41:47Z")
Thanks for the pointers. I would follow the lead. I see that I fix has been released. I might not need to reinstall actually ---
**Author:** ![Thomas\_Adeyinka](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/user_avatar/community.openenergymonitor.org/thomas_adeyinka/32/14796_2.png) [@Thomas\_Adeyinka](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/u/Thomas_Adeyinka)\ **Post date:** [28 July 2020 10:48 UTC](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/i-am-getting-a-utf-8-codec-cant-decode-byte-unexpected-end-of-data-error/14893/4 "2020-07-28T10:48:09Z")
Eventually what solved this for me was to reflash the emonpi image to oct172019 and disable update. This issue was most likely a regression caused by some recent updates. since the older release was stable for me and the emonpi is in a private network behind a firewall… the principle of if it is not broken don’t fix it was used and everything is working fine now. ---
**Author:** ![Bill.Thomson](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/user_avatar/community.openenergymonitor.org/bill.thomson/32/1834_2.png) [@Bill.Thomson](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/u/Bill.Thomson)\ **Post date:** [29 July 2020 00:10 UTC](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/i-am-getting-a-utf-8-codec-cant-decode-byte-unexpected-end-of-data-error/14893/5 "2020-07-29T00:10:42Z")
> [@Thomas\_Adeyinka](#): > > if it is not broken don’t fix it ![thumbsup](https://community.openenergymonitor.org/uploads/default/original/2X/3/3c587556c0cc11389317c03a60788d77ceebd307.gif)