Setting up an emonPi - some newbie questions

borpin · 2019-09-12T14:08:49.943Z

haffle:

What is the difference between being able to connect to wifi, and not being able to connect to emoncms.org ?

None.

haffle:

The Write API key I use is the one found on emoncms.org /

OK good.

haffle:

If I look on emonpi.local / emonhub / Edit config, the write API key I put in on Day 1 is the same; is this right?

Yes

Why therefore 2 of the EmonESPs are not connecting is a bit of a mystery .

Re-enter the server details in the EmonESP interface and see if that solves it. There have been some other issues with the EmonESP firmware talked about elsewhere.

haffle · 2019-09-15T06:56:51.944Z

A quick thought; might there be a correlation between the number of Inputs, calculations & Feeds that an EmonTx/ESP8266 is required to do and the reliability of data transfer? Is it a coincidence that my two “flakey” devices are the two with the most complicated setup?

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borpin · 2019-09-15T08:26:19.641Z

haffle:

A quick thought; might there be a correlation between the number of Inputs,

Is this on Emoncms.org?

haffle · 2019-09-15T09:44:26.523Z

Yes, all 4 devices (x3 emonTx/ESP8266, x1 emonPi) report through to emoncms.org directly, via wifi.

borpin · 2019-09-15T15:27:24.260Z

It’s nothing to do with the processing as the time is the last time and data was received.

It is therefore most likely to be the WiFi between EmonESP and your Router.

If you connect to the ESP from a browser, does the data start again to emoncms.org?

By connecting the ESP directly to emoncms.org, this is virtually impossible to monitor and debug (unless you have a very fancy WiFi router). If you connect to the local pi instead, you could use tshark on the EmonPi to monitor the http traffic and see if it is coming through or not.

My personal bet is the WiFi router is the issue as the ESP does connect sometimes so the WiFi setup and Emoncms credentials must be correct.

haffle · 2019-09-16T10:30:38.599Z

borpin:

My personal bet is the WiFi router is the issue as the ESP does connect sometimes so the WiFi setup and Emoncms credentials must be correct.

Thanks Brian; certainly all four units have in the past communicated fine for a period of time.

Would “pointing” the three EmonTx/ESP8266 units to the emonPi through the wifi network, instead of directly through to emoncms.org make any difference? AIUI I could do that and then sync the Pi data across to either emoncms.org or to a self hosted area. Making this change would mean having to re-setup all of my Inputs and Feeds etc but would be willing to do so if the chances of obtaining my goal are high. Or perhaps this won’t improve things as the problems are at a lower level, ie between the emonTx/ESP8266s and the local router, so changing where they report to won’t help…

Currently, none of the 4 units have a fixed IP address locally (but I do have a fixed IP from my ISP). All communicate via wifi and not through RFM, as none of the units are within RFM range of each other.

EDITED TO ADD: Since (?about the same time as?) I restarted my router (through software) about an hour ago, the missing psent and psuccess data points have reappeared, as have Inputs, Feeds and Dashboards etc …

borpin · 2019-09-16T15:08:28.284Z

haffle:

Would “pointing” the three EmonTx/ESP8266 units to the emonPi through the wifi network , instead of directly through to emoncms.org make any difference?

The difference would be you would be able to trace what was/was not happening. If there was an authentication problem for instance, you would be able to see it more easily.

haffle:

I restarted my router (through software) about an hour ago, the missing psent and psuccess data points have reappeared, as have Inputs, Feeds and Dashboards etc

So common. I tend to do a hard boot of a power cycle .

haffle · 2019-09-20T09:36:17.856Z

Question: How I would create a Feed that would show historic Export data in a bargraph?

My PV system only has a Generation meter, with no Export meter. I want to be able to record & subsequently view over specific date ranges Exported power, without manually checking the Mains In meter.

For example, I would like to be able check what August’s Exported power was, but to do so on, say, 18th September. This precludes getting the data from the emon SolarPV app (as AIUI I’d need to record the info on 1st September).

Obviously this isn’t just a matter of subtracting the PV Generation Input (G3-Panels) from the Total Consumption Feed (TotalB_inc_HW) due to needing realtime readings in the calculations.

On the SolarPV App, presumably there is some code which does a similar calculation behind the scenes, but I can’t quite get my head around what Inputs/Feeds I need to create in order to produce data for such a dashboard bargraph.

I’ve attached my current setup [NB: The Office / Barns section is on a separate meter so can be ignored.]

TIA

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haffle · 2019-10-16T18:59:41.591Z

OK, over the past couple of weeks I have been busy trying to resolve my connectivity issues, but have once again come up against a problem…

Just to refresh memories:

I have three emonTx/ESP8266 units and an emonPi, all are set up to upload data to emonCMS
The three ESP8266 have RF “blockers” on them to reduce signals
The three emonTx/ESP8266 have an individual Apple Airport Express located within 30cm; two are hard wired via Cat5e to my modem, and the other connects via wifi
The three emonTx/ESP8266 show that they have an RSSI of between 25 & 30 (which I understand is very good)
The emonPi communicates via wifi to an Apple Airport Express; they are about 120cm apart, the RSSI is about 58, but this unit has never disconnected.
All four units have been allocated a fixed local IP within the router’s control panel.
Two of the three emonTx/ESP8266 communicate via dedicated wifi SSIDs
When a unit does disconnect, the easiest solution seems to be to log in to emonESP and click on “Restart”; this almost always works.

But … Despite all of this one unit has just disconnected / lost comms. Does anyone have a idea of what else I can try? I have already spent £££ on additional cabling and access points and am becoming thoroughly disheartened (to put it mildly!)

TIA

haffle · 2019-10-17T06:23:25.283Z

Interestingly the emonTx in the garage (with a co-located hard wired wi-fi access point) fell over again over night. When I tried to Restart it through the emonESP software I noticed that on the first attempt it initially said 1/3 (33%) successful messages then fell over again, and then on a re-attempt it said 1/2 (50%), and fell over. RSSI is showing as -35.

It remains disconnected.

I am genuinely confused …

borpin · 2019-10-17T07:16:14.137Z

It might not be a popular opinion, but I think the issue is the ESP8266 TCP stack and this is not necessarily specific to the Emon implementation.

Personally, I’d cut my losses and rig up a PiZeroW either directly connected or with an RFM board, and install EmonHub.

TBH not sure anyone has done that, but should not be too difficult - the serial data is just coming direct rather than via the RFM board.

haffle · 2019-10-17T08:08:06.535Z

Thanks Brian - happy to go down that route financially, but might be outwith of my skill set; will do some reading. Is it “easy” to install emonHub on to a “blank” PiZeroW ? I have played with a Pi before a few months ago (programming traffic lights on a bread board etc) via VNC Viewer, but little else.

For info, here is a short 36 sec video of what happens when I try to restart an emonTx through emonESP - watch the top left which shows how it does connect, then falls over.

Julian

TrystanLea · 2019-10-17T08:25:18.460Z

Talking to @glynhudson here, a couple of thoughts for a way forwards.

We will setup a long term test in the office here running EmonESP master branch, to see if we can replicate with the current version.

My personal experience:

I’m running the EmonESP timer branch (includes control features but also works as a standard logger) on my heatpump monitor and posting to an emonbase locally which means there is less latency and less risk of slow internet issues causing issues for the ESP8266 TCP stack. It’s generally been quite reliable, It is on the edge of Wifi range and I did have one issue a month or so ago where I must have knocked the board into an area of Wifi shadow, moving it back into position reduced the RSSI by -2 and it started working well again.

On a separate installation I have an EmonTx with the ESP8266 adapter posting to emoncms.org and that has also been reliable. The psent an psuccess have both reset a number of times over the last year but have all continued fine after the reset without intervention that I can remember. Im not 100% sure which branch and version of EmonESP Im running on that ESP8266 adapter, it may be the timer branch as that’s the branch that I’ve most recently worked on.

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@haffle Id be tempted to say it would be worth you trying the timer branch. It is probably easiest if I send you a set of adapters ready to go, would you be happy to try that?

If that doesn’t work then I think @borpin’s suggestion of going for a raspberrypi based approach would be worth pursuing further.

haffle · 2019-10-17T08:47:25.709Z

@TrystanLea Very happy to try the timer branch (albeit not totally sure what it is ). Might need some guidance to set it up.

FWIW my internet feed is FTTC and I get a reliable ~28 down, ~8 up with little fluctuations of note.

borpin · 2019-10-17T08:50:42.297Z

haffle:

FWIW my internet feed is FTTC

Experience is that it is internal routers that are the issue. I have some ‘quality’ Ubiquiti kit and the performance to Android phones/tablets is atrocious to the point I connect them to a cheap TP-Link AP!

borpin · 2019-10-17T08:52:40.613Z

haffle:

Is it “easy” to install emonHub on to a “blank” PiZeroW

I have done it but many years ago. Basically it is a python script run as a daemon by systemd so not complex.

haffle · 2019-10-17T08:59:24.521Z

Noted; I won’t try to defend it, but I have a non-wifi enabled Draytek Vigor 2760 Modem/Router (maybe not enterprise class but not some rubbish supplied by my ISP either), connected via Cat5e to various Apple access points. I only have Macs & iDevices in the house.

The Draytek is in charge of DCHP, and I have “fixed” the internal IP addresses of the 4 emon units within it in an attempt to try to prevent IP allocation issues when, say, an iPhone comes back in to range.

TrystanLea · 2019-10-17T09:04:11.741Z

haffle:

Very happy to try the timer branch (albeit not totally sure what it is ). Might need some guidance to set it up.

Great, I will get these adapters sent to you today, the setup is much the same as you current adapters, the UI looks a little different but wifi and emoncms setup sections are the same.

haffle · 2019-10-17T09:13:49.265Z

@TrystanLea When I compare my psent graphs to yours above, unlike you I have several periods of flat-line-zero data which you don’t. Some of my older data would have been when I had yet to wire up access points very close to the EmonTx’s (so RSSIs could have been an issue), but today’s problems in the garage are not. The three graphs show month / week / day.

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TrystanLea · 2019-10-17T10:18:03.179Z

Thanks @haffle it will be interesting to see if the issues persist with these three new adapters. I’ve prepared and tested them here, they will be in the post for you this afternoon.