Using the EmonTx v3 with the ESP8266 Huzzah WIFI module

stefandumitrica · 2016-08-02T06:17:19.133Z

Hi,
I used arduino ide to load emonesp firmware and data in several ESP-07 and I couldn’t make them work properly. When I loaded firmware and data to ESP-12E everything works as expected. Somewhere in the installation instruction guide is mentioned that should be used ESP-12E and I can confirm and advise that from my own experience.
Best regards

jeremypoulter · 2016-08-02T06:27:38.474Z

Cracked it last night, now I have the power sorted it the ESP-01 can read the values from the EmonTX. Need to get it setup in place and do some more tests.

As mentioned the current incarnation of the EspEmon firmware is ok to fit in 512MB flash. I am not totally convinced OTA will work but that is one of the things to test.

Will post some pics, wiring and a PR later today.

Jeremy

Bramco · 2016-08-02T07:13:57.139Z

I don’t think you’ll get OTA working on the 01.

For as much as a beer you could be buying these instead - http://www.banggood.com/D1-Mini-NodeMcu-Lua-WIFI-ESP8266-Development-Board-p-1044858.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Celc-ad-rm-DM-D1MINI&utm_content=gary&utm_design=27&gclid=CJHvjJ_0-M0CFUa6GwodkMIGag

£4 postage paid. You can’t go wrong. The 01 is false economy.

Simon

jeremypoulter · 2016-08-04T22:54:39.370Z

For information here is how you wire up the ESP-01;

EmonTX to ESP01_bb.png1584×1128 141 KB

and a pic of my setup;

2016-08-02 09.31.02.jpg2419×4300 1.77 MB

I have also raised PR #8 with the changes I needed to make, just really adding the ESP-01 as a board for the project.

I am seeing an issue where it works for a while but then starts reporting key ‘1’ with a value of ‘0’ repeatedly very quickly. Not too sure if that is the EmonESP or EmonTX. I do have a Huzzah board so will give that a go and see if I get the same issue.

glyn.hudson · 2016-08-05T07:35:53.984Z

Nice! I’ll get the pr merged to allow compiling for 01 using platformio

There is a big update to emonesp in the mqtt branch that I’ve been working on that is ready to be marged into master branch very soon. As the name suggests mqtt support has been added as well as captive wifi ap portal, multi emoncms server and ui overhaul.

glyn.hudson · 2016-08-05T17:51:12.001Z

4 posts were split to a new topic: emonESP firmware development

kevin · 2016-09-03T03:54:51.994Z

Is there any chance the EMONTX sketch can be modified to provide a current AC voltage output so the AC adapter can be calibrated?
Also I think there is an error around the ct2 calculation area as the next ct3 section references ct2 rather than ct3

jeremypoulter · 2016-09-03T08:57:30.553Z

Is was going to get on to this after the EmonTx OTA was done, I also wanted the temp stuff as well. In fact, @glyn.hudson, is there any reason we could not merge the EmonESP support in to the other EmonTx firmwares and just protect it with a #define or even better add a run time switch, sent over the serial, to enable the EmonESP output?

kevin · 2016-09-03T09:09:55.601Z

+1 for the temp stuff

pb66 · 2016-09-06T17:31:46.713Z

12 posts were split to a new topic: Could emonESP also support CSV and post to a local emonHub?

Robert.Wall · 2016-09-03T12:58:41.010Z

kevin:

Is there any chance the EMONTX sketch can be modified to provide a current AC voltage output so the AC adapter can be calibrated?

You mean the present (= at this instant) a.c. voltage? - The default sketch does. If yours doesn’t, it’s easy to extract it as it is already calculated by emonLib in the calcVI method, and then you simply add it to the rest of the data going to the WiFi module.

And I very much support Paul’s plea to aim towards a generic solution for sending the data onwards.

kevin · 2016-09-03T20:49:03.600Z

Yes, the present AC voltage appears absent in the ESP serial only sketch. That and the 1-wire missing means I’ve changed one of the standard sketches for now. The ESP serial only sketch seems based around the continuous sampling firmware which I was hoping to upgrade to for better accuracy.

Robert.Wall · 2016-09-03T22:33:39.173Z

There are some significant errors and shortcomings in the CM library as it stands, it is recommended that you do not use it. (If you’re right, then why it has been used for the ESP is beyond belief.) I am still working on it. The core of the library now appears to be correct and capable of calibration, but I have yet to look at pulse inputs. It does not work with JeeLib, but appears to be OK with the slimmed down RFM code - though this might not bother you, I haven’t looked at the ESP so I don’t know how it works.

kevin · 2016-09-03T22:58:44.723Z

When working with the ESP all the Arduino needs to do is output the power readings on the serial port. The ESP takes care of the rest. In my case I only use it for power monitoring and one EMONTX has a single 1-wire temperature sensor. I could run the 1-wire in my setup off the ESP directly but that doesn’t turn it off inbetween readings which may result in a little self heating.
So far the ESP setup doesn’t seem to suffer from missed readings due to radio congestion like my 433MHz setup did

kevin · 2016-09-05T21:54:06.299Z

This is proving to be a great improvement over the RFM69 especially in a busy 433MHz radio environment.
I’ve just looked at a couple of graphs of the same feed before and after changing from the RFM69 to the ESP with skip missing and limit interval turned off. The dropouts which were very obvious with the RFM69 have totally disappeared since moving to the ESP. Zooming in to the graph reveals several missed packets per hour with the RFM69 and NONE with the ESP.
As I use the system to turn off loads via Openhab should consumption get too close to the 60A main fuse capacity this is a very welcome improvement.
It’s 3.8 days since I installed both ESP’s to my 2 EMONTX’s with no resets. I’m running ESPEasy V120 on 2 Huzzah’s with built in USB. This works happily with just 0V and TX from the EMONTX connected to RX on the ESP. Each ESP is powered from its own separate power supply.
I use ESPEasy rather than the suggested firmware as I will use the GPIO pins on the ESP to control relays via MQTT and Openhab.
Thanks for putting this idea out there

glyn.hudson · 2016-09-11T12:40:38.490Z

Sorry for lack of engagement, I have been and still am travelling away. @TrystanLea created the emonESP emonTx example as a proof of concept. The use of continuous sampling code is still in testing. I will let Trystan comment on this.

I have just pushed an updated emonTx V3 discrete sampling firmware (V2.4) to the emontx-ds-emonesp dev branch to provide a version of the standard emonTx V3 discrete firmware that serial outputs serial string pairs to work with emonESP e.g:

ct1:xxx,ct2:xxx etc…

github.com

openenergymonitor/emonTxFirmware/blob/emontx-ds-emonesp/emonTxV3/RFM/emonTxV3.4/emonTxV3_4_DiscreteSampling/src/src.ino

/*

  emonTxV3.4 Discrete Sampling

  If AC-AC adapter is detected assume emonTx is also powered from adapter (jumper shorted) and take Real Power Readings and disable sleep mode to keep load on power supply constant
  If AC-AC addapter is not detected assume powering from battereis / USB 5V AC sample is not present so take Apparent Power Readings and enable sleep mode

  Transmitt values via RFM69CW radio

   -----------------------------------------
  Part of the openenergymonitor.org project

  Authors: Glyn Hudson & Trystan Lea
  Builds upon JCW JeeLabs RF12 library and Arduino

  Licence: GNU GPL V3

*/

/*Recommended node ID allocation

This file has been truncated. show original

This includes vrms and all temperature readings:

+  if (debug==1) {
+
+    Serial.print("ct1:"); Serial.print(emontx.power1);
+    Serial.print(",ct2:"); Serial.print(emontx.power2);
+    Serial.print(",ct3:"); Serial.print(emontx.power3);
+    Serial.print(",ct4:"); Serial.print(emontx.power4);
+    Serial.print(",vrms:"); Serial.print(emontx.Vrms);
+    Serial.print(",pulse:"); Serial.print(emontx.pulseCount);
+    if (DS18B20_STATUS==1){
+      for(byte j=0;j<numSensors;j++){
+        Serial.print(",t"); Serial.print(j); Serial.print(":");
+        Serial.print(emontx.temp[j]);
+      }
+    }
+    delay(50);
+  }

I propose standardising on this serial output format for all units e.g. emonTH etc.

glyn.hudson · 2016-09-14T12:16:27.507Z

The serial printing sequence (see above) I used to produce the string pairs is quite long winded. I experimented replacing the serial.print with printf e.g.

printf("ct1:%d,ct2:%d,ct3:%d,ct4:%d,vrms:%d,pulse:%u",emontx.power1,emontx.power2,emontx.power3,emontx.power4,emontx.Vrms,emontx.pulseCount);

This looks much tidier but resulted in the compiled size increasing from:

----------------
Program:   15558 bytes (47.5% Full)
(.text + .data + .bootloader)

Data:       1438 bytes (70.2% Full)
(.data + .bss + .noinit)

to

--------------
Program:   16870 bytes (51.5% Full)
(.text + .data + .bootloader)

Data:       1452 bytes (70.9% Full)
(.data + .bss + .noinit)

A significant increase, therefore I will keep using the serial print sequence as posted above. Has anyone been able to test this with the emonESP? Im currently away and don’t have an emonTx V3 to hand. Once tested I will merge this into emonTx V3 master branch firmware.

glyn.hudson · 2016-09-19T11:20:35.994Z

Serial UART baudrate has been increased to 115200 to be compatible with EmonESP. We plan to standardise on this baud rate for all our firmware in the future. If testing goes well.

github.com/openenergymonitor/emonTxFirmware

v2.5 19/09/16 Increase baud 9600 > 115200 to emonesp compatiability

committed 11:18AM - 19 Sep 16 UTC

glynhudson

+3 -2

stephen · 2016-09-21T00:03:44.157Z

curious why reinvent the wheel - i hooked my esp8266 differently then you guys as I see no need to have the emontx arduino handle that. and let the esp8366 processor handle all the wifi related stuff including error correction and what have you ( two processors are better then one ). . and simply as i do unplug the esp8266 from the emnotx to program it , its easy and simple and if you wanted you could just install end user lua module . and on connection of the esp8266 to emontx . simply use that esp8266 interface web interface to setup the wifi via any wireless device… oh well different strokes for different folks I guess - i get that you want to have it all interface with each other but you just reduce already limited resources… where i increase mine by adding an extra processor power and 6 more gpios and 1 analog pin that run independently of the emontx

jeremypoulter · 2016-09-21T10:05:36.550Z

stephen:

i get that you want to have it all interface with each other but you just reduce already limited resources… where i increase mine by adding an extra processor power and 6 more gpios and 1 analog pin that run independently of the emontx

I am not entirely sure I understand your point. The Huzzah/ESP8266 is just plugged in to the EmonTx and is doing all the WiFi setup, config, MQTT, EmonCMS posting etc. The EmonTx is doing nothing more/less than the they would in the standalone variants. It would be good for you to share some more details of your setup.

Are you using Lua as per-installed on the Huzzah?