Hi there my electric meter actaris ace 2000 290 Have a IEC 62056-21 optical port, for what i read it sends the meter information by infrared , I'm planning to build something that can grab that infrared information to arduino..
I found these kind of sensors but very very expensive more than 100? rs232 and 199? USB (99? for ftdi chip )..
So i believe if this is only some kinf of infrared serial cominication will be easy to integrate with arduino...
My first attempt will be using a standard laptop infrared port to see if it grabs something....
I'm asking if any has experience of this IEC 62056-21 optical port and knows the protocol...
IRDA just turns the transmitter on and off at up to the line rate; that's baseband signalling
So, here it would turn the IR Tx LED on for "one" and off for a "zero" for each transmitted bit, for a period of 1/1200 th of a second. (for a line speed of 1200 bits per second.)
This 62056-21 protocol modulates the "one" bits with a burst of 38kHz, so making a receiver means detecting the 38kHz "tone" instead of just sampling the receiver photodiode every 1/1200th of a second.
Luckily, the 38kHz frequency is the same as your TV remotes use, so a ready-made IR remote receiver helps your design.
I have a setup to read the optical port on my electric meter. Mine does not have any data protocol per se, but generates a 5ms infrared pulse every watt hour of consumption. I built my own experimental sensor and feed the pulse into an amplifier, Schmidt trigger and thence to an Arduino.
What I did for my sensor was to use a bog-standard IR photo-transistor. I made an infrared-pass optical filter using a piece of exposed and developed E-6 film. I understand unexposed C-41 (colour negative) film would work as well. I then have the whole thing attached to the front of the meter using HVAC putty -- perma-gum is what they call it.
In my case the Arduino simply counts pulses and times the interval, and passes the data via serial to a real computer a couple of times a minute.
Did somebody got some success with reading (and writing?) the iec 62056-21 (1107) protocol... I have found info (on the protocol) but no schematic how to build serial (infrared) interface and paying 79 euro's for a commercial optical probe isn't fun
i'm finishing my alarm project.
Already a arduino board and ir receiver ready to start to my first tests...
First i will check what (if) the meter is sending out...
Is raining and my meter is outside, so i will test this simple setup asap.