I have a 4kW solar panel installation that is monitored by a GEO SOLO 2 meter.
The company is suspending a web service that allows me to collect 15 minute data, so I'm looking for a new way to record it.
At present the installation comprises a sensor/sender, a display unit, and an internet bridge.
The sender is fitted to the electricity meter and monitors led pulses. It communicates using a wireless connection to the display unit, and an "internet bridge" which is plugged into my router. It was designed about ten years ago, which might give an idea of available technology at the time.
I dont want to replace the sender as I need the display to continue working.
So I need to intercept the data, ideally as generated by the sender. Can anyone offer ideas on the transmission method, or a way I can detect it? I dont have any radio equipment.
Would it be safer to tap into the signal after the receiver in the display unit ?
Open it up and show us a photo. If they did it right, then there are standard components in it.
I'll guess that the display sends data to the bridge by radio, using the same tech as it's using for the sensor.
You might be able to sniff the traffic from the bridge to the router using something like Wireshark. Even assuming that the router does actually leak that data to your network, it would be a pretty dirty solution to the problem.
Intercepting the radio signal seems better, but I don't see anything in your document that tells you about the frequency/transmission methodology.
Given that, I think I'd try and put a second detector on the LED on the meter and work with that.
(UPDATE) I'm told the data from the bridge is encrypted, so thats out.
Any wireless buffs that can tell me what sort of radio channel might be used for such short range data communication between sender and bridge? Is there a simple way I can check?
Failing tht it would seem to be a case of adding another sensor to read the LED, then using maybe a NodeMCU or ESP to record data so I can collect it via FTP.
I dont want to reinvent the wheel, does anyone know of an existing similar project? It HAS to read the LED from the electricity meter as I need to record WATTS not current.
Any wireless buffs that can tell me what sort of radio channel might be used for such short range data communication between sender and bridge? Is there a simple way I can check?
You can use an SDR dongle on a laptop and with SDR software look for a really strong signal when you are near the source.
Paul
Hello John,
I had a similar problem monitoring the power that goes into my hybrid car.
I installed a 25€-power meter that generates the pulses (1000pulses/kwh), connected them to a Mega2560 (interrupt based) and used an ESP8266 to send the data to my server. Is it an option to put an Arduino in parallel on the pulses that come out of your electricity meter. I know it will not capture your WiFi or whatever protocol but you will have all the data you need first hand.
to just replace all the present kit and log the pulses from the electricity meter (1000 pulses / kWh)
Then serve the current daily data to a webpage.
I'm sure I can do it all with a single NodeMCU or ESP32 Devkit.
However I also want to store daily totals (in SPIFFS or SD card) and download to a PC; and I'm having trouble using FTP, so ideally I'd like to just click a link on the webpage to download it.