Problem with energy monitor

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

I built the energy project completely (with RTC and datalogger), use the original sketch, but it doesn't work as it should !

Problem 1: the TSL257: the LED pulses from the Siemens electricity meter are not measured (triggerd).
(I used TSL261 or TSL257)

I tried the TSL257 with a single led (different light intensities), then the pulses come through and everthing works well.
I don't think the problem is the clarity but more the sensitivity (speed) of the TSL257. (I'm not sure)

Alternative/Solution?

Problem 2: according to the site te output should be this:

but in reality I see this:

Start
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0
17:32:41,07/12/91,,0,0

Who can help me?

gr. John

2

try switching to an analog pin and then do a serial.print on it's values with a loop - see if you get some different values during blips

also use an ir against your sensor and see what values you get

i used a different photo sensor (one from radio shack I think the 276-142) and had issues with sunlight washing it out with ir light at noon - my meter is outdoors.

made a cover/hat with duct tape and that fixed that issue.

I also spend a bunch of time playing with the resistor values - I don't know how yours is wired up.

I ended up using a running averages (on the analog values) and then look for drop and raise to trip the count - with a bit of de-bounce.

It took me hours and days over several weeks of playing around with it to get it working but it's been working well for a few months now.