Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Tracking Plugin (DISCONTINUED)

Posted on
Tue Jul 23, 2013 12:13 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Tracking Plugin (DISCONTINUED)

Energy EAGLE v0.9.16 (beta)

Download version 0.9.16 here

NOTE: This plugin is no longer supported. You're welcome to download, use, and modify the code as you please, but I no longer live in an area that supports the hardware necessary to provide support for this plugin. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Energy EAGLE is a beta (pre-release) plugin for Perceptive Automation's Indigo Pro (versions 5.x through 6.x) home control software which allows you to integrate your Rainforest Automation RFA-Z109 EAGLE wireless SmartMeter reader into the Indigo system. It gathers all the readings provided by the SmartMeter to the EAGLE and integrates that data into an Indigo device which can then be used as the basis for energy usage triggers.

Energy EAGLE gathers the following data into a single Indigo device:

  • Current Load (kW). This is the amount of electrical power (in kW) being drawn through the SmartMeter.
  • Current Load Timestamp. This is the date and time when the SmartMeter reported the most recent current load value.
  • Change in Current Load (kW). The amount of change in power drawn through the SmartMeter since the last reading was reported. This can help detect when large appliances are turned on or off.
  • Time Since Last Current Load Change (s). The number of seconds that have passed between the last SmartMeter report to the EAGLE and the current reading. This, along with the Change in Current Load, can be used to calculate a rate of change in power demand.
  • Total from Utility (kWh). The total number of kWh of energy delivered from the utility company to you. This represents the meter reading used by the utility for billing.
  • Total to Utility (kWh). For those with an electric solar system, this represents the energy returned by you to the utility company.
  • 24 Hourly Energy Usage States. Energy usage is summarized for each of the last 24 hours into a separate Indigo device state.
  • Energy Consumption Today. Shows just the energy used for the current day.
  • Advanced Pricing. Manually configure either tiered or time-of-day pricing. Energy EAGLE will keep track of energy usage and calculate a running total cost estimate
  • Price per kWh, Price Tier, Price Rate Label. These are the price (in your local currency) of electrical energy charged by your electric utility company, the pricing tier set by them, and the label they've assigned to the current pricing structure, respectively. Not all companies distribute price information to the SmartMeter, so these parameters may be blank. You can also set a fixed price on the EAGLE manually which will be reflected in the Indigo device as well.
  • ZigBee Connection Status, Channel, Signal Strength. These all reflect the wireless connection status between the SmartMeter and the EAGLE and appear in the Indigo device as well.
  • Message, Message ID, Message Confirmation Required, Message Confirmed, Message Queue Status. The electric company can send messages to customers through the SmartMeter. These data are reflected in the Indigo device.

Installation

Download the Energy EAGLE zip file (link above) to the computer running the Indigo server. If the file is not already unzipped, double-click the .zip file to unzip it. Open the folder that is expanded from the zip file and double-click the Energy EAGLE.indigoPlugin file. The Indigo client will open and prompt to install the plugin. Click the option to install and enable the plugin. You'll be prompted to configure the plugin. The only configuration option is to enable debugging, which is not necessary except for support reasons, so just click the "Save" button.

Usage

You can create an Indigo device for your RFA-Z109 EAGLE that reflects all the SmartMEter readins it gathers.

  1. Create a new Indigo device (click "New..." in the Devices window). Select the "Energy EAGLE" plugin as the device Type. Select "RFA-Z109 EAGEL" as the device type.
  2. A "Configure RFA-Z109 EAGLE" dialog will appear. Enter the IP Address or the zero-configuration local host name (such as "eagle-000204.local") and click "Save". Don't forget to name your EAGLE device.

Use standard Indigo triggers to send notifications or turn off lights when the Current Load becomes high. Or send notifications when energy Total from Utility goes beyond a given threshold.

Go to this thread for Energy EAGLE discussions.

Posted on
Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:11 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9 Posted

Changes from 0.8:
  • Optimized Change in Current Load and Seconds Since Current Load Change so that neither state is changed in the Indigo device unless the meter reading timestamp has changed.
  • Optimized Indigo device property updating code.
  • Changed the sendCommand method by relocating the socket connection tasks (connect/disconnect) to separate methods.
  • Added Energy Consumed... hourly energy consumption states for the last 24 hours (including the current hour).
  • Added Energy Consumed Today state which provides the total kilowatt-hours consumed for the current day.
  • Added Cost per Hour, Cost for Today, and Cost for this Billing Cycle states.
  • Added Advanced Pricing settings to manually configure energy consumption pricing for both tiered and time-of-day pricing. NOTE: Cost calculations are estimates and not guaranteed to be accurate. Don't base your financial decisions on the cost calculations from this plugin!
  • Removed text versions of Current Load states to keep the total number of device states as low as possible.
  • Added a Start New Billing Cycle action (and Plugin menu item) and a Set Billing Cycle Start Values action (and menu item).
  • Added a socket timeout to avoid blocking on hung connections.

Posted on
Sun Jul 28, 2013 1:12 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.1 Posted

Changes from 0.9:
  • Fixed a bug that would cause the plugin to crash if Advanced Pricing wasn't enabled in a device.

Posted on
Mon Jul 29, 2013 3:10 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.2 Posted

Changes from 0.9.1:
  • Added automatic plugin version checking and email notification option.* Set this new feature up via the Plugin Configuration dialog (Plugins menu -> Energy EAGLE -> Configure...).

* Courtesy of Travis Cook's indigoPluginVersionChecker code.

Posted on
Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:47 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.3 Posted

Changes from 0.9.2:
  • Fixed bug in Advanced Pricing where the Cost this Billing Period calculation when in tier 4 was incorrect.

Posted on
Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:48 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.4 Posted

Changes from 0.9.3:
  • Fixed a bug where the plugin would crash with an Attribute error if the price tier wasn't defined on the EAGLE.
  • Added additional error checking in case other pricing attributes were undefined on the EAGLE.
  • (Hopefully) fixed a bug that would cause the plugin to crash if the MAC address of the EAGLE hadn't been obtained correctly.

Posted on
Mon Aug 19, 2013 12:56 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.5 Posted

Changes from 0.9.4:
  • Corrected minimum API version requirement in info.plist. It was incorrectly set to version 1.4 but only version 1.2 is required.
  • Fixed a bug that causes a divide by zero error if the EAGLE is not connected to the SmartMeter.
  • Changed status gathering interval from 5 seconds to 10 seconds to decrease load on the EAGLE and because meter readings aren't updated more often than every 10 seconds on the EAGLE anyway.

Posted on
Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:50 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.6 Posted

Changes from 0.9.5:
  • Second attempt at fixing the divide by zero error.

Posted on
Fri Sep 06, 2013 5:28 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.7 Posted

Changes from 0.9.6:
  • Significantly re-organized data gathering code by separating individual EAGLE command calls into separate methods.
  • Changed status gathering back to every 5 seconds, but only for the current load data. Historical data is now gathered only every 20 seconds.
  • Fixed a bug that would cause a UnicodeDecodeError by explicitly specifying that XML from the EAGLE is Windows-1252 encoded (as specified in the EAGLE XML-API docs).

Posted on
Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:10 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.8 Posted

Changes from 0.9.7:
  • Second attempt to fix a bug that would cause a UnicodeDecodeError when there were non-ASCII characters in the EAGLE's XML output.

Posted on
Sun Sep 08, 2013 12:12 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.9 Posted

Changes from 0.9.8:
  • Third attempt to fix a bug that would cause a UnicodeDecodeError when there were non-ASCII characters in the EAGLE's XML output.

Posted on
Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:41 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.11 Posted

Changes from 0.9.9:
  • Fixed bug that misinterpreted negative instant demand values (for those with solar or other grid-contributing energy sources).
  • Another attempt to fix a bug that causes a UnicodeDecodeError in certain circumstances where non-ASCII characters appear in the XML output from the EAGLE.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause the plugin to crash if unable to connect to the EAGLE.

Posted on
Sun Sep 29, 2013 1:57 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.12 Posted

Changes from 0.9.11:
  • Corrected negative demand calculation code.

Posted on
Thu Nov 14, 2013 2:07 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.13 Posted

Changes from 0.9.12:
  • Fixed a bug that could cause the plugin to crash if a connection to the EAGLE was not established when requesting data from it.
  • Worked around differences between EAGLE firmware 1.x and 2.0 beta that could cause the plugin to crash when trying to read the data.

Posted on
Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:39 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Energy EAGLE: SmartMeter Energy Tracking Plugin

Version 0.9.14 Posted

Changes from 0.9.13:
  • Worked around more difference between EAGLE firmware 1.x and 2.0 beta versions that would cause the plugin to crash.

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