Electrisave/Owl Protocol + PC Interface

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  • MikeM
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Mar 2008
    • 36

    Electrisave/Owl Protocol + PC Interface

    I am looking to build an Electrisave to PC Interface for logging and found in the archives an interesting post from Iain Goodhew (16/1/2007) who said that he had reverse engineered the protocol. Did any more come of his project ? Does anyone have his email address ? He did ask whether anyone was interested and I would be ?

    Otherwise I know that I can buy an RxCom receiver but this is 'over the top' for what I want to do. I envisaged hacking the Electrisave receiver to recover received RF data, decoding this (with a PIC) and outputting via RS232 - but if this has already been done ????
  • Kevin
    Moderator
    • Jan 2004
    • 558

    #2
    Take a look at the the CurrentCost units - they have a serial interface on them that spits out the data at 4 second intervals in XML format. The interface requires their special cable to connect to the PC as it does level shifting. It's well priced too at around £40 ish

    K

    PS I'm told that some OEM variants of this don't have the inbuilt serial circuitry.

    Comment

    • MikeM
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Mar 2008
      • 36

      #3
      Current Cost - Costs How Much

      Very nice looking unit. Web site provided a lot of information apart from the 'current cost' ? Perhaps this is available from distributors only ?

      Comment

      • chris_j_hunter
        Automated Home Legend
        • Dec 2007
        • 1713

        #4
        Interesting ... good to see they quote example accuracies (the more current the better teh accuracy, it would seem) ... does it measure the voltage, too, or does it just measure current & make assumptions about the voltage, I wonder ? And how much does it tie the PC up ?
        Our self-build - going further with HA...

        Comment

        • wywywywy
          Automated Home Sr Member
          • Dec 2005
          • 86

          #5
          Anyone managed to find a retailer for this yet?

          Comment

          • Quinten
            Automated Home Sr Member
            • May 2004
            • 85

            #6
            Awooga!!!

            Comment

            • TimH
              Automated Home Legend
              • Feb 2004
              • 509

              #7
              Also some here:


              HTH,

              Tim.
              (thanks to Kevin T for the pointer )
              My Flickr Photos

              Comment

              • toscal
                Moderator
                • Oct 2005
                • 2061

                #8
                Contacted Current Cost and the guy I need to speak to is on holiday, so should hear from him at the end of the week.
                IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
                Renovation Spain Blog

                Comment

                • wywywywy
                  Automated Home Sr Member
                  • Dec 2005
                  • 86

                  #9
                  Thanks!! £33 posted, bargain! Order placed.

                  What's up with 9 quid for a straight RJ11-RS232 cable though...

                  Comment

                  • MikeM
                    Automated Home Jr Member
                    • Mar 2008
                    • 36

                    #10
                    Hmm - Not as easy as I thought !

                    Not quite as easy as I thought ! Got all the 'bits' OK but decoding the packet structure is not obvious

                    Anyone got an email address for member Iain Goodhew ?

                    Comment

                    • KW1816
                      Automated Home Jr Member
                      • Feb 2004
                      • 28

                      #11
                      Just got a Current cost and I'm getting getting values into Homeseer via a rather shoddy script :-) . Lot's of discussion about it here: http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=129148

                      Description of the XML output here: http://cumbers.wordpress.com/2008/05...st-xml-output/

                      Hope this helps
                      Kevin.

                      Comment

                      • jpdw
                        Automated Home Guru
                        • Oct 2007
                        • 169

                        #12
                        Is the £33 one from ecogadget/southernelec the same version sold direct by currentcost on ebay?

                        I would prefer to get the newer one with historic data but would prefer still to pay £33 for it not £45 :-)
                        Jon

                        Comment

                        • toscal
                          Moderator
                          • Oct 2005
                          • 2061

                          #13
                          Just got this reply from Current cost about their meters:
                          "The units are available for sale on EBay. The company has been formed to
                          design and produce units aimed at the utility companies to be given free of
                          charge to their consumers and to that end we have now sold in excess of
                          500,000 units. Other than EBay we do not sell direct to consumers,
                          distributors or to retailers........ In order to download raw data it is necessary to purchase one of our cables, again through EBay. We do not have our own software available at present to interpret this information although if one Googles Dale Lane Current Cost this can be very useful."

                          Hope this helps.

                          Here is the Dale Lane link http://dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=281
                          Last edited by toscal; 30 October 2008, 01:03 PM.
                          IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
                          Renovation Spain Blog

                          Comment

                          • jpdw
                            Automated Home Guru
                            • Oct 2007
                            • 169

                            #14
                            I just got my Current Cost through today.

                            So far it's great fun. The wife is already turning on different / fewer lights!

                            I bought mine via SSE so not sure yet which version I've got... I need to get (/make) a serial cable and see what I'm getting out of it....
                            Jon

                            Comment

                            • toscal
                              Moderator
                              • Oct 2005
                              • 2061

                              #15
                              You may be interested in this blog about how to chart the info from the current cost
                              IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
                              Renovation Spain Blog

                              Comment

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