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[BackAgain]

My utility seems to be having a problem reading my meter remotely.  I don't know if it's me or them, but it seems to have started (maybe only coincidentally) around the end of June, not long after I got the CM15a.

I'm trying to pick their brain, but they're not the easiest folks to talk to.

[Brian H]

In your link in an earlier post.
The company making the meters have some specification sheets for various models.
I looked at some of them. IF you can read the model number on it. Maybe I have it to look at.
I did not see anything close to X10 power line or RF frequencies. 120KHz line 310Mhz RF.
Now if you where talking Insteon. A few of them use an RF frequency of 910MHz-920MHz or 902MHz-928Mhz.
Insteon is 915MHz.

[dave w]

Is it possible ........  for any X-10 device to interfere with/block remote reading by a utility for an Itron (utility provided) electric meter?
https://www.itron.com/na/technology/product-services-catalog/products/0/7/5/centron

I have been down this road with Duke Energy after they installed an iTron on our house. Slightly different from your comment, in that I wondered if X10 codes on the powerline would make the iTron calculate a higher power usage than actual.

http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=29759.msg168586#msg168586

If you are with Duke our meters are likely the same. According to a Duke engineer in Ohio, my meter uses WiFi to periodically transmit my usage to an aggregator which then uses cell phone technology to get the information to Duke office ( I don't know if that is HQ in Charlotte, or Duke in my state). This engineer was heavily involved with the Duke Energy / X10 problem in Cincinnati after Duke's installation of Eschelon meters.

My short answer to your question is No.

I have about 135 X10 "entities" and X10 powerline transmissions are very active. Duke has not indicated any problems reading my meter (and they know me and would not hesitate to contact me). IF you are with Duke you can PM me and I can give you the name of the Duke engineer in Ohio. Your rep can get his number from the Duke corporate directory.   

[BackAgain]

Nope.  Not Duke.

A little regional co-op.

[dave w]

OK, I have an "Open Way" iTron meter. If yours is an "Open Way" you can at least say you know of X10 / iTron Open Way installations that have no problems. They should just try another meter.

[BackAgain]

Dunno what it does.

[dave w]

Mine has "Open Way" next to the iTron logo, so meters may not be the same.
You can down load the iTron slick sheets by googling "iTron Open Way" and "iTron CS1".

I think the link below covers both meters,  but I do not find how the CS1 sends it data. If it is WiFi or "ZigBee" the meter is sending in the 2.4 gHz band which is same as mine and believe me Duke has no problem reading my meter 

http://www.smartmetereducationnetwork.com/uploads/how-to-tell-if-I-have-a-ami-dte-smart-advanced-meter/Itron%20Centron%20Meter%20Technical%20Guide1482163-201106090057150.pdf

[Brian H]

Thanks for the link to the technical data.
I found an assortment of models on their web site and downloaded the sheets. As you said not too informative.
How it communicates also was not 100% clear but indicated it depended on the option modules installed.
I saw some used a spread spectrum RF 910Mhz-920Mhz or 902MHz-928MHz.
Some used PLC communications at 9.6KHz or 12.5KHz.
The Wi-Fi and ZigBee maybe in one of the options modules I found no data on.

[roger1818]

The batteries don't affect the CM15 mem they only maintain the clock.

Half correct.  The programming is stored in an EEPROM, so not affected by the batteries.  However, the batteries supply power to the entire CM15A, not just the clock, so will also maintain things like unit status and flags (which are stored in RAM).

I actually haven't had batteries in my cm15 in over 3 years.

If you keep the CM15A connected to an always on computer and don't care about flags and unit status (on monitored house code), that is fine as the clock will set itself automatically to the computer's clock.  If you don't, it will lose its clock in a power failure and not only will none of the timers work, but macros with time delays won't work either until you connect it to a computer to set the clock.  Either way the flag and unit status will be lost.

[BackAgain]

Y'all tired of me yet?  Probably not as tired as I am of X-10.  Sometimes I just have to walk away from something for a few days. 

It's been running the scheduled timers fine.  But I tried to install and test on another PC and still couldn't get into the CM15a, same error, popup from the Windows notification area, driver not installed ......

Read back over the posts about not losing memory (really not a big issue if it did) and gave it a go.  Opened the battery door and found one of the four Eveready Alkalines with the label distorted.  Pulled it and found it had leaked in a way I've never seen on an Eveready.  No idea what happened.  Replaced it and I have access again.

Not sure where I am with programming though.  Copied the ahx file from the other computer and downloaded to the CM15a again.  We'll see what happens tonight. I've added another AM486 into the mix and set a dusk-to-dawn timer on it, so I'm curious to see if that works tonight.  I can operate it from the remote, so that's one good sign.

I had tried the 18" wire taped to the antenna ...  made no difference in range that I could tell.  Moved it to another location closer to where I use the remotes though.

Somehow, I gained access to the SR227 with the "O" address and can trigger it from the remote now.  Don't know how or why.

However, I'm back to not being able to trigger modules from AHP.  Same as before, screen icons change, but the modules don't react.  Not too worried about that right at the moment since this installation on this notebook is not registered yet.

[Brian H]

Maybe asked already.
Do you have a good phase coupler?
Have you tried to see if you have any power line noise makers and signal suckers?
Icons changing but modules not responding. Can be a power line signal issue.

[BackAgain]

No phase coupler, but suddenly I have a new meter.  They told me they were going to try this, but didn't say when.  I'm gone for a few minutes and this is what I find when I get back. 

Appears to be this one, but mine doesn't have the FlexNet logo.

https://sensus.com/products/icona/

https://sensus.com/icona/

[BackAgain]

I had unplugged the CM15a and PLC01 sometime Wednesday to see if it would make any difference and still didn't see any new readings show up on the Utility company customer portal.  I really wanted to talk to this guy and didn't get a chance.

Guess I'll plug them back in today.

[BackAgain]

I had unplugged the CM15a and PLC01 sometime Wednesday to see if it would make any difference and still didn't see any new readings show up on the Utility company customer portal.  I really wanted to talk to this guy and didn't get a chance.

Guess I'll plug them back in today.

So .... plugged them back in, waited for when the macro should fire ...  nada .

Plugged the USB cable in ...  malfunction, no connection.  Can't communicate with CM15a. 

Replaced all 4 AAA batteries, back to working.  These were new batteries (or so I thought) when I put them in a week or so ago.  Anybody have a problem with CM15as eating batteries?

 

I'm the horse, X10 is the beater.



 


 


Ahhhh.....

[Brian H]

You may want to see the CM15A area of the X10 Wiki.
http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/CM15A

There is a question on eating batteries and a few on USB issues.
Just keep in mind. Now that X10WTI and its registration servers are gone. Not all answers are now valid.