Omnimeter v.4 seemingly not counting

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jaholmes
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:38 pm

Omnimeter v.4 seemingly not counting

Post by jaholmes »

EDIT: In case it's relevant, I've got an Omnimeter Pulse UL v.4, S/N 000300001634.

I fear I may be doing something silly here, but after watching a few EKM videos and searching around, I'm not finding what it is. I've had a v.4 in a box for several years now, and am only now installing. Long story short, it doesn't seem to count pulses at all, or else I'm judging this incorrectly. I haven't wired up the Push or connected anything to the RS-485 port. I'm just looking at the display on the Omnimeter itself. From watching Adam's video here, I gather that data 29, 30, 31 are the pulse counts. I have a pulse-output water meter with a reed switch--not an EKM meter--connected to G and In1. 100's of gallons later, data 29, 30, and 31, are all still 00000000.

I suppose I'd expect to be able to simply jumper In1 (or In2 or In3) to G with a small piece of wire to simulate pulses, but that doesn't seem to affect the data either, and I've tried it with all three pulse inputs.

Any thoughts? Am I finding out only now that I got a lemon of a unit? If there are firmware updates for these things, I don't doubt that I'm many revisions behind, however I'd expect even the oldest firmware to do something.

======

Backstory: I bought this Omnimeter to help me manage my own water, as I'm on a small ten-house water system near the ocean, and seawater intrusion is a major concern. I ended up doing something a little simpler for myself, but our well association recently expressed interest in remote monitoring of the well usage, so--Aha! I have just the thing! :) Looking forward to getting it working. Didn't expect to run into trouble so quickly, though!
jaholmes
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:38 pm

Re: Omnimeter v.4 seemingly not counting

Post by jaholmes »

No ideas? Shoot. I'd hoped I was asking an easy question. :) Is it at least reasonable to assume that simply jumpering/unjumpering the G terminal to/from any of In1, In2, In3 should simulate a pulse?

Just realized I have an FTDI RS485-to-USB cable (from another project), so perhaps tomorrow I'll wire the thing to that and see if I can connect with Dash. Maybe there's a bogus setting or something a firmware update will address. Fingers crossed!
Jameson
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Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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Re: Omnimeter v.4 seemingly not counting

Post by Jameson »

Hello Jaholmes,

Just saw your post, we will work to get you going.

First I would want to make sure your 3rd party water meter is producing a pulse. I would connect it to a handheld multimeter and check for continuity between the 2 wires of the pulse output. The multimeter should beep once each time the magnetic dial on your 3rd party water meter goes around. If this all checks out, you can move on to the next step.

Your Omnimeter may be set to a 1000:1 pulse input ratio (this is how our Omnimeter Pulse v.4 meters came preset in the earlier batches). You will probably want to set the pulse input ratio to 1:1.

Yes, you can check that your Omnimeter is counting pulses by physically touching a wire from port 14 (ground) to port 11, 12 or 13 on the Omnimeter, if you touch the wire 5 times (and your Omnimeter pulse input ratio is set to 1:1) your Omnimeter pulse input should increment up by 5.

I hope this helps!!
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
jaholmes
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:38 pm

Re: Omnimeter v.4 seemingly not counting

Post by jaholmes »

Jameson wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 1:49 pm Your Omnimeter may be set to a 1000:1 pulse input ratio (this is how our Omnimeter Pulse v.4 meters came preset in the earlier batches). You will probably want to set the pulse input ratio to 1:1.
Ah!!! That's gotta be it. Thanks so much! The meter is producing a pulse, yes, but it only pulses once for every ten gallons, so it almost certainly hasn't pulsed 1000 times yet. I'll change the ratio tonight and report back.

Very best,
Aaron
jaholmes
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:38 pm

Re: Omnimeter v.4 seemingly not counting

Post by jaholmes »

Jameson wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 1:49 pmYour Omnimeter may be set to a 1000:1 pulse input ratio (this is how our Omnimeter Pulse v.4 meters came preset in the earlier batches). You will probably want to set the pulse input ratio to 1:1.
Indeed, that was the issue. Thanks again, Jameson! Major relief. It's counting happily now. :D :D
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