EKM Metering

Since EKM Omnimeter Pulse v.4 is capable to measure not only power but usage of other devices and controlling relays, would it be great to have implemented ability to connect external DC power to the meter? I can use backed up VDC (e.g. 12v) power supply and still able to read measurements from the meter.

Another use DC connected meter can be for backup standby power supplies such as generators.

I am looking for an advice and/or feasibility from EKM Metering engineering for getting this line of meters available for the market.

Thanks

Absolutely a great idea. It is pain point to have to connect 120 VAC just to power the meter for pulse counting only.

Our Skunk Works is in the midst of working on this now (turned out to be a harder problem than we originally conceived). I will let you know when we have it available.

Thank you very much for the feature request! We are always welcoming of feature requests, feedback, and criticisms.

Hello Jameson,

Any ETA for DC power version of v4 meters so far?

Thanks

Not yet! We are now working on our next prototype. We had some issues in our last prototype having to do with the RS485. Once we have vetted the next version and are satisfied with it, we will look at taking it to production. It will be quite a while until we have a publicly released product (many months).

By the way, thank you for posting your Perl script here! (we really do appreciate you sharing your work): http://forum.ekmmetering.com/viewtopic. ... 4e28107eb8

Jameson,

Just in case if you need help - we may put our effort together. Let me know

Here is what I got from our engineering group, as suggestion.
Not sure how it is accurate, they just spend a day to look into this.
Pic. 1 External Power Supply schematic

To power the EKM, when there is no input voltage across all three phases, it is proposed to add an additional circuit to the EKM for external backup power. Please see Pic 1. As a backup power source, any 12 volt uninterruptible power supply (for example from alarm systems) is used. Schematic contains two isolated dc / dc converters DC1 and DC2 that provide isolated 12 volt power for the operation of the EKM main board and RS485 communication interface.
Pic. 2 J5 EKM connection

Connecting of the circuit to the EKM to the J5 connector shown on the Pic. 2.

Riv,

Thank you for posting! How is the modified meter working for you? Have you tested other functionalities (metering, communications, pulse counting etc)? We have done similar tests in the past, but always come up with issues in the way the meter functions (pulse counting not working reliably for example).

Hi...according to me this system has truly unprecedented capabilities and features plug-and-play integration. Data can be accessed from anywhere in the world by using a unique User Key. In addition to the main User Key, that provides access to all of the meters in an account, every meter also has it's own unique Meter Key. This allows the account owners to share specific meters while keeping the rest private.