Getting more resolution using a v.3 meter
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:16 am
I have two v.3 meters on my building (model "021017"), one to read the "consumption" of the building and one to read the solar "production". I have been running this setup for about 4 years now.
Originally I had a custom PHP script that would collect the data and display some graphs on my web page. It was basic, crude and not flexible at all but it worked very reliably.
Recently I implemented a "Cacti" server to monitor my network and I decided to move the meter data to it. I modified my PHP script and implemented a "Data Source" for Cacti.
The annoyance I am experiencing is that the kWh reading are in 0.1 increments. This causes an amount of "spikiness" on the graphs, caused by the difference between the 5-minute polls from Cacti and the rate at which I'm moving energy. It works fine, but it looks ugly.
I would like to increase the resolution at which I read the data.
My first thought was that I could access an internal pulse-count register, but when I reviewed the protocol I do not see any such animal. There are three pulse count registers in the data packet, but I don't see any references to being able to use them on the V.3 meter. I'm assuming they were used on some other models of meters?
In theory I could upgrade from v.3 meters to v.4 meters. This would actually be my preference, but I really can't justify the expense.
Increasing the turns through the CT's is not an option in my situation.
What would be the downside to simply telling the meters that they had, for example, 1000A CT's, instead of the 200A ones?
Thanks for your input.
Originally I had a custom PHP script that would collect the data and display some graphs on my web page. It was basic, crude and not flexible at all but it worked very reliably.
Recently I implemented a "Cacti" server to monitor my network and I decided to move the meter data to it. I modified my PHP script and implemented a "Data Source" for Cacti.
The annoyance I am experiencing is that the kWh reading are in 0.1 increments. This causes an amount of "spikiness" on the graphs, caused by the difference between the 5-minute polls from Cacti and the rate at which I'm moving energy. It works fine, but it looks ugly.
I would like to increase the resolution at which I read the data.
My first thought was that I could access an internal pulse-count register, but when I reviewed the protocol I do not see any such animal. There are three pulse count registers in the data packet, but I don't see any references to being able to use them on the V.3 meter. I'm assuming they were used on some other models of meters?
In theory I could upgrade from v.3 meters to v.4 meters. This would actually be my preference, but I really can't justify the expense.
Increasing the turns through the CT's is not an option in my situation.
What would be the downside to simply telling the meters that they had, for example, 1000A CT's, instead of the 200A ones?
Thanks for your input.