TL's elektronik ting og sager
Test of electricity meter optocoupler output
Simple and quick test of an optocoupler pulse output from a standard electricity meter. To be used with my home built datalogger. The meter outputs 800 pulses / kWh. Each pulse is 80mSec wide.
Here is a slightly newer version of the display. It is possible to step through the four electricity meters to see their data. The display must be mounted in my technic room where three og four electricity meters are located when it is finished. Check out EasyInterface.
I have made some software so I can measure the pulse / pause ratio from the output of the electricity meter. I convert the pulse frequency to real time watts and I also count the pulses so I can see the total power consumption. I have made the software so I can synchronize the total power consumtion with the meter I want to use. In this way the numbers always fit together. I have four of these electricity meters in my house, all with different counts on, so this synchronize feature is necessary. There is information of price per hour consumption ("Pris pr time"), as well as how much the total consumption has cost in kr (danish kroner) so far. The actual kWh price (at the moment) is at the top right and is used as a multiplication factor in the price calculation.
When I had to make this software I had already connected another pcb (DC12 Main board) with my homemade display (EasyInterface) for a test with HYT939 - humidity and temperature sensor. I chose to build on this because it was easy. The software can later be moved to the final pcb which I have not made yet.
Here is a test where the electricity meter is connected (and no longer my signal generator on which I tested the software). I use a fan heater to test it with. The update is very slow because there must be at least two pulses before the measurement can be updated accurately. The display I use is an old version of the TFT Display Controller, I call it EasyInterface.
Here's some pictures from the messy test circuit.
