Sorry it’s been some time since the last update – but please read the comment sections on the older entries – this project is still kicking, and we try to find time to at least answer the comments.
Let us admit – we were worried… It seems NES went into some kind of radio silence mode during end of 2021 and start of 2022 – but finally in mid January we manage to get a hold on them.
They apologized that the MEP-protocol specifications was delayed – the team simply had to work on other more urgent projects… We fully understand that stuff can get delayed when you are “hit by reality”. After all – this release is for the community, not something a company can pay their bills with :-). And Graves and Gert also have to attend their day job to get bills paid. This is – after all – only a spare time project.
Anyway – NES assured us that it would now get prioritized a bit higher again and hopefully soon be finished.
BUT EVEN BETTER – earlier this week, Gert received a draft PDF with the “release version” of the “MEP Client Developer’s Guide”. This shows us that NES are still actively working on this. Due to the NDA we cannot share much, but you will find an image of the cover page as the featured image of this entry.
It is clear that this is still supposed to be released through OSGP Alliance. Just like promised previously by NES.
A quick glance through through the PDF shows that the document has been revised, even improved a lot. And – more important – it seems that most of the protocol is still in there… So this is REALLY good news. We’ve promised to proof read it a bit and give feedback. But we are really looking forward to be able to link to the release when it is ready.
Sorry for this short – but at least positive – update.
We’ll get back to you with progress on software and hardware soon. And hopefully also soon with some news about the release of the documentation.
Brilliant.. this feels just like December did when I was a kid 🙂
To keep me busy until it can be released, I have ben tinkering with a raspberry, a webcam and some OCR software. Now it can read a meter (or a licence plate), and send it to a server through MQTT.
I can’t wait either. Like Christmas as Daniel mentioned.
Happy happy happy.
@Daniel
Would you share you idea? How you build it?
Best regards
Søren
I fully agree on your excitement.
Our software (and probably also our hardware) still needs a lot of work, but that is not the major goal here anyway.
The really interesting part is to get the documentation released… Then there is a lot of more skilled people than us that can join the project or create their own – even better – projects.
That is the main goal – let’s set free the Echelon/NES meters 🙂
Hi Daniel,
Yes, we are still pretty exited about this too :-).
Hey, that is also a great project you are describing there. Please consider sharing it somewhere so we can get inspired.
I see multiple interesting use cases – like camera surveillance when you live at a farm like I do.
You don’t want to get an MMS alert with picture for every “visitor” when you are not at home, but maybe one when it is a license plate you have not seen before or have blacklisted?
Anyway – keep up the good tinkering work 🙂
Can the schematics for the hardware be downloaded anywhere?
Could be nice to have the hardware ready to when the documentation (and software) will be released.
Thinking of making a JLCPBC version which is pick’n’place compatible with their catalogue, so others can order a nearly finished version from them (or we could order in batches)
But would be nice to have a startingpoint.
Hi Morten,
Thank you for your interest in the project.
No, it is not available for download anywhere yet.
I have not had time to populate the lastest versions yet (we just received the new THT and SMD prototype).
Option 1:
But I can e-mail you (and anyone else interested) a zip with the latest KiCad files – or the Gerber files. Let me know what you prefer?
Option 2:
Or if you (or anyone else) send me a PM (gert@dabbler.dk) with your snail-mail address I can mail you a PCB of the latest version if you pay (PayPal or MobilePay) me the cost (only the fair part of our JLCPCB costs and the postage – we are not in this for the profit 🙂 ).
State in the PM know if you prefer a THT or SMD version – and I’ll ship them as long has we have any we don’t need ourselves.
I’ll have to try to populate one myself first as I don’t want to send you something that does not work in the first place :-).
(or you can choose to get the previous version where we recommend a stability hardware patch)
Note: We only have a couple of the THT and a couple of the SMD versions in surplus (but if there is a demand, I’ll order extra).
Remember – we want this to be freely available to everyone. But for practical reasons we would like to present both soft- and hardware the same time when we are free from the NDA… This will probably be on GitHub… Not that we cannot share our hardware now – so if you would like it and have a use case for it, simply let me know which option you prefer…
Best Regards,
Gert Lynge