uStepper
Posted on by Gert Lynge

Echelon/NES Smart Meters – MEP interface modules is now available again from www.ustepper.com

Thanks to our friends at www.ustepper.com hardware to IoT enable your NES/Echelon meter is now available again.

You can purchase it directly from their shop here: https://ustepper.com/shop/home/26-esp32-c3-dabbler-mep-interface.html

Note, although this is a completely redesigned hardware based on a different ESP32 module (it uses the ESP32C3 and not the ESP32-WROOM-32 of our original module), we have extended our software to also support the new hardware.

The source code is the same, and the board selection configures the software so i will run on the chosen module. Simply select the “ESP32 Dev Module” board for the “dabbler hardware” and the “ESP32C3 Dev Module” board for the “uStepper hardware”.

You will also need the .wwws files for both versions.

As always you can find our updated software on our GitHub here: https://github.com/DabblerDK/MEP-SW-ESP32

As always other small fixes and improvements were done and going forward we’ll plan to keep supporting both hardware versions.

18 Replies to “Echelon/NES Smart Meters – MEP interface modules is now available again from www.ustepper.com”

  1. Hi

    I have got one of the boards, works fine.
    But is there a way to get my webserver to collect data from it, to make some statistic?

    1. Hi Allan Kok,

      You’ll have to develop something yourself or use Home Assistant, Homey or something similar.

      If you want to develop yourself, you immediately have two options to read data from the module:
      1. The module runs a simple webservice: if you look into how the Dashboard page is made, you’ll see that it refreshes data by calling a webservice (the refresh is implemented in JavaScript that runs in your browser)
      2. The module have some MQTT support. I don’t know much about it as I’ve never used it. But I guess you can also use it.

      Note: I believe that Homey uses the webservice, while there are two Home Assistant integrations out there – one uses the webservice and one uses MQTT. But as I don’t use Home Assistant and/or Homey myself, I don’t know much about the integration, but you can find more info. here:
      – Homey: https://community.homey.app/t/el-maler-echelon-nes-fra-konstant-i-homey/69045
      – Home Assistant: https://www.dabbler.dk/index.php/2022/02/20/guest-writer-echelon-nes-smart-meters-home-assistant-integration/

      Please share your solution with us so others can get inspired too! 🙂

      1. Hi Gert
        I have got my webserver to pass the home page for data, it just only word as long the login session work, here after it want my to login agian.
        Can I get the data without logging in?

          1. Hi Gert

            I have managed to do what I want to do.
            I took the part of the code that generated the table on the “home page” and put it hidden on the dashboard. I have when PHP to read this part of the page. It works for me.
            I’ve been thinking about making a new page, maybe one day I will.
            I’m also investigating in MQTT, maybe I’ll use this instead.
            Allan

  2. Hi!
    Just to inform you: New MEP interface also works on NES 4. Gen. SmartMeter.
    I’ve changed from 3. Gen. to 4. Gen. because I have Solar Panels. 3. Gen. are using Phase measuring principle.
    Phase measuring does not measure correctly if you are e.g., importing power at phase 1 and 2 and exporting on phase 3. 4. Gen. are using Summation measuring principle which can measure simultaneously correct on import/export on all 3 phases. But 4. Gen. meter does not have a slot for esp32 board! To make it worse, connectors are hidden behind the cover. Don’t remove cover yourself(!) There is an alarm transmitted to your provider if you break seal on cover.
    In my case I asked the friendly Electrician if it was OK to mount a cable with all interesting signals when he was doing installation 😊 No problem! I have prepared a cable with ferrules so I will get a stable connection.
    In other end of cable, I use a 12 pin Molex Minifit JR connector for easy access.
    If Interested I have a pdf doc with tables and photos…
    BR/Per

    1. Hi Per,
      Thank you for your message.

      We are aware that she module also work on Gen. 4 meters, but we don’t have one ourselves – so we cannot test it.
      On boot the software read out meter settings to determine if it is a gen. 3 or 4 software and configure itself accordingly.

      There is a free 3D printed enclosure design for mounting outside the meter here: https://www.dabbler.dk/index.php/2023/01/15/echelon-nes-smart-meter-enclosure-for-the-www-dabbler-dk-mep-module/

      And http://www.uStepper.com also sell a Gen. 4 add-on package here with case, cable and interface board: https://ustepper.com/shop/home/28-dabbler-mep-interface-adapter-nes-v4.html

      If you have a document you will like to share, please forward it to gert@dabbler.dk and I’ll be happy to put it on the blog with full credits to you 🙂

  3. I bought one of the uStepper boards, and I’ve added the MBK key. I get almost no successful data communication, but only “Meter response: 0x0B Authentication failure” and “Meter response: 0x0C Invalid sequence number (this is normal for 1st and some later requests – caused by Meter comunicating with the uplink)”. I wonder if you have seen such error messages during your development, and knows what I should try to fix it. Sometimes (like three times yesterday, none at all today) I get a successful response, so I don’t think the key is wrong.

      1. Hi Alexander,
        “[Alert]” just means that the alert-sequence (hex “00 00”) was received from the meter. There can be multiple causes of this, but summarized it just means: The meter got some data for the module that the module should read.
        The module is supposed to read the data and thereby clear the alert-flag on the meter (otherwise the meter will continue to send the hex “00 00” seqence at some interval).
        I know for sure this (reading the cause of the alert) woked at some point, but it seems it might be broken currently (or some other errors are preventing the reading of the cause might be the 0x0B or 0x0C you are also seeing). The module is suppose to read the cause of the “alert” (according to the doc. the meter might stop the communication if the “alert” sequence is not handled correctly).
        I’m currently on vacation, but will look into this as soon as time permits.
        Sorry for the inconveince.
        Best regard
        Gert Lynge, gert@dabbler.dk

      1. Hi Karsten
        Please see my reply to Alexander.
        Apparently we have an issue when our software is run on some of the uStepper boards.
        I’ll try to investigate as soon as time permits, but unfortunately I’m on summer vacation at the moment.
        Sorry for the inconveince.
        Best regard
        Gert Lynge, gert@dabbler.dk

  4. Hi Gert!
    I’m trying to visualize data om my smartphone via a MQTT server.
    In my case a Synology NAS. I can display e.g Fwd_W and Rev_W om my phone using IoT MQTT Panel app. My problem is if I want to make a curve… I’m not sure on exact syntax… Can’t make it work!
    Could you please give an example in JSON format, Thanks in advance, BR Per

  5. Hej.

    Jeg installerede denne igår, fik data i ca. 6 timer derefter stoppede dataflow og jeg kan se kun dette:

    0x30 Full Table Read 0x0017 BT23 Current Register Data
    Meter response: 0x0C Invalid sequence number (this is normal for 1st and some later requests – caused by Meter comunicating with the uplink)
    samt at den ændre kun på dette: BT men, intet kommer frem

    samt dette :

    0x0C Invalid sequence number (this is normal for 1st and some later requests – caused by Meter comunicating with the uplink)

    eller denne:

    0x30 Full Table Read 0x001C BT28 Present Register Data
    Meter response: 0x0B Authentication failure

    men igen, den virkede ca i 6 timer og det er den rigtige krypterings nøgle som der bliver brugt og var implementeret i min Home assistant, men så stoppede den ca. kl. 02 om natten.

    du skulle vel ikke kunne hjælpe lidt her?

    1. Hej
      Prøv lige at tage fat på uStepper (contact@ustepper.com) – det ligner noget vi har set før, og der var grunden en ustabil strømforsyning på modulet.
      Der er noget med at det kan testes/afklares ved at strømforsyne modulet via USB-C-porten, men jeg kender ikke lige detaljerne omkring det (om man blot kan sætte strøm til, eller noget skal ændres først).
      Håber du får liv i modulet.
      MVH
      gert@dabbler.dk

      1. Hej. Jeg er også blevet indehaver af dette modul og har præcis samme historie med at de første 6-7 timer var der enkelte problemer engang imellem hvor den faldt ud men fik fint data læst ud udover et par minutter udfald pga det. Men nu får jeg konstant authentication failure præcis som tidligere kommentar beskriver. Har sendt mail til ustepper, og så må vi se

Leave a Reply