Category: Hardware

Misc. hardware stuff

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Echelon/NES Smart Meters – the beginning

Echelon logo

This will be a multi part post as we spent the last year in collecting all the pieces of the puzzle to connect to and get data from our Echelon Type 83331-3IAAD meter. Like others trying to do this, we hit a lot of “red tape”, lack of knowledge from involved partners, confusions and even deliberate mis-information. But in the end we actually succeeded and now have all the pieces to complete the puzzle. We are working on finalizing a tinker solution, but are still under a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement from the current technology owner NES (Networked Energy Services). Luckily NES is working hard on releasing the required information as open source through OSGP Alliance (OSGP is short of Open Smart Grid Protocol). We have been promised this will happen “soon” (and have received drafts of the documents – so we are pretty sure it will happen soon). This is the start of the process that hopefully will make it possible to share the knowledge with you.

Shoutout to the guys and girls at the just finished sommerhack.dk: Thank for a great gathering and for listening to our Echelon stories… And an additional shoutout to Georg Sluyterman, who is running BefriDinElmåler.dk and is beta-testing our prototype in his Echelon Power Meter.

For a few years Graves and Gert have been trying to create a solution to read out our power consumption from our so-called Smart Meter: Echelon Type 83331-3IAAD.

Initially we hoped to be able to read the meter data through the IR (Infra Red) “eye” on the meter. This seems to be possible on meters from other manufacturers, (i.e. Kamstrup) and HAL9K even shared the required hardware for it.

We spent quite some time on this “rabbit hole”, but eventually found internet sources mentioning this interface is encrypted and you need to obtain a key from your power network provider to decrypt this interface on our Echelon meter. It seems this interface is used during production of the meter and have a bunch of features. Unfortunately our guess is also that the security of this port has been compromised as our power network provider N1 simply refuses to hand over the required keys. We have not found any real evidence of this, but if you have any information regarding this, please enlighten us in the comments :-).

At this point in time we reached out to our power company, which referred us to N1. We started pushing N1 for information on how to integrate with the meter (as you are supposed to be able to do this by law) and keys for the IR port, but is seemed like a dead end. Others have tried with no success – and we did expect kind of the same result… We thought that the guys at N1 withheld information from us on purpose… Today we know it is more likely they simply did not have much usable information and only knew that they would/could not hand out the IR encryption keys.

The obvious next step was to start counting the LEDs blinking on the meter. Other have successfully implemented this very simple interface, and we know it is possible to follow the power consumption by counting the LED blinks, and maybe even get the real time consumption by measuring the blinking frequency. Although this will work and we also went down this path for a while, it is not really a nice solution. You cannot read the exact counter shown on the meter and get other available information etc.

During our research we also found that our power network provider (N1) at least at some point might have offered an electrical interface pulsing the same way as the LED. Apparently you had to rent it for a monthly fee… In other words, not for tinkeres like us….

The ironic part is that the meter in fact have screw terminals for different interfaces (M-Bus and something called “MEP” – we’ll discuss that in our next post), but on our meter they are hidden behind a protected/sealed cover. And you are NOT allowed to break the seals in any way. It is simply illegal for consumers to do that in Denmark.

At this point in time we kind of gave up… Apparently it is not possible to get to the meter data in a real usable/electronic way. And N1 is not providing much help….

…or rather – we gave up for a while – stay tuned for our next post :-)…

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Echelon/NES Smart Meters – dabbler.dk rebooted

We have been quiet for a while. Not because we have not been tinkering, but because we’ve been very busy tinkering.

To be precise we’ve been tinkering with our Echelon type 83331-3IAAD Smart Meters (power meters) and how to read out the consumption in a nice way…

Echelon type 83331-3IAAD Smart Meters (power meter)

At the Danish gathering Sommerhack.dk 2021 we’ll be presenting a session (Friday @ 16:00 CET) about our process and the current state of this project. See you there?

It is yet to be determined how much details we can share because we are currently under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) with the product owner NES (Networked Energy Services) about the details… But that will hopefully change soon.

Are you interested in communicating with your Echelon Smart Meter?

Stay tuned for more info. on how to do it… coming to dabbler.dk very soon now…

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Arduino IDE v1.8.9, esp32 v1.0.2 and ulptool v2.3.0

Arduino logo

Are you messing with ultra low power esp32 code and have tried to setup the ulptool example from duff2013s GitHub in Arduino IDE v1.8.9 with Espressif Systems esp32 v1.0.2?

Maybe you got a lot of strange compile errors like these?

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\tools\ulptool\src/esp32ulp_build_recipe.py", line 506, in 
 main(sys.argv[1:])
 File "C:\Users\
<your user name>\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\tools\ulptool\src/esp32ulp_build_recipe.py", line 106, in main
 build_ulp(PATHS, ulp_files, board_options, True)
 File "C:\Users\
<your user name>\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\tools\ulptool\src/esp32ulp_build_recipe.py", line 136, in build_ulp
 proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd[1],stdout=subprocess.PIPE,stderr=subprocess.PIPE,shell=False)
 File "C:\Python27\lib\subprocess.py", line 394, in init
 errread, errwrite)
 File "C:\Python27\lib\subprocess.py", line 644, in _execute_child
 startupinfo)
 WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified
 exit status 1
 Error compiling for board ESP32 Dev Module.

Note: This error is also reported here: https://github.com/duff2013/ulptool/issues/35

It is quite a simple fix: The error is probably caused by Espressif Systems moving around some files in esp32 v.1.0.2 – or actually renaming a catalog.

You just need to edit a single file in ulptool v2.3.0. Simply open your platform.local.txt file and change the line:

compiler.ulp.path={runtime.tools.ulptool.path}/esp32ulp-elf-binutils/bin/

…to…

compiler.ulp.path={runtime.tools.ulptool.path}/bin/

…and you are “back in business” :-).

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Commodore 64 s/n U.K.B1717794 Repair Log (Work In Progress)

Commodore logo

Do you have a defective / non working Commodore 64 breadbin?
I probably want it!
Make me an offer on gert@dabbler.dk and state if you want to sell it or swap it for this working one (you will have to pay my costs in parts and shipping – but not my time) 🙂

 

Purchased 22th August 2017 on eBay:

  • Breadbin: SER.NO.U.K.B1717794
  • Motherboard: S/N 938896, assy No. 250407, artwork no. 251137, rev. B. Made in Hong Kong

 

Chips:

  • U1: CIA, MOS 6526, week 25, 1984
  • U2: CIA, MOS 6526, week 19, 1984
  • U3: BASIC ROM, MOS 901226-01, week 25, 1984
  • U4: Kernal ROM, MOS 901227-03, week 24, 1984
  • U5: Character ROM, MOS 901225-01 (no week and year)
  • U6: Color RAM, MM2114N (no week and year)
  • U7: CPU, MOS 6510, week 29, 1984
  • U17: PLA, MOS 906114-01, week 22, 1984
  • U18: SID, MOS 6581, week 25, 1984
  • U19, VIC2, MOS 6569R2, week 25, 1984
  • RAM, 8*Mitsubishi Electric M5K4164ANP

 

Sellers description:

Commodore 64 keyboard.
No other items with this.
I have confirmed the power light lights up when plugging my power pack in.
2 loose buttons, included. Can be glued back on.

 

Repair log:

  • 4 loose buttons (F1, +, C= and Run/Stop). Replaced plundgers
  • Plastic screw holes for motherboard damaged. Repaired/recreated/strengthened with hot glue
  • Cabinet screw holes damaged. Repaired/recreated with hot glue
  • F7/F8 not working – broken trace on keyboard PCB repaired
  • U25 (MOS7708, week 23, 1984) defective. Black screen but with video sync. Replaced with HD74LS257P. Board hard do desolder on because of corrosion, so damaged 3 tracks. Those repaired with wires.

 

Work in progress:

  • 1 wobling button (V). Glue half broken plundger if possible – otherwise replace
  • Cleaning
  • re-capping motherboard/RF-module
  • Heatsinking larger MOS chips
  • Overvoltage protection on motherboard (P6KE6.8CA)
  • Build a PSU

 

Costs (total DKK 800):

  • Breadbin: DKK 400,-
  • Plundgers: DKK 75,-
  • PSU (transformator, wire, connector): DKK 225,-
  • Misc.: DKK 100,-

Let me know if you will buy it for my costs when it is done 🙂

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Commodore 64 s/n U.K.B1309074 Repair Log (Work In Progress)

Commodore logo

Do you have a defective / non working Commodore 64 breadbin?
I probably want it!
Make me an offer on gert@dabbler.dk and state if you want to sell it or swap it for this working one (you will have to pay my costs in parts and shipping – but not my time) 🙂

 

Purchased 18th August 2017 on eBay:

  • Breadbin: SER.NO.U.K.B1309074
  • PSU: Part No. 310200-04
  • Datasette: C2N, Serial No 2871008, Made in Taiwan
  • Joystick: Spectravideo, model 318-102
  • Original Commodore 64 MicroComputer User Manual, 1984, Printed in England
  • The Commodore 64 Games Book – 21 Sensational Games by Oweb Bishop, 1983, Printed in Great Britain
  • Motherboard: S/N 057894, assy No. 250425, Made in Hong Kong

 

Chips:

  • U1: CIA, MOS 6526, week 31, 1984
  • U2: CIA, MOS 6526, week 31, 1984
  • U3: BASIC ROM, MOS 901226-01, week 28, 1984
  • U4: Kernal ROM, MOS 901227-03, 1983 (no week)
  • U5: Character ROM, MOS 901225-01, week 33, 1984
  • U6: Color RAM, MM2114N, week 24, 1984
  • U7: CPU, MOS 6510, week 31, 1984
  • U17: PLA, MOS 906114-01, week 27, 1984
  • U18: SID, MOS 6581, week 28, 1984
  • U19, VIC2, MOS 6569R2, week 35, 1984. Defective replaced by TDB
  • U31, MOS 8701, week 34, 1984. Defective replaced by TDB
  • RAM, 8*NEC D4164-2

 

Sellers description:

Good Commodore 64 personal computer, tape player, 1 joystick, leads + power pack.
The power pack overheated at one stage but still worked – hence the tape around it.
I have not tested to see if the power pack will still work but I would say it was much safer to use an alternative power pack!
The Commodore has not recently been tested but was working when last used and has been well looked after so I do not see there would be any problems with it.
No original packaging.

 

Repair log:

  • Black screen of Death. No clock on MOS 8701. Replaced
  • Grey screen of Death (blue border). VIC2 defective. Replaced.
  • Glued datasette connector (broken plastic). Ground wire torn – hidden in connector (rarely used anyway).
  • Trashed PSU as it is non-repairable (covered in un-removable epoxy). Salvaged wire/connector for Commodore 64
  • Re-capped motherboard
  • Cleaned and lubricated datasette
  • Changed both drive belts in datasette

 

Work in progress:

  • Heatsinking larger MOS chips
  • Put week+year of new 8701 and VIC2 in here 🙂
  • Overvoltage protection on motherboard (P6KE6.8CA)
  • Re-capping datasette
  • Build new PSU
  • Clean/test joystick

 

Costs (total DKK 1.000):

  • Breadbin, joystick, books and datasette: DKK 500.-
  • MOS 8701: DKK 100,-
  • VIC2: DKK 175,-
  • PSU (transformator): DKK 125,-
  • Misc.: DKK 100,-

Let me know if you will buy it for my costs when it is done 🙂

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A Commodore 64 Diagnostic Cartridge on Steroids

Commodore logo

Unfortunately I did’nt win Jan Betas Commodore 64 Cartridge give away, so I had to build my own. And why not take it to the next level:

  • Winbound W27C512-45Z EEPROMs
    10 pcs bought on www.e-bay.com from a Top-rated seller. They were bought as used, but working. They shipped in 3 tubes, 2*4 pcs and 1*2 pcs. Strangely enough the 2 pcs in the same tube were defective (the programmer software warned about wrong IDs and was not able to erase them – not even with the ID-check turned off). The price was low and I’ve had them for some time before I found out, so I did’nt complain to the seller
  • TL866CS Mini USB high-performance universal programmer with 5 socket adapters
    I know I could have programmed my EEPROMs with a PC parallel port or an DIYArduino programmer, but I needed a programmer for other projects anyway
    Bought from www.satkit.com
  • C64 ROM Cartridge
    In future projects I’m planning to try to order prototype print online, but I did’nt have the PCB layout and currently have no experience in ordering PCBs online. So i choose to buy something working and even got a plastic case.
    Bought from www.TheFutureWas8bit.com

Then the task was simply to figure out how the Cartridge PCB works.

The PCB is delivered with a plastic case, but I don’t use it. I need to have full access to the jumpers and EEPROM so I can re-program it.

WARNING: All the jumpers have default traces on the PCB you need to break before installing pin headers for jumpers. If you don’t need jumpers, you should leave the traces alone so the pins are not floating :-).

Then I made a plan for which ROMs I wanted to put on the EEPROM and at which address in the EEPROM. You could install one ROM per EEPROM, but since all the diagnostic ROMs i found were 8KB and the EEPROM was 64KB it would waste a lot of EEPROM space.

Luckily the A13, A14 and A15 jumpers on the ROM cartridge actually makes it possible to choose 8 different “banks” of 8KB out of the 64KB EEPROM. So in fact the 3 jumpers will choose between up to 8 ROMS of 8KB each.

In the following table “L” or “R” tells if the jumper should be installed in the Left or Right position. Note that hex 2000 is actually 8KB (8.192 bytes).

EEPROM
addr.		 A13-A15 Game/
ExROM		 ROM
L/H
Dead Test 781220 0x00000 LLL L R
Diagnostic 586220 0x02000 RLL R L
Diagnostic 4.1.0 0x04000 LRL R L
Diagnostic 324517 0x06000 RRL R L
Doktor 64 0x08000 LLR R L
(Empty) 0x0A000 RLR n/a n/a
(Empty) 0x0C000 LRR n/a n/a
1541 Diagnostic 0x0E000 RRR R L

I’ve also filled in the Game/ExROM and ROM Low/High configuration as the Dead Test ROM is special: it runs in Ultimax mode at 0xE000 (ROM high), while the other ROMs I use runs in Game mode at 0x8000 (ROM low).
Note that the Game/ExROM jumper probably should have been named ExROM/Game as ExROM/Ultimax is active when it is set in the left position.

Commodore 64 Cartridge
Commodore 64 Cartridge

Thanks to WorldOfJani for providing the ROMs for download on the blog. Note that you need to burn the .bin file as the .crt file is for Commodore 64 emulators.

Hint: When you load the individual ROMs in MiniPro (the software included with the programmer), it is possible to disabling clearing the programming buffer before loading and also setting the loading address according to the table above.

After burning the ROM, I found that the Diagnostic 324517 did’nt work – the Commodore 64 just started as if no cartridge was inserted. Af re-burning the EEPROM a few times, I realized that the .bin file is corrupt and converted the .crt file to a .bin fil using CARTCONV.EXE from the VICE Commodore 64 emulator. That worked. I’ve added a comment on the WorldOfJani blog about that.

On my to-do list is to create the two different test harness required by four of the ROMs.

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Commodore 64 s/n U.K.B1697889 Repair Log

Commodore logo

Do you have a defective / non working Commodore 64 breadbin?
I probably want it!
Make me an offer on gert@dabbler.dk and state if you want to sell it or swap it for this working one (you will have to pay my costs in parts and shipping – but not my time) 🙂

 

Purchased 8th August 2017 on eBay:

  • Breadbin: SER.NO.U.K.B1697889
  • PSU: Part no. 251 053-11
  • Datasette: C2N, Serial No 01202217, Made in Taiwan
  • Motherboard: S/N UA196145, assy No. 250407, artwork no. 251137, rev. B. Made in Hong Kong

 

Chips:

  • U1: CIA, MOS 6526, week 39, 1984
  • U2: CIA, MOS 6526, week 39, 1984
  • U3: BASIC ROM, MOS 901226-01, week 28, 1984
  • U4: Kernal ROM, MOS 901227-03, week 36, 1984
  • U5: Character ROM, MOS 901225-01, (no week/year)
  • U6: Color RAM, MM2114N, week 32, 1984
  • U7: CPU, MOS 6510, week 27, 1984
  • U17: PLA, MOS 906114-01, week 35, 1984
  • U18: SID, MOS 6581, week 34, 1984. Defective – replaced with 6581R4AR, week 14, 1990
  • U19, VIC2, MOS 6569R3, week 39, 1984
  • RAM, 7*OKI M3764-20, 1*Sharp LH2164-15

 

Sellers description:

Commodore 64 Computer C64 Breadbin With Power & Datasette Faulty Spares & Repairs BUY NOW.
Greet Computer found in job lot of items and will sadly not power on ?
Maybe easy fix for someone or at least loads of spares. Comes with power pack and datasette only.

 

Repair log:

  • 9v, 1.5A fuse in PSU blown, changed
  • SID defective, black screen. Works w/o sound when removed. Replaced with spare
  • PSU 5v rail rebuild for future proofing:
    7805 voltage regulator, original electrolytic capacitor and a few other passive components  replaced with 3A buck converter with 4700uF 25v electrolytic capacitor on input. Patched in after diode rectifier.
  • Re-capped motherboard
  • Future proofed the larger MOS chips which heat sinks
  • Cleaned and lubricated datasette
  • Re-capped datasette
  • Fixed ticking noice from datasette when fast forwarding with a piece of heat shrink tube (se picture)
  • Changed both drive belts in datasette
  • Over-voltage protection of 5v PSU-rail on motherboard (installed P6KE6.8CA)

 

Costs (total DKK 875):

  • Breadbin, PSU and datasette: DKK 525.-
  • SID: DKK 250,-
  • Misc.: DKK 100,-

Let me know if you will buy or swap with this unit 🙂