FLM capable of receiving P1 telegrams from multiple devices (including IR port)?

by ralphhendriks on

We have moved recently and I am presently looking for a means to monitor our new house's power exchange. From what I have seen so far, it looks like the FLM would meet all my needs. The electricity meter is a smart meter (make ISKRA) complying to the Dutch Smart Meter Requirements, thus sending telegrams through its P1 serial port. Connecting this meter to the FLM will be possible.

Our house is connected to the district heating system as well and I would also like to log the meter readings for heat consumption (and preferrable also hot water throughput). The heat meter is of Landis+Gyr make, model 2WR5. This meter does not have a P1 port, but does have an optical interface. I would like to try to use this to obtain the meter readings. I am planning to obtain a suitable IR reading head from Udo at volkszaehler.org (in German). This would convert the signals from IR to TTL levels so that the FLM could communicate in a P1-like fashion.

Before I do so, I am looking for the answer to the following questions:

  1. Does the hardware allow for multiple P1-ports to be read? In other words, does the system have more UARTs available that could be routed to the connection ports, or could it do software serial on the other ports? Otherwise I would need to FLMs and that appears a bit too much for now.
  2. Does anybody have experience in connecting an IR reading head to the FLM? (no previous experience does not mean one should try, of course)

Thanks a lot!

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ralphhendriks's picture
ralphhendriks |

Nobody?

icarus75's picture
icarus75 |

Establishing a connection to the heat meter at the physical layer is one thing, being able to talk the correct protocol is another. Did you investigate which protocol the heat meter is using on its optical port?

ralphhendriks's picture
ralphhendriks |

According to the datasheet it speaks EN 61107 (which is now largely superseded by IEC 62056). I assume this is a similar type of telegram-style protocol as the P1 port on Dutch smart meters use. I am considering ordering an optical reading head and experimenting on a PC.

That still leaves the question regarding the physical layer open. Does the FLM have a second UART available that could be connected externally for the connection of an optical probe (on top of connecting the P1 port for the electricity meter). If not, can we do bit banging (software serial) on the remaining ports? Or do we need additional hardware?