Very Cheap TED 1001 House Power Monitors (and possible hacking)

I've noticed that there are a couple hundred TED 1001 power monitors available on ebay for < $18 shipped. They all seem to be NOS from the Dallas/Fort Worth Area, although from different sellers.
 
Before anyone gets too excited, and despite some descriptions from sellers that seem a little misleading, I believed these are the locked versions which means that the the usb port (really just a usb to serial adapter so I think easy to use) is disbled... but there is a possible hack?
 
TED sold two versions of this. One version was "TED 1001 with Footprints" and it came unlocked. The other required a $44.95 "upgrade" that somehow unlocked the serial port. However, they appear to no longer sell this upgrade. You can download the software here: http://www.theenergydetective.com/1000fp, but it only works with the unlocked version.
 
One seller is adverting "with footprints" but I think he just sends you the download link I included above (in his ebay feedback people said "locked unit"). I tried asking him if he just was selling the locked version and including the download link and he wouldn't answer (he said I would have to ask the manufacturerer?!?!).
 
So... given that these are locked units - are they worth buying?
 
The MTU (measuring transmitting unit) and the 2 CT (Current Transformers) seem worth the $15. However, these are NOT compatible with the newer TED 5000/Pros (and presumable anything else).
 
I see a couple of options. One is building your own MTU receiver (open source code and schematics are available):
http://scanlime.org/2009/02/open-source-extra-sensitive-high-resolution-ted-receiver/
 
The other is maybe hacking the TED 1001 display unit and tapping directily into the TDA5051A home automation modem chip:
http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/TDA5051A.pdf
 
I can't find a direct link to the hack right now, although it is discussed in these two places:
http://www.mavromatic.com/2008/01/the-energy-detective-ted-footprints-computer-power-monitoring-software/
http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/9157-the-energy-detective/?p=83534
 
I believe you basically cut the trace from the serial to usb adapter that goes to the receiver's microcontroller and reconnect it to data out on the TDA5051A, and then you get the RAW received signal from the powerline. I believe, but I am not sure... that this lets you get full access to the data from the TED from a locked unit without paying the $45 (if they will even sell it to you anymore) for the unlocking program. Seems like a really easy hack?
 
I was hoping people here would know more?
 
EDIT: This post seems to colaborate my thoughts on the modification:
http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.php?p=858638&postcount=156

Quite cheap.
 
http://gangliontwitch.com/ted/
 
I have seen reports of the PLC used between the units causing issues with X10 and Insteon, so it may be more desirable to tap into the signal at the measurement end and send it wirelessly or via wire.

Many power companies have already replaced house power meter with digital one, or in the process changing out old meter with digital one. The digital meter actually sends out RF signals for power usage all the time.  If you are interested in monitoring whole house power usage, it is probably easier to get a RF power monitor then register it with your power company.  If you are interested in its parts, it seems a good value.

So I decided that it was worth spending $15 to experiment. I also had to purchase a new 15A breaker ($7).
 
I just finished hooking everything up. It only took about 15 minutes and was pretty painless. At first nothing worked but it turns out I had forgotten to enter the house code into the receiver. I'll probably get around to doing to modification in the next few days and I'll post an update on how that goes.
 
EDIT: I went ahead and broke out the soldering iron. Took about 5 minutes. I used the perl script linked above and I'm getting power updates at 1Hz. Pretty cool!
 
The script does report quite a few with bad checksums - but the data actually looks OK and the sum errors are too peridic to be noise. I have a feeling that I need to tweek the script a bit more.
 
EDIT2: It turns out the checksums really *were* bad - I had a noisy switching power supply I removed from the wall and everything is good.

Have you noticed any interference with X-10 powerline devices (if you use those)?

Well you convinced me to try it out. I just ordered one and I have a house full of Insteon so when it gets in I'll try it out and report back...

Terry

BraveSirRobbin said:

Have you noticed any interference with X-10 powerline devices (if you use those)?

Click to expand...

 
I'm pretty much all Z-wave now except for some X-10 wireless motion sensors... but I will try to dig out some x10 lamp modules and put them on the same circuit and see if I have any problems.

So I got my TED in today and hooked it up in about 15 minutes. It seems to work well and doesn't interfere with the two dozen or so Insteon devices I have around the house.
 
Radengr, which perl script are you using? I saw a reference to a python script, but not perl. Perhaps I'm just missing it... Also, did you you happen to take a picture of the board before and after your modifications? I'm going to give this a try this weekend and some visual references would make me more comfortable.
 
Thanks,
Terry
 
EDIT:  Oops, never mind. Missed az1324's link...
 
 
 

radengr said:

So I decided that it was worth spending $15 to experiment. I also had to purchase a new 15A breaker ($7).
 
I just finished hooking everything up. It only took about 15 minutes and was pretty painless. At first nothing worked but it turns out I had forgotten to enter the house code into the receiver. I'll probably get around to doing to modification in the next few days and I'll post an update on how that goes.
 
EDIT: I went ahead and broke out the soldering iron. Took about 5 minutes. I used the perl script linked above and I'm getting power updates at 1Hz. Pretty cool!
 
The script does report quite a few with bad checksums - but the data actually looks OK and the sum errors are too peridic to be noise. I have a feeling that I need to tweek the script a bit more.
 
EDIT2: It turns out the checksums really *were* bad - I had a noisy switching power supply I removed from the wall and everything is good.

Click to expand...

anyone know if you can get the data from 2 transmitters on one receiver serial port?

I received mine today. From one of the many vendors that seem to have them.
My vendor said did not include Footprints or would it work with Footprints.
It came with an addendum for installation. The connection cable had a Red unused wire to be capped off and a TED Model: 5000 MTU sending unit.
The TED5000 does use the red wire.

BLH said:

It came with an addendum for installation. The connection cable had a Red unused wire to be capped off and a TED Model: 5000 MTU sending unit.
The TED5000 does use the red wire.

Click to expand...

Mine also came with a 5000 MTU.  It's interesting that the TED 5000 install guide http://files.theenergydetective.com/QuickStart-Installation%20v110510.pdf says to connect the black and red wires to the two phases so the gateway can be plugged into an outlet on either phase.

Just ordered one here.
 
Are you guys using the TTL to serial or just configuring the USB port on these?

I found the MTU caused my XTB-IIR X10 repeater to start flashing noise problems.
I know the TED5000 {maybe the TED1001 also} sends messages every second timed to AC zero crossing. On a 132KHz frequency.
Yes almost the same as the Insteon 131.65KHz. I have not tried my Insteon system with the MTU running yet.
 
I may try a isolated circuit with an X10 filter and them modify the receiver. I would be using USB if I do it.

I think I'm going to need an isolated circuit also.  The LED in my Insteon light switch is flashing every second.  My CM15A can still control the light but reliability is now less than 100%.  Also the green LED on the RDU only flashes about once every 10 seconds so it is missing a lot of the MTU transmissions.

pete_c said:

Just ordered one here.
 
Are you guys using the TTL to serial or just configuring the USB port on these?

Click to expand...

 
I'm using the USB port, however I'm seeing unexpected results. Using a Mac since I run Indigo and the perl script linked above doesn't seem to work at all. Using python to dump the output to screen I see the following string (formatting mine): 'aa:df:fd:41:51:ff:b8:7e:93:3:16' The linked article mentioned that the packet is 11 bytes, the first byte being a constant 0x55 and the second byte being the MTU address. My first byte is always 0xAA and the second byte is always 0xDF which doesn't match my MTU address of 32. I'm also having no luck converting the other bytes in the packet to their respective power and voltage numbers. It's highly possible I'm doing something wrong, but I'm just note seeing it ATM...
 
On a different note, I also received the TED 5000 MTU. If I can get the above mess figured out, I'll tie in the red wire to see if the returned info changes any...
 
Terry