New Brultech Energy Monitoring Model (ECM-1240) due in 2009

[lmamakos]

I just placed an order for the "A+/200" product and a USB Zigbee adapter. Has anyone received one yet and can estimate order processing/shipping time?

I too am keenly interested in the protocol documentation, as I need to integrated into my homebrew home automation system. Presently, it interfaces to my Elk M1G and a bunch of Dallas Semi 1wire temperature and humidity probes on a FreeBSD box. Windoze software won't do me much good, other than perhaps initial configuration. I saw some VB code around somewhere for the 1220 product.. perhaps it will be largely similar to that.

For me, having the Elk Products people post on their web site the protocol for talking to their M1 Gold product "sealed the deal" for me and drove my purchasing decision for their alarm system vs any of their competitor's products. I'd think the same would be the case for devices like this, where the value-add probably isn't in putting the bits on the wire but building well designed hardware that works reliably. I'm not sure what the big secret is.

 

[sda]

I too am keenly interested in the protocol documentation, as I need to integrated into my homebrew home automation system.
...
I'm not sure what the big secret is.

I found this document for the 1220 a couple of months ago, and it wasn't from brultech.com. It may not be up to date, but it satisfied my curiosity as to what the thing is doing. According to the pre-release info about the 1240, its supposed to have similar operation. Brultech should put this type of technical info and more on their website. IMHO, for a company trying to sell me something, their website needs some work.

View attachment brultech_ecm1220_PacketFormat.pdf

 

[moridin1138]

Brultech should put this type of technical info and more on their website. IMHO, for a company trying to sell me something, their website needs some work.

Thanks for the upload.

I agree that the site needs some serious work. Like farmed out to a design company or something. Right now it gives off a very mid-90's, mom and pop type look.

In the end I am looking for quality in the hardware though. So from what I can tell electrical engineering is more their thing...

 

[moridin1138]

Got an email yesterday with an executable for ECM1240. Fairly basic app, obviously for Windows. Hopefully the packet header info will be released soon so I can have something up and running on Linux in good time.

Also just called them up as I hadn't heard anything with regards to actually receiving the device and apparently I was accidentally missed on the emails sent out with tracking numbers.
Good news is that it's been shipped though, so it shouldn't be long now at all.

 

[moridin1138]

... so it shouldn't be long now at all.

Just got delivered now. Guess I spoke too soon.

 

[mdiehl]

... so it shouldn't be long now at all.

Just got delivered now. Guess I spoke too soon.

Well, is it installed yet and how's it workin'??? If the basic hardware looks good and we can talk to it and get usable data with a terminal program, that's all I need to know for now

 

[lmamakos]

... so it shouldn't be long now at all.

Just got delivered now. Guess I spoke too soon.

Well, is it installed yet and how's it workin'??? If the basic hardware looks good and we can talk to it and get usable data with a terminal program, that's all I need to know for now

I just received mine in the mail today, and am trying to get the wireless dongle to talk to the ECM-1240. There's really no documentation to speak of to help you set that up, and screwing around with the interface application tells me I got the USB drivers installed because I can talk to the USB device. I poked around the digi.com web site to find some programming docs on the XBee radio and started poking around to see if the USB dongle sees any other radios, and it doesn't seem to. Or is this just supposed to connect automagically, somehow?

Does anyone know if there's documentation on the U2Z USB dongle that explains what the operation of the LEDs are supposed to indicate? Also, anyone know what the "F1" and "F2" buttons on the ECM-1240 are supposed to do?

 

[Btech]

... so it shouldn't be long now at all.

Just got delivered now. Guess I spoke too soon.

Well, is it installed yet and how's it workin'??? If the basic hardware looks good and we can talk to it and get usable data with a terminal program, that's all I need to know for now

I just received mine in the mail today, and am trying to get the wireless dongle to talk to the ECM-1240. There's really no documentation to speak of to help you set that up, and screwing around with the interface application tells me I got the USB drivers installed because I can talk to the USB device. I poked around the digi.com web site to find some programming docs on the XBee radio and started poking around to see if the USB dongle sees any other radios, and it doesn't seem to. Or is this just supposed to connect automagically, somehow?

Does anyone know if there's documentation on the U2Z USB dongle that explains what the operation of the LEDs are supposed to indicate? Also, anyone know what the "F1" and "F2" buttons on the ECM-1240 are supposed to do?

The documentation is sketchy right now. I can call you and help you through or you can email me @ [email protected]. We rushed the release of this product. It does work fine, but lacks proper documentation and software. We will be setting up a web page for updates as they become available.

Paul

 

[Btech]

... so it shouldn't be long now at all.

Just got delivered now. Guess I spoke too soon.

Well, is it installed yet and how's it workin'??? If the basic hardware looks good and we can talk to it and get usable data with a terminal program, that's all I need to know for now

I just received mine in the mail today, and am trying to get the wireless dongle to talk to the ECM-1240. There's really no documentation to speak of to help you set that up, and screwing around with the interface application tells me I got the USB drivers installed because I can talk to the USB device. I poked around the digi.com web site to find some programming docs on the XBee radio and started poking around to see if the USB dongle sees any other radios, and it doesn't seem to. Or is this just supposed to connect automagically, somehow?

Does anyone know if there's documentation on the U2Z USB dongle that explains what the operation of the LEDs are supposed to indicate? Also, anyone know what the "F1" and "F2" buttons on the ECM-1240 are supposed to do?

The documentation is sketchy right now. I can call you and help you through or you can email me @ [email protected]. We rushed the release of this product. It does work fine, but lacks proper documentation and software. We will be setting up a web page for updates as they become available.

Paul

BTW, plug the dongle in a nearby computer, press F1 for 5+ seconds then release. The LEDs will be off, wait for the LEDs to come back on. This causes the monitor to discover the dongle (coordinator).

Paul

 

[moridin1138]

Well, is it installed yet and how's it workin'??? If the basic hardware looks good and we can talk to it and get usable data with a terminal program, that's all I need to know for now

Installed the CT's today and that was a cinch (being careful, of course). I don't have a ton of spare time with all the general life stuff going on, and I am also messing around with some other HA-type projects.

I am also going to go the RS232 route, so that will take a little extra time.

Ill post deets as soon as I can!

 

[lmamakos]

... so it shouldn't be long now at all.

Just got delivered now. Guess I spoke too soon.

Well, is it installed yet and how's it workin'??? If the basic hardware looks good and we can talk to it and get usable data with a terminal program, that's all I need to know for now

I just received mine in the mail today, and am trying to get the wireless dongle to talk to the ECM-1240. There's really no documentation to speak of to help you set that up, and screwing around with the interface application tells me I got the USB drivers installed because I can talk to the USB device. I poked around the digi.com web site to find some programming docs on the XBee radio and started poking around to see if the USB dongle sees any other radios, and it doesn't seem to. Or is this just supposed to connect automagically, somehow?

Does anyone know if there's documentation on the U2Z USB dongle that explains what the operation of the LEDs are supposed to indicate? Also, anyone know what the "F1" and "F2" buttons on the ECM-1240 are supposed to do?

The documentation is sketchy right now. I can call you and help you through or you can email me @ [email protected]. We rushed the release of this product. It does work fine, but lacks proper documentation and software. We will be setting up a web page for updates as they become available.

Paul

BTW, plug the dongle in a nearby computer, press F1 for 5+ seconds then release. The LEDs will be off, wait for the LEDs to come back on. This causes the monitor to discover the dongle (coordinator).

Paul

Just to follow-up: It's all working now!

The problem that I had all was due to having the wrong version of the USB Zigbee dongle firmware. While it might not be clear from the Brultech web site, there are two different versions, the repeater version (that I ended up with by mistake) and the "coordinator" version. Paul and I exchanged some email and he very helpfully walked me through the process for doing a firmware update on the USB dongle so I wouldn't need to swap it out. Once that was done, the data just comes flying out just as expected. And now I know just a little bit more about Zigbee than I did yesterday.

Thanks again to Paul for jumping in so quickly and for the rapid diagnosis and resolution.

I'm going to be installing my ECM-1240 at a remote location in a bit over a week, and now I'm confident I'll be able to get that installation done having worked out these connectivity problems in advance. I look forward to all the delicious data that will be forthcoming - the secret lives of the water heater, refrigerator, well pump and other appliances that are up to who knows what when we're gone.

 

[personalt]

I was wondering... What is the max RS232 cable length any try using with this unit?

I have the 'older' unit now and had some issues where when I ran the CT cable in a soffit with my wires the current from the wires running in soffit caused issues. I really want to just run rs232 from unit to my computer rather then extended all the cts.

I am too far to run wireless.

Anyone know what baud these units use?

From what I have read 9600 has a longer max cable lenth then 14,000 and faster. It seems in theory I might be able to go up to 500 ft at 9600

 

[Sokoloff]

I don't know the particulars of the Brultech unit, as the ancient RS-232 standard says 50', but in practice with good cable most modern units can do 4-10x that with no problem. If you need longer or more noise-immunity, there are line drivers (basically amplifiers/repeaters/signal shapers) that will allow you to extend your RS-232 link as far as you want in a private residence.

Try it out; it'll probably work. If not, toss a <$50 line driver on there.

Edit: I believe the Brultech unit uses 19200 baud. I wouldn't worry about trying to slow it down to get longer lengths; most likely a non-issue.

 

[personalt]

Is it too early to ask if there is going to be a Cocoontech deal on the new box?

 

[lmamakos]

I was wondering... What is the max RS232 cable length any try using with this unit?

I have the 'older' unit now and had some issues where when I ran the CT cable in a soffit with my wires the current from the wires running in soffit caused issues. I really want to just run rs232 from unit to my computer rather then extended all the cts.

I am too far to run wireless.

Anyone know what baud these units use?

From what I have read 9600 has a longer max cable lenth then 14,000 and faster. It seems in theory I might be able to go up to 500 ft at 9600

If you do the wireless version, you can drop in a repeater or two to extend the range. I would personally be concerned with a very long RS-232 cable, not because of the data rate (though it is single-ended vs. a differential pair, so you'll have to worry about noise being picked up). My worry is a nearby lightning strike, and the energy that will be induced in that long of a conductor going into those delicate RS-232 transceivers. In previous lives, I had this problem even with cable run underground..