Thank you for this project! I tried to achieve the same with ESPHome, but failed to calibrate the sensor. The dashboard with the analog sensor really helps with that.

However, I am still facing issues with bouncing. Sometimes one round results in a spike of the measured kW. See screenshot from my sensor in Home-Assistant.

I already tried adjusting the poti and the debouncing time for the sensor in the configuration. But it's hard to test because the spike only happen sporadically.

How can I best avoid these spikes?
Higher debouncing time? Lower debouncing time?

Thank you!

For some reason the NodeMCU stop working.
After a while (days) it stops sending data over MQTT and isn´t connected to wlan.
An other device (NodeMCU other firmware at same position) is working well for months.

Hi Eisbaeeer,
under dashbord i get the message : There are no items defined in the JSON file
There is no configuration.

Is there somthing missing in the bin or did i make a mistake?

I'd like to see home assistant mqtt auto-discovery with this firmware, so i can easily see and adjust settings as needed.

I am actually already working on it, see: https://github.com/ss89/Ferraris_MQTT_Energy_Counter_Meter_TCRT5000/commits/add-home-assistant-discovery

IMHO the unit of the meters should be configurable, so that the end-user can decide which meter they are reading.

In my case I want to put the device in a room where i have one of each:

• power meter
• gas meter
• water meter

Hi,

I try to make this project run on my NodeMcu v3 and can build and deploy it using PlatformIO without any issues.
My goal is to have later 2 TCRT5000 connected to measure on a single Ferraris counter but with 2 directional detection.

The problem starts when opening the captive portal in the browser to enter my personal Wifi connection data.

My steps to reproduce

1. restart the NodeMcu and start Serial Monitor (in VS Code): message says "Opened a captive portal", blue LED is on.
2. connect to wifi "Ferraris MQTT": browser opens automatically the 192.168.4.1 with showing the Wifi settings

when the page has loaded, immediately the serial monitor shows an unhandled C++ exception and the whole NodeMcu crashes and restarts:

The exception starts like this:

Opened a captive portal
192.168.4.1

User exception (panic/abort/assert)
--------------- CUT HERE FOR EXCEPTION DECODER ---------------

Unhandled C++ exception: OOM

>>>stack>>>

ctx: sys
sp: 3fffedf0 end: 3fffffb0 offset: 0010
3fffee00:  3fffb05c 4021993c 00000144 4022e896  
3fffee10:  00000000 3fff1684 3fffb05c 4021993c
...

and the bottom of the stack trace shows the beginning always like this:

...
0x4027fef0 in pm_wakeup_init at ??:?
0x4021164c in WiFiUDP::parsePacket() at C:\Users\***\.platformio\packages\framework-arduinoespressif8266\libraries\ESP8266WiFi\src/WiFiUdp.cpp:198
0x40233dec in PubSubClient::connected() at .pio\libdeps\nodemcuv2\PubSubClient\src/PubSubClient.cpp:689
0x402299d9 in PubSubClient::loop() at .pio\libdeps\nodemcuv2\PubSubClient\src/PubSubClient.cpp:371
0x402069f5 in WifiManager::loop() at .pio\libdeps\nodemcuv2\ESP8266 IoT Framework\src/WiFiManager.cpp:245
0x4020aef9 in loop at src/main.cpp:370 (discriminator 2)
0x4020b0ab in setup at src/main.cpp:306
0x40100680 in ets_post at C:\Users\***\.platformio\packages\framework-arduinoespressif8266\cores\esp8266/core_esp8266_main.cpp:238
0x401006a1 in esp_schedule at C:\Users\***\.platformio\packages\framework-arduinoespressif8266\cores\esp8266/core_esp8266_main.cpp:136
0x4022ecca in loop_wrapper() at C:\Users\***\.platformio\packages\framework-arduinoespressif8266\cores\esp8266/core_esp8266_main.cpp:264


last failed alloc call: 40219778(324)

--------------- CUT HERE FOR EXCEPTION DECODER ---------------

last failed alloc caller: 0x40219778

 ets Jan  8 2013,rst cause:2, boot mode:(3,6)

load 0x4010f000, len 3424, room 16
tail 0
chksum 0x2e
load 0x3fff20b8, len 40, room 8
tail 0
chksum 0x2b
csum 0x2b
v000f1190
~ld

How can I make it run without crashing?
Any help is appreciated!

Hallo

Währe es möglich ein OLED Display mit einzubinden

LG Gerrit

I'm using mosquitto as a MQTT broker and homeAssistant (HA) for home automation. HA wasn't able to auto discover the energy meter, as it won't announce itself over MQTT and is not using json to report itself as a device (or 4 devices). I had to fiddle with config files and parsing of announces values to get correct entities into HA.
It would be really helpful to announce your device over MQTT and use json to transmit the recorded values. You can find examples at: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/mqtt/discovery/

With installed solar panels it might happen that the Ferraris Meter runs in reverse order as energy is fed into the electric net if the panels provide more energy as consumed locally. So far the project does not detect the direction change and the energy supplied is counted as consumtion.

With two TCRT5000 modules the rotating direction of the meter disk can be detected by evaluating the detection sequence of the disc mark. This should result in either a message reporting the direction or a negative value of the power calculated or both.

As this project supports several meters with a TCRT-module per each, one approach could be to combine the detection of two TCRT-modules mounted to the screen of one meter.

I already developed a design how to mount two TCRT5000 modules to the meter screen. You can find it in https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5820811

Hi Eisbaeer,

i found your ferraris counter am I'm thrilled.
Gerate job.
I have one more request.
Is it possible to increase the number of digits in the password and the username to 24 digits?
I would like to send the data to thingspeak because i can only access the internet via my neighbor's wifi there.
The thinkspeak mqtt access generate usernames and passwords with 24 digits.

Thanks

Grüße aus Frankfurt/Main

Marcus

Currently for each new meter we want to add, we do need to add a lot of code.

This should be more flexible in my opinion, as in the easiest case i should only have to raise the number of meters and recompile my firmware (maybe not even that?). Depending on the setup of the pins, we'd have to predefine all possible meter to pin configurations.

If we ignore the most flexible way, then i could think of some pre-compiler stuff and we'd be good.

Maybe there is an even smarter way, that doesn't even need pre-compiler magic?

Hi, tolles Projekt, schade dass ich erst jetzt darauf gestoßen bin.
Ich hab gerade festgestellt, dass ich mit den kWh von meinem Zähler nicht arbeiten kann, denn dies führt zum Zahlenüberlauf.
Ich muss von 2218269 die beiden ersten Stellen weglassen, damit der Wert noch in einen int32_t passt.

Hi, great project, too bad I only came across it now.
I just realized that I can't work with the kWh from my meter, because this leads to number overflow.
I have to leave out the first two digits from 2218269 so that the value still fits into an int32_t.

cu
Gelbwichtel

Hallo ich habe mal eine frage ich habe nur einen Zähler und bekomme immer alle angezeigt

gibt es eine Möglichkeit die unnötigen zu deaktivieren ?

LG Gerrit

Ab und zu friert der esp ein. Dann muss ich immer ein reset machen. Könnte es sein das der eprom Speicher voll läuft?
Nutze einen NodeMCU Lolin V3 Module ESP8266 ESP-12F WIFI

The device is exposing the current energy flow (as kW - it would be more useful to announce it as W) and how much energy has been used since it was installed (as kWh). Providing a daily count would be useful too (in kWh), which resets itself to 0 at 00:00 AM.

Whenever I visit the config page, the MQTT password is revealed as plain text. It would be more practical to hide the password once it was saved, as other devices are doing this too.