{"id":533,"date":"2022-03-13T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/?p=533"},"modified":"2023-01-11T17:19:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T17:19:36","slug":"echelon-nes-smart-meters-the-software-solution-to-a-hardware-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/2022\/03\/13\/echelon-nes-smart-meters-the-software-solution-to-a-hardware-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Echelon\/NES Smart Meters \u2013 the software solution to a hardware issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well, we warned you that software guys like us tend to come up with software solutions – even for hardware problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, no electronic engineers reached out to us with a solution for our (probably fake) MAX3232 issues, so we had to come up with a solution ourselves…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is off cause ok – and with the help of a cut PCB trace:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hardware
Hardware v1.03 – cut trace to solve MAX3232 issues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

… and a bodge wire:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hardware
Hardware v1.03 – bodge wire to solve MAX3232 issues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

… it seems we can persuade the MAX3232’s to play along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is off cause a temporary solution to test this fix – we need a new PCB prototype version if this works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: You will find others struggling with similar MAX232\/3232 issues on the Internet. Some are able to solve it with larger decoupling capacitors and some with resisters on the power pin – but that did not work for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our implementation is simply adding control of the power to the MAX3232 through software. When it mis-behaves we punish it by turning it off for a while. Then back on until it behaves…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: the max current a ESP32 digital pin can supply seems to be around 40mA and the max consumption of a MAX3232 is around 1mA. So we should be safe doing this “hack”…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are an electronic engineer you are probably finding this solution fun – but it seems to be working :-).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we are still waiting for the MEP Protocol specification to be released (and our NDA to be lifted), we’ll try to keep your entertained with more blog entries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned to www.dabbler.dk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, we warned you that software guys like us tend to come up with software solutions – even for hardware problems. As expected, no electronic engineers reached out to us with a solution for our (probably fake) MAX3232 issues, so we had to come up with a solution ourselves… That is off cause ok – … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Echelon\/NES Smart Meters \u2013 the software solution to a hardware issue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,40,6,5],"tags":[49,36,38,58,50],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arduino","category-esp32","category-hardware","category-software","tag-electronics","tag-esp32","tag-espressif-systems","tag-multi-purpose-expansion-port-mep","tag-smart-meter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dabbler.dk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}