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I'm afraid the last we heard was Rich was poorly and unable to accept orders for boards. Robin Emley is working on a pair of PCBs (he has prototypes - processor plus input circuitry on one, triac driver on another) so I suggest you contact him. As far as I know, he isn't planning to put a kit together and market it.

In the absence of a full kit, by far the easiest is to add an opto-trigger and triac to a standard emonTx kit. Robin may be able to provide a pcb and heatsink for that, leaving you to source the triac, opto-trigger and a few small components (Spiratronics stocks all these).

Robin is away at the moment - he's aware of your requirements (his response: "gr8") and he'll probably be responding in a day or two.

Thank you very much Robin. I shall research this and buy an EmonTx. Without going back into the documentation I am initially curious how the feedback process works. I recall a discussion about buckets of charge and the difference between the mark 1 and the mark 2 of Richmc's designs. Any additional pointers etc. gratefully received.

I am sorry. I think I am getting my Robins and Roberts mixed up.

I don't think Rich had a great deal of input into the design, as far as I know, it was principally done by Robin with inspiration I believe from Paul Reed's work. Re-read the documentation and if it doesn't make sense then, ask again. Feedback (the other sort!) is always welcome because when you're too close to the process, it's sometimes difficult to appreciate that an essential and fundamental detail has been missed. We (Robin and I, because I proof-checked it all for him) thought we'd covered everything but maybe not?

Hi Nigel,

Following on from Robert's excellent summary, I will soon be in a position to supply various items of hardware for the Mk2 Router.  Progress on my two PCBs is being reported here and my webpage is here .

Once these boards become available (Feb/March), I intend to supply them in various forms: blank, or as kits of parts, or ready-assembled and tested, or maybe even pre-wired into an enclosure ready for wall-mounting. 

If you're interested in using any of my prototype boards, feel free to send me a PM.  Otherwise, an emonTx platform will work fine.  I still have a few of Rich's output boards for sale, at £8 each (or £20 assembled and tested).

Hope this helps.

... and, thankfully, no problems with Mollom today! :-)

I have a couple of Rich's input pcb bare boards available.

Update. I've ordered a emonTx V3 , current sensors, AC to AC power supply and voltage reference, Raspberry Pi expansion board to communicate via radio the the emonTx, the intention being to use emonCms.

I guess what I need is the triac with heatsink and associated components and printed circuit board. It's mains voltage and so the construction of it needs to be done properly in a double insulated or earthed box and with a big heatsink and the right kind of triac to fit. 

Calypso_rae, thanks for your posting. What is your advice on the above? Could you supply one of Rich's output boards with all components?

Other than being a palindrome, what or who is Mollom?

thanks

Hi Nigel,

I could supply one of Rich's output boards (bare) for £8, or assembled and tested for £20.  With its long leads, there is some flexibility in the mounting height of the triac.  Ideally, the triac and heatsink are best fitted together. 

I can also supply heatsinks as per this thread, and a suitable plastic enclosure to mount it to. 

Send me a PM if you're interested.

Mollom

Mollom is the anti-spam service used by OEM. It's been a little too enthusiastic in some areas of late.

Received delivery of EmonTx V3 and radio board for Pi. Works out of the box. Amazing, and educational, to see true power, both negative and positive from the house shown in real time on a tablet. Thanks to all concerned.

In the PLL immersion heater controller http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/pvdiversion/pll/hardware the triac board receives its control signal from the pulse output from the EmonTx. Version 3 of EmonTx does not seem to have such an output brought to the outside of the box. What is the recommended solution to this, please.

There is an output available - it is on the screw terminal block. It is DIO2, rather than DIO3, so a small change to the pin allocations in the sketch is required.

aha, thanks. 

So in 

http://wiki.openenergymonitor.org/index.php?title=EmonTx_V3

in the Port Map, it is the screw connector labelled IRQ0 Dig2?

In the sketch

// Arduino I/O pin useage
#define VOLTSPIN 2
#define CT1PIN 3
#define CT2PIN 0
#define LEDPIN 9
#define SYNCPIN 6 // this output will be a 50Hz square wave locked to the 50Hz input
#define SAMPPIN 5 // this output goes high each time an ADC conversion starts or completes
#define RFMSELPIN 10
#define RFMIRQPIN 2
#define SDOPIN 12
#define W1PIN 4 // 1-Wire pin for temperature
#define TRIACPIN 3 // triac driver pin

am I right that the last line needs now to be

#define TRIACPIN 2 // triac driver pin

thanks

That's the one. You need to check all the I/O, as the sketch was written for the emonTX V2 which has a quite different port mapping and more I/O pins accessible.

VOLTSPIN becomes 0
CT1PIN becomes 1
CT2PIN becomes 2
RFMSELPIN becomes 4
RFMIRQPIN becomes 3
LEDPIN becomes 6. 

SYNCPIN and SAMPPIN are for testing with an oscilloscope. I'm not sure whether there is an unused I/O you can point those at, or whether you will need to remove them completely,

I've not had time to test it yet, so let us know if it works.

I have returned to thinking about power diversion to immersion heater after several months. Now Robin Emley has produced a bespoke stand-alone system on his website http://www.mk2pvrouter.co.uk/ and has in his shop the various components.

Since I would like to use my existing EmonTx3 I only need the output board. Robin Emley has designed the pcb and sells it together with components in his shop.

I expect I will have other questions but comparing the circuit diagrams in http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/Choosing%20an%20Energy%20Diverter and 

http://www.mk2pvrouter.co.uk/media/f38a139f4c26bb68ffff809ed4355564.pdf (Robin Emley)

there is a slight difference. The former has a filter consisting of capacitor and resistor across the triac. The latter (Robin's) doesn't have this.

Can some kind person explain whether I need the shunting filter or whether Robin Emley's design will work just fine.

thanks

ps (I am aware I need to change the opto isolator for the limited current available from the EmonTx3)

The "filter" isn't a filter, it's a snubber network. If you're happy to leave it off, feel free, it's not strictly necesary with a purely resistive load, but it may help to reduce spurious triggering in the face of mains-borne transients. There's plenty of literature about snubber networks.

I have never heard of an output board of mine failing to work for lack of a snubber network - or for any other reason :) 

I still have a few of Rich's triac PCBs which I bought before commissioning my own.  That PCB is for a similar circuit (no snubber network) but has a square format rather than a long thin one.   I paid a fiver each for these boards, and would be happy to sell them on at this price inc. postage (which is the same cost as for my own version).