Archived Forum

The good news is that your RFM12Pi is configured correctly.  The current configuration you are reading there is the settings of the RFM12Pi.  The standard ID for that is 15 which is what you can see.

I'm guessing that if you stay looking at minicom you don't see any other lines of data appearing?

If so the problem you have is on the EmonTX.  

So there are a couple of initial things to check.

1) Which plug are you plugging the CT into?  Are you doubly sure you have it all the way in? (they can be very stiff!)

2) You don't say if you went for the fully built or the PCB version.  If you went of the PCB version and soldered on the RFM12 unit, the first step is to check your soldering.

I'm guessing that if you stay looking at minicom you don't see any other lines of data appearing?

I see the following, sorry should have been a bit more patient.. 

1) Which plug are you plugging the CT into?  Are you doubly sure you have it all the way in? (they can be very stiff!)

I've tried CT1, CT2 and CT4 (only have 1 sensor).  Have got it plugged fully in. 

2) You don't say if you went for the fully built or the PCB version.  If you went of the PCB version and soldered on the RFM12 unit, the first step is to check your soldering.

Got the fully built version.

Let me know if you need anymore information.

Have you got a USB to UART cable? Using this cable you should be able to read the serial output of the emonTx V3 (default 9600 baud). This output will help us debug further 

The CT needs to be plugged in before powering on the emonTx, or hit the reset switch after plugging in a cable, it does a search at startup. 

I have posted instructions of how to debug the emonTx V3 by reading it's serial output at the bottom of this page: http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/modules/emonTxV3

Hi,

I haven't got a USB to UART cable.

Yes, have plugged the CT in prior to powering it up. Have also hit the reset button after power up.

The frequency of the LED flashes (5 sec) seems strange and I haven't seen anyone else experience this.

Hi,

Thanks for sending the USB-UART cable.  Much apprecaited.

What is the best way to diagnose this?

I have:

1. Setup the Arduino enviroment

2. installed the USB-UART driver

3 Opened up Arduino IDE and it shows COM3 under Tools-> Serial Port when I plug the USB cable in

4. Tools -> Serial Monitor is empty (baud 9600 is selected)

5. Have tried hitting reset on the emontx with no luck.  Powered via USB cable with jump off.

Is it possible that there is no sketch loaded on to the emontx?

Please let me know what should be done next.

This is strange. You should not need to power the emonTx via USB it should self power via the UART cable, double check is been inserted the correct orientation. Do you still see the red led flash on the emonTx? What flashing pattern do you see? Does it only flash at startup? 

Hi,

Yes, don't need to power it separately (I just did thinking it maybe required) and it does power itself off the UART cable.  The little board on the USB-UART cable has a Blue light permanent lit.

The Red light on the emontx flashes every 5 seconds.  Same as before.  No flashing sequence and no change in flashing sequence.

I have no devices connected to it when connected via the UART cable btw.

What's next?  Would appreciate a series of steps and options to try as opposed to trying to troubleshoot this one micro step at a time. 

Should I try reloading the default sketch on to it?  Is it likely that there is no sketch loaded onto it?

Please give me a few things to try so that I can go away and try them.

Debugging steps are detailed at the bottom of this page: http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/modules/emonTxV3

If your not seeing a serial output it could mean that some some reason there is no firmware on the emonTx. 

Try pasting the following into the Arduino IDE and selecting upload, you should see the LED flash every second and print 'hello world' to the serial window

int led = 6;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {               
  // initialize the digital pin as an output.
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);    
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  Serial.println("hello world");
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second

If this works the next step is to upload the emonTx firmware from Github

https://github.com/openenergymonitor/emonTxFirmware/tree/master/emonTxV3/RFM12B/emonTxV3_RFM12B_DiscreteSampling

^{http://wiki.openenergymonitor.org/index.php?title=EmonTx_V3#Uploading_Arduino_Firmware}

Hi,

Loaded up that test program and it worked fine.  Seems like the firmware was not uploaded.

Have uploaded the firmware and all is well now.  Thanks.

Very sorry about that, not sure what went wrong. glad you got it sorted. Ah, the wonders of open software