Microcontroller projects

SmartyReader: Reading encrypted Luxembourgish smartmeter data from P1 interface

last updated: 2021-05-03 (created 2017-08-16)

First some news

Basic infos on smarty, encryption and MQTT are here: http://weigu.lu/microcontroller/smartyReader/index.html.
Since my stock of old PCBs is used up, there is a new version without SMD components the SmartyReader V 2.0 :). A new function in the ESP libraries also makes it possible to invert the serial signal, so that transistors are no longer needed. The new boards have the possibility to use LoRa or LoRaWAN.
Some Smartys were updated by the DSO and deliver now more data (> 1024 Byte) which is a good thing as we get e.g. the power per phase. The old software (before V1.3) will not work any longer if your Smarty was updated, so update your software please to V1.5!
If you want more data, and did not get the upgrade, call your DSO. They can update your Smarty over power-line.
My software is now on github: https://github.com/weigu1/SmartyReader.
There is a new Basic construction kit. If your are interested in a bare PCB (5 €) or a basic construction kit (Wemos, Jumper and cable included (see picture below) for 25 €, send me a mail. The postal fee (Europe) is 4 € for the kit. I sell these kits to help makers to reduce their energy consumption.

click for a better view

You can use an ESP32 (look at the end of the page) instead of an ESP8266, but I recommend to stay with the ESP8266 as we had more trouble with the ESP32.
Sam Grimee has a repo on github with an alternative soft: https://github.com/sgrimee/smarty-reader (Thanks to Sam :)).

Circuit and PCB

The new circuit gives us the possibility to add a Lora Chip. The Ethernet and I²C header are still available.

BOM (basic kit)


1	10 kΩ	reichelt.de: METALL 10,0K
1 or 2	100 nF	reichelt.de: Z5U-2,5 100N
1	1000 µF/6,3 V ELKO	reichelt.de: RAD LXZ 6,3/1K0
1	LOLIN D1 mini pro	www.wemos.cc
1	RJ12 Jack	reichelt.de: MEBP 6-6S
2	socket 1x8 straight	reichelt.de: MPE 115-1-008
1	pin header	reichelt.de: MPE 087-1-002
1	PCB	www.weigu.lu
1	Western cable, 2x connectors, 6-pin	reichelt.de: WK 6-6 2,5M

The minimum populated board needs the jack, the resistor and the microcontroller. Measures showed that it is good to add C2 (and C1).

My new ammeter currentRanger from LowPowerLab helped to exactly measure the currents and I saw that while WiFi is used, there are many peaks drawing a current from 400 mA up to 800 mA! depending of the board. Even with same boards there could be big differences. An external antenna reduced the current, so I think that not all antennas are well matched. As the peaks are very short, the internal power supply of the smarty (specified up to 250 mA) has no problem to deliver the current, but I guess it is better to add a capacitor to the board. With a 1000 µF capacitor, the spikes come down to 300 mA. The ESP32 and also the new (green) Lolin have sometimes problems without that capacitor, so add it to the circuit! In the middle of the picture (time axes) the capacitor was added (100 mV correspond to 100 mA)!

The LOLIN (Wemos) is sending the data over WiFi. If your metal control cabinet shields to much the signal, it is possible to connect an external antenna to the Lolin D1 mini pro by changing a 0 Ω resistor (look here).

If your Wifi is not reliable and you have the possibility to use Ethernet, an W5100 Funduino Ethernet board can be added. The PCB is also prepared to use an RTC with DS3231 and an LOLIN µSD card shield to log the data.

Testing the hardware

If you think the hardware is not working correctly, you can test it with a voltmeter on the RxD pin (µC removed). You can see a change in voltage (3.1 V to 2.5 V) every 10 s measuring between pin 2 (GND) and pin 7 (RX) on the board header (second and 7th pin on the right side). On one of my voltmeter I don't see it in the displayed numbers but on the bar graph that reacts quicker. This can of course be observed much better with an oscilloscope, where the serial data line changes between 3 V and GND for about 70 ms.

Another possibility is to connect a TTL/USB adapter (RX to RX pin 7 (which is TX from the Smartymeter) and GND to GND (µC removed)), and check the data stream with a terminal program (e.g. cleverterm) with 115200 bit/s (8 data bit, no parity and 1 stop bit).

If you don't see a change there is a possibility that the hardware is not working. To be sure you can measure directly on the P1 cable. Connect pin 2 (Enable) to pin 1 (5 V) and measure between pin 5 (TX) and pin 6 (GND). As the signal is inverted the Voltmeter shows 0 V and reacts every 10 s. To be totally sure use an oscilloscope.

If you get no signal on the cable, test another cable. If there is still no signal, the Smartymeter does not send a signal. Ask your DSO for support.

Arduino Software for the LOLIN/WEMOS D1 mini board

!!NEW!! The software is now on github: https://github.com/weigu1/SmartyReader

The newer software uses my ESPBacker lib, that is included in the sketch folder.

First install the newest Arduino IDE (1.8.13). To use our ESP8266 LOLIN/WEMOS we add this line http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json to File-Preferences-Additional_Boards_Manager_URLs:.

To install the manager go to Tools > Board: > Boards Manager..., select the Manager and click install. No chose under Tools > Board: (you have to scroll) LOLIN/WEMOS D1 mini Pro.

We need a Crypto library to decode the AES128-GCM and a MQTT library to publish our data. Go to Tools > Manage Libraries.... Type in the Search field Crypto. Click on Crypto by Rhys Wheatherley and install it. Search for mqtt pubsub and click on PubSubClient by Nick O'Leary. Install the library.

In our Arduino sketch we have 6 "switches" to comment or uncomment.

OLD_HARDWARE is needed for boards before V2.0, because here the enable pin is driven by the µC.
MQTTSECURE is recommended to get a secure MQTT connection with your MQTT server. You need to define a user and a password.
STATIC gets you a fixed IP address in your network. Provide an IP and a gateway.
ETHERNET is needed if using the Funduino Ethernet shield (no WiFi).
OTA enables Over The Air updates. Provide a name and an OTA password (hash).
PUBLISH_ALL 0 will publish all the data available as normal string. With 1 all the data is published as JSON string (subscribe to topic/# (e.g. lamsmarty/#)). Without this define only power and energy are published as JSON string.

Further you have to provide a Wifi SSID and password (optional hostname and mdnsname), your key for the smartmeter and the MQTT server IP and MQTT topic.

    // Publishes every in milliseconds
    const long PUBLISH_TIME = 20000;

    // Comment or uncomment the following lines suiting your needs
    #define OLD_HARDWARE    // for the boards before V2.0
    //#define MQTTSECURE    // if you want a secure connection over MQTT (recommended!!)
    //#define STATIC        // if static IP needed (no DHCP)
    //#define ETHERNET      // if Ethernet with Funduino (W5100) instead of WiFi
    #define OTA             // if Over The Air update needed (security risk!)
    // power and energy are published as JSON string, for more data uncomment the following line
    // subscribe to topic/# /e.g. lamsmarty/#
    //#define PUBLISH_ALL 0   // all the data is published 0 for normal string, 1 for json

    ...

    // WiFi and network settings
    const char *WIFI_SSID = "";                 // SSID
    const char *WIFI_PASSWORD = "";   // password
    const char *NET_MDNSNAME = "SmartyReader";      // optional (access with mdnsname.local))
    const char *NET_HOSTNAME = "SmartyReader";      // optional

    //Key for SAG1030700089067
    uint8_t KEY_SMARTY[] = {0xAE, 0xBD, 0x21, 0xB7, 0x69, 0xA6, 0xD1, 0x3C,
                            0x0D, 0xF0, 0x64, 0xE3, 0x83, 0x68, 0x2E, 0xFF};

    #ifdef STATIC
      IPAddress NET_LOCAL_IP (192,168,1,181);    // 3x optional for static IP
      IPAddress NET_GATEWAY (192,168,1,20);
      IPAddress NET_MASK (255,255,255,0);
    #endif // ifdef STATIC*/
    #ifdef ETHERNET
      byte NET_MAC[] = { 0xDE, 0xAD, 0xBE, 0xEF, 0xFE, 0xED }; //only for ethernet
    #endif //#ifdef ETHERNET*/

    // UDP settings
    const word UDP_LOG_PORT = 6666;
    IPAddress UDP_LOG_PC_IP(192,168,1,50);

    // Over The Air update settings
    #ifdef OTA
      const char *OTA_NAME = "SmartyReader2";
      const char *OTA_PASS_HASH = "c3be31f8c0878e2a4f00720f220ceaba";
    #endif // #ifdef OTA

    // MQTT settings
    const char *MQTT_SERVER = "192.168.1.60";
    const char *MQTT_CLIENT_ID = "smarty_lam1_p12";
    String MQTT_TOPIC = "lamsmarty";
    #ifdef MQTTSECURE // http://weigu.lu/tutorials/sensors2bus/06_mqtt/index.html
      const short MQTT_PORT = 8883;  // port for secure communication
      const char *MQTT_USER = "me";
      const char *MQTT_PASS = "myMqttPass12!";
      const char *MQTT_PSK_IDENTITY = "btsiot1";
      const char *MQTT_PSK_KEY = "0123456789abcdef0123"; // hex string without 0x
      WiFiClientMQTTSECURE espClient;
    #else
      const short MQTT_PORT = 1883; // clear text = 1883
      WiFiClient espClient;
    #endif

To program the board, you have to take it out of the socket (the transistor on RXD prevents proper programming).

The software allows debugging with a blinking LED. over serial (ESP8266: output of the data over serial1 on Pin D4. For more info see: http://weigu.lu/microcontroller/tips_tricks/esp8266_tips_tricks) and over UDP. Debugging is allowed by the following lines in setup().

    void setup() {
      B.set_led_log(true);                 // use builtin LED for debugging
      B.set_serial_log(true,1);           // 2 parameter = interface (1 = Serial1)
      B.set_udp_log(true, UDP_LOG_PC_IP, UDP_LOG_PORT); // use "nc -kulw 0 6666"

SmartyReader with ESP32

The MH ET LIVE ESP32MiniKit board is almost pin compatible with the LOLIN (wemos) D1 mini pro. But I had problems to get it work, because there is an error in the pinout sheet on internet. RxD ant TxD are interchanged and not compatible with D1 mini pro! Fortunately ESP32 has multiplexing features, and so pins can be changed in code. This can be done with the begin command SR_Serial.begin(115200,SERIAL_8N1, 1, 3, true). With this command we define GPIO pin 1 for RxD1 and pin 3 for TxD1. True inverts the stream for newer boards (V2.0).

The capacitor (1000µF/10V, even better 4700µF/10V) is needed because the ESP32 draws a higher current using WiFi for short time slices.

If you want to debug the code over serial, Arduino Serial1 is on SD3 (u1TxD, GPIO10).

The ESPBacker library detects if an ESP32 or an ESP8266 is used.

Old hardware (V 1.1)

To get data, the data request line (pin 2) has to be high (5 V). As we use a microcontroller working on 3.3 V we need a transistor to bring the voltage of the data request line to 5 V (Q1). The transistor inverts the logic!, so a LOW initiates the data communication!
Data pin 5 sends an inverted serial signal (EIA232) with 8N1. This line is open collector! so we need a resistor to 5 V if we want to see a signal.
The second transistor (Q2) inverts the serial data to be EIA232 compliant and a voltage divider (R3, R4) brings the voltage down to 3.3 V.

More details in the Dutch Smart Meter Requirements.

The statement: For backward compatibility reason, no OSM is allowed to set “Data Request” line low (set it to GND or 0V). is not relevant for the Luxembourgish smartmeter, because an optocoupler diode gets the signal.

Circuit and PCB

BOM (basic kit)


1	220  SMD 0805	reichelt.de: RND 0805 1 220
1	1k Ω SMD 0805	reichelt.de: RND 0805 1 1,0K
1	10k Ω SMD 0805	reichelt.de: RND 0805 1 10K
1	15k Ω SMD 0805	reichelt.de: RND 0805 1 15K
1	100 nF SMD 0805	reichelt.de: X7R 0805 CF 100N
1	1000 µF/6,3 V ELKO	reichelt.de: RAD LXZ 6,3/1K0
2	2N7002 SOT-23	reichelt.de : 2N 7002 SMD
1	LOLIN D1 mini pro	www.wemos.cc
1	RJ12 Jack	reichelt.de: MEBP 6-6S
2	socket 1x8 straight	reichelt.de: MPE 115-1-008
1	pin header	reichelt.de: MPE 087-1-002
1	jumper	reichelt.de: JUMPER 2,54GL SW
1	PCB	www.weigu.lu
1	Western cable, 2x connectors, 6-pin	reichelt.de: WK 6-6 2,5M

If your Wifi is not reliable and you have the possibility to use ethernet, an W5100 Funduino ethernet board can be added. The PCB is also prepared to use an RTC with DS3231 and an LOLIN µSD card shield to log the data.

In the second version of the board I omitted the 100 µF capacitors, because the boards all worked fine without the capacitor. My new ammeter currentRanger from LowPowerLab helped to exactly measure the currents and I saw that while WiFi is used, there are many peaks drawing a current from 400 mA up to 800 mA! depending of the board. Even with same boards there could be big differences. An external antenna reduced the current, so I think that not all antennas are well matched. As the peaks are very short, the internal power supply of the smarty (specified up to 250 mA) has no problem to deliver the current, but I guess it is better to add a capacitor to the board. With a 1000 µF capacitor, the spikes come down to 300 mA. The ESP32 and also the new (green) Lolin have sometimes problems without that capacitor, so add it to the circuit! In the middle of the picture (time axes) the capacitor was added (100 mV correspond to 100 mA)!

Python software to get the data

This stub is from the old Homepage. It will be updated if time allows it.

A Python (python3) script is used to get our smartmeter MQTT data from the broker. We use the paho.mqtt.client library which can be installed with pip to subscribe to our topic.

    sudo pip3 install paho-mqtt

The data is saved in a file (/data) and the old day-files are archieved (/data_archive). The script also generates a png-file with gnuplot that is displayed on an internal homepage and sent to an email address (full code in Downloads).

To to so we can use the same raspberry pi witch holds the broker.

MQTT client

You have to adjust possibly the broker IP address and your smartmeter id (these are the last 3 digits of your smarty id (ex: "345" for SAG1030700012345) ).

    #!/usr/bin/python3
    #
    # Name:         smartyreader.py
    # Purpose:      Client to get MQTT data from Mosquitto
    # Author:       weigu.lu
    # Date:         8/17
    #
    ...
    import paho.mqtt.client as mqtt
    ...
    clientID   = "getsmarty_p1"
    brokerIP   = "192.168.178.101"
    brokerPort = 1883
    topic      = "basement/smarty1"
    sm_id      = "345"

    # Callback that is executed when the client receives a CONNACK response from the server.
    def onConnect(client, userdata, flags, rc):
       print("Connected with result code " + str(rc))
       mqttc.subscribe(topic, 0)  # Subscribe to the topics (topic name, QoS)

    # Callback that is executed when we disconnect from the broker.
    def onDisconnect(client, userdata, message):
       print("Disconnected from the broker.")

    # Callback that is executed when subscribing to a topic
    def onSubscribe(client, userdata, mid, granted_qos):
       print('Subscribed on topic.')

    # Callback that is executed when unsubscribing to a topic
    def onUnsubscribe(client, userdata, mid, granted_qos):
       print('Unsubscribed on topic.')

    # Callback that is executed when a message is received.
    def onMessage(client, userdata, message):
        # Subscribing in on_connect() means that if we lose the connection and
        # reconnect then subscriptions will be renewed.
        global sm, smp, sme, sm_mn #p power, e energy, mn at midnight
        now = datetime.now()
        now_time = now.time()
        if now_time >= time(23,59,00) and now_time <= time(23,59,59):
            sm_mn=ioj["c1"].rstrip("*kWh") # change to "p1" for production
        ftime = strftime("%Y_%m_%d", localtime())
        ftime3 = strftime("%d.%m.%y %H:%M:%S", localtime())
        io=message.payload.decode("utf-8");
        try:
            ioj=json.loads(io)
        except:
            ioj={"dt":"error"}
        print(ioj)
        temp = ioj["dt"]
        if (temp[0]!='e') and (temp[0]!='c'):
            sm_new=ioj["c1"].rstrip("*kWh") # change to "p1" for production
            if sm!="0":
                smp = str(round((float(sm_new)-float(sm))*60000.0,3))
            sm=sm_new
            sme=str(float(sm)-float(sm_mn))
            if sme[0]=='-':
                sme="0"
            try:
                f = open (sm_p1_datafile1, 'r')
            except IOError:
                print("error reading file "+sm_p1_datafile1)
            lineList = f.readlines()            #read all lines
            f.close()
            try:
                f = open (sm_p1_datafile1, 'a')
            except IOError:
                print ("Cannot create or find file: " + sm_p1_datafile1)
            try:
                f2 = open (sm_p1_datafile2+ftime+'.min', 'a')
            except IOError:
                print ("Cannot create or find file: " + sm_p1_datafile2)
            if (len(lineList)) == 1:
                sm_p1_data = ' '.join((ftime3,sm,sme,smp))
                sm_p1_data = sm_p1_data + '\n'
            else:
                line = lineList[len(lineList)-1]    #get the last line
                lline =shlex.split(line)            #convert string (space seperated items) to list
                sm_p1_data = ' '.join((ftime3,sm,sme,smp))
                sm_p1_data = sm_p1_data + '\n'
            print (sm_p1_data,end='')
            f.write(sm_p1_data)
            f2.write(sm_p1_data)
            f.close()
            f2.close()
        else:
            print("loop not executed (error or connect message)")

    ...
    # Main
    mqttc = mqtt.Client(client_id=clientID, clean_session=True) # create client
    mqttc.on_connect      = onConnect   # define the callback functions
    mqttc.on_disconnect   = onDisconnect
    mqttc.on_subscribe    = onSubscribe
    mqttc.on_unsubscribe  = onUnsubscribe
    mqttc.on_message      = onMessage
    mqttc.connect(brokerIP, brokerPort, keepalive=60, bind_address="") # connect to broker
    mqttc.loop_start() # start loop to process callbacks! (new thread!)

    sm ="0"
    smp = "0"
    sme = "0"
    sm_mn = "0"

    try:
        while True:
            now = datetime.now()
            now_time = now.time()
            ...

    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        print("Keyboard interrupt by user")
        mqttc.loop_stop() # clean up
        mqttc.disconnect()

Internal homepage with daily graphic

Static IP address

To access the raspberry pi we will set a static IP address. Use the editor nano to append the following to the file /etc/dhcpcd.conf.

    # Custom static IP address for eth0.
    interface eth0
    static ip_address=192.168.1.67
    static routers=192.168.1.1
    static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 8.8.8.8

    # Custom static IP address for wlan0.
    interface wlan0
    static ip_address=192.168.1.69
    static routers=192.168.1.1
    static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 8.8.8.8

```bash cd /etc sudo nano dhcpcd.conf

Save with `CTRL+O` and exit with `CTRL+X`.

##### Setting up the webserver Lighttpd on the raspi

Lighttpd is an efficient high performance web server. It has a small memory footprint and an effective management of the cpu-load compared to other web-servers. Naturally you can use another web server, but possibly you have to adjust the path to your web page.

```bash
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt upgrade
    sudo apt install lighttpd

Test if the web server is running by typing the ip address of your raspi in the url field of your browser.

The html files are in in /var/www/html. Copy the following html code (filename: index.html) to /var/www/html:

    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <head>
      <title>Smarty P1</title>
    </head>
    <body>
    <h1>Smarty Data</h1>
    <p><img src="png/sm_p1_daily.png" alt="smarty data"></p>
    </body>
    </html>

Also create an empty directory named /png in /var/www/html.

    sudo mkdir /var/www/html/png

Using gnuplot for graphics

    sudo apt install gnuplot

To test gnuplot you can use the following command:

    cd /home/pi/smarty/gp
    gnuplot sm_p1.gp

The sm_p1.gp is created by our Python script from a template file. This template file is found in /smarty/gp (it is contained in the file smartyreader.zip). Here is the code that generates the gp file:

    def sm_create_gp_file():
        """ The function prepares the gp file for plotting with gnuplot. First the
        old gp file is deleted. Then it uses the xx_gp_template.gp file in
        ~/../gp and replaces the keywords between the % sign by creating
        a new gp (xx.gp) file."""
        ftime2 = strftime("%d.%m.%y", localtime())
        Title = ftime2
        XFormat = '"%H:%M"'
        XTics = "60*60" #seconds
        Begin = ftime2 +" 00:00:01"
        End = ftime2 +" 23:59:59"
        Output = png_dir + "sm_p1_" + ftime + ".png"
        Input = sm_p1_datafile1
        try:
            os.remove(sm_p1_gnupfile2)
        except OSError:
            pass
        try:
            gf1 = open (sm_p1_gnupfile1,'r')
        except IOError:
            print ("Cannot find file: " + sm_p1_gnupfile1)
        try:
            gf2 = open (sm_p1_gnupfile2,'a')
        except IOError:
            print ("Cannot find file: " + sm_p1_gnupfile2)
        gline1 = gf1.readline()
        while gline1 != "":
            if "%TITLE%" in gline1:
                gline1 = gline1.replace("%TITLE%",Title)
            if "%XFORMAT%" in gline1:
                gline1 = gline1.replace("%XFORMAT%",XFormat)
            if "%XTICS%" in gline1:
                gline1 = gline1.replace("%XTICS%",XTics)
            if "%BEGIN%" in gline1:
                gline1 = gline1.replace("%BEGIN%",Begin)
            if "%END%" in gline1:
                gline1 = gline1.replace("%END%",End)
            if "%OUTPUT%" in gline1:
                gline1 = gline1.replace("%OUTPUT%",Output)
            if "%INPUT%" in gline1:
                gline1 = gline1.replace("%INPUT%",Input)
            gf2.write(gline1)
            gline1 = gf1.readline()
        gf1.close()
        gf2.close()

Here the result with gnuplot:

Sending mails

First you have to install ssmtp:

    sudo apt-get install ssmtp      # needed
    sudo apt-get install mailutils  # not mandatory
    sudo apt-get install mpack      # for attachments

With your editor, set up the defaults for SSMTP in /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf. Edit the fields:

    root=my@mail.adr
    mailhub=smtp.xxx.xx:587
    hostname=localhost
    rewriteDomain=www.xxx.com
    FromLineOverride=YES
    AuthUser=youruserid
    AuthPass=xxxxxxxxxxxx
    UseSTARTTLS=YES

Test your mail with:

    echo "Hello world email body" | mail -s "Test Subject" my@mail.adr

The Python script will send the daily graphic per mail at 1 pm in the morning.

Start your script automatically with cron

If you want to start the Python script automatically at reboot, add the following line to your /etc/crontab file.

    @reboot root python3 /home/pi/smarty/smartyreader.py >> /home/pi/smarty/smartyreader_log.txt 2>&1

The output of the Python script is redirected to a text-file, for debugging. To log the cron jobs uncomment cron in the file /etc/rsyslog.conf. You will find the log file in /var/log/cron.log. Here is a helpful link if you have trouble with your cron job.

Downloads

!!NEW!! Software on github: https://github.com/weigu1/SmartyReader
Python code and directory structure (unzip to your home directory (/home/pi))
Gnuplot template file
Kicad files

SmartyReader⁵

A second board with a Teensy 3.6 microcontroller was created to read 5 smartmeter and serial data from my rainwater tank (Teensy 3.6 has 6!! serial ports). Look here for more information