Reading Watt-hour data from an Elster A100C electricity meter using IrDA by Dave Berkeley part 2

As mentioned before if you have an Elster meter this is a fantastic way to read the exact accumulated watt hours that you have generated or used and can compliment and cross check a CT based measurement.

Dave Berkeley has now packaged the code into a nice library which makes it really easy to use. We have uploaded the library to a repository on github here: https://github.com/openenergymonitor/ElsterMeterReader

How to build it

1) To build the TSL261R based sensor for use with the emontx, follow the jack plug connection diagram on the emontx reference page here: http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/emontx/reference

We've put together a small kit available in the shop of all the components needed to connect it to an emontx including the TSL261R a male 3.5mm jack, 1m of cable and heat-shrink.

2) Plug the sensor into the pulse input on the emontx (digital pin 3, interrupt pin 1)

3) Download the ElsterMeterReader library and place in the arduino libraries folder.

4) Open the Arduino IDE and run the following example:

#include "elster.h"

void meter_reading(unsigned long r)
{
  Serial.print(r);
  Serial.print("\r\n");
}

ElsterA100C meter(meter_reading);

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("IRDA Meter reader");
  meter.init(1);
}
void loop()
{
  // Decode the meter stream
  const int byte_data = meter.decode_bit_stream();
  if (byte_data != -1) {
    meter.on_data(byte_data);
  }
}

5) If you now go to the serial window and place the sensor over the IrDA port (bottom-left of the meter) you should see the Watt-hours elapsed printed out to the serial window: