Interference between different applications over holusehold powerline ethnet

Sterlingtimes

I am not talking here about radio interference, but instead the interference between devices.

I am using powerline quite extensively as follows:

[1] 14 off Enphase roof-mounted inverters each using powerline communicating through an Envoy hub plugged into my router.

[2] a Roberts internet radio (ethernet)

[3] a power monitoring transmitter (ethernet) EnergyHub

[4] a laptop computer (ethernet)

[5] a Skybox (ethernet)

After some detective work, the EnergyHive power monitoring transmitter appears to interfere with the reporting from the Enphase inverters.

Is such interference between devices normal? Can it be avoided?

For now, I have removed the EnergyHub from the powerline circuitry.

Strider590

Inverters are electrically quite noisy, as they don't produce a natural sine wave, a lot of devices don't like that.

However........ I assume each of the 14 has it's own ethernet? In which case i'd be questioning whether your router has a DHCP pool large enough.

Fightsback

After a bit of reading, powerline/homeplug apparently works in the 2mhz-20mhz frequency range.

An oscilloscope comes in really handy in these situations to be able to track the culprit down.

Sterlingtimes

Strider590 wrote: »

I assume each of the 14 has its own ethernet? In which case i'd be questioning whether your router has a DHCP pool large enough.

Thank you

Each of the 14 solar panels has its own inverter effectively making the DC panel into an AC panel. Each inverter also has its own powerline electronics talking to the Envoy Hub (reporting separately upon the performance of each panel and its associated inverter). The Envoy hub in turn is plugged into the BT Hub. All works pretty well until the EnergyHive is also plugged into a powerline adapter.

Presumably, the EnergyHive is using the same RF spectrum at the same time as the inverters are communicating with the Envoy.

buglawton

One oddity I discovered was that an Asus router's power supply (wall-wart) was interfering with the powerline adaptor in the adjacent socket. Moved the two 1 metre apart and the powerline's speed doubled.

Sterlingtimes

buglawton wrote: »

One oddity I discovered was that an Asus router's power supply (wall-wart) was interfering with the powerline adaptor in the adjacent socket. Moved the two 1 metre apart and the powerline's speed doubled.

Clearly, this is not a wholly dependable technology. As much as I hate the interference caused to radio, it would be impossible now to go back to WI-F given that Enphase is designed around ethernet-over-mains power.

getmore4less

Check the specs of all the powerline nodes,

not all can support high numbers of nodes on the same circuit.

getmore4less

Are the powerline on the enphase built in or through an adaptor, do they have an Ethernet option?

if they have Ethernet you could put them all through a hub/switch(if you have something available) and a single powerline.

also worth checking they are all getting correct IP addresses as well as the enery monitor

gjchester

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Clearly, this is not a wholly dependable technology. As much as I hate the interference caused to radio, it would be impossible now to go back to WI-F given that Enphase is designed around ethernet-over-mains power.

Actually I find it totally dependable, and its often transparent to the end user.

The EnergyHive is probably using the standard 433Mhz frequency of most low powered home radio system. The interference from that should not be getting anywhere near the sub 30Mhz that powerline uses, even harmonics should not get that low.

Have you tried moving the powerline transmitter around? Sounds like the RF is being picked up by the mains wiring, and its an inverse square rule of distance, so moving it a short way form any cables may have a dramatic effect on the interference. Remember we often put these clamp type transmitters right near the fuse box, so moving the transmitter as far as the cable allows may change the interference a lot.

Sterlingtimes

gjchester wrote: »

Actually I find it totally dependable, and its often transparent to the end user.

The EnergyHive is probably using the standard 433Mhz frequency of most low powered home radio system. The interference from that should not be getting anywhere near the sub 30Mhz that powerline uses, even harmonics should not get that low.

Have you tried moving the powerline transmitter around? Sounds like the RF is being picked up by the mains wiring, and its an inverse square rule of distance, so moving it a short way form any cables may have a dramatic effect on the interference. Remember we often put these clamp type transmitters right near the fuse box, so moving the transmitter as far as the cable allows may change the interference a lot.

Thank you, gjchester


The problem was not the RF from the EnergyHive but the fact that I was connecting the Ethernet port of the EnergyHive into a powerline adapter. I now have the Ethernet port of the EnergyHive connected directly into my BT router. No problem now. so it appears conclusive that running the EnergyHive over the powerline interferes with the Enphase inverter produced data.

Sterlingtimes

getmore4less wrote: »

Are the powerline on the enphase built in or through an adaptor, do they have an Ethernet option?

if they have Ethernet you could put them all through a hub/switch(if you have something available) and a single powerline.

also worth checking they are all getting correct IP addresses as well as the enery monitor

Than you, Getmore.


I obviously cannot get at the 14 off Enphase inverters because they are on the roof. But I imagine that the powerline is entirely integral to each inverter, i.e. each just has an AC mains output.