Not so clever now, Mr Smart Meter

Officer_Dibble

Our SMETS2 meter's stopped sending info. I've checked with Octopus and had this reply:

"Looking into this, your meters will need a communications hub powercycle to reconnect. This will involve an engineer coming to your property to try and fix this. They will call you directly to arrange an appointment. The timeframe is usually 2-3 weeks for a call."

As I haven't always had 100% correct advice from Octopus (though usually they're very good) can I just double check that that's the right answer - there isn't some clever way to get it to reboot? Aclara meter with a WNC UBC-TN6 comms hub. I think all the commissioning was done by laptop when it was put in so I assume there's no reset hole for a paperclip, but thought I'd check! Considering how most electrical things need a reboot now and again (rather like people) this seems to be something of an oversight.

Swipe

I believe they will need to pull the main fuse before the meter to recycle the comms hub.

MWT

Officer_Dibble said:

As I haven't always had 100% correct advice from Octopus (though usually they're very good) can I just double check that that's the right answer - there isn't some clever way to get it to reboot? Aclara meter with a WNC UBC-TN6 comms hub. I think all the commissioning was done by laptop when it was put in so I assume there's no reset hole for a paperclip, but thought I'd check! Considering how most electrical things need a reboot now and again (rather like people) this seems to be something of an oversight.

Yes, it is correct, there is no 'reset' button or similar, it does require a power cycle which is achieved by pulling the main fuse.

debitcardmayhem

I wonder if this black magic art needs a visit, it's a hub which we Joe Public can't access it but DCCs and suppliers can , but you John Doe can't access my raspberry pi . but I can remote reboot it from anywhere , perhaps it is just my imagination ?

Spoonie_Turtle

debitcardmayhem said:

I wonder if this black magic art needs a visit, it's a hub which we Joe Public can't access it but DCCs and suppliers can , but you John Doe can't access my raspberry pi . but I can remote reboot it from anywhere , perhaps it is just my imagination ?

Someone needs to visit to physically pull out the main fuse and put it back in again.  If I'm understanding correctly.

Edited for clarity

[Deleted User]

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Someone needs to visit to physically pull out the main fuse and put it back in again.  If I'm understanding correctly.

There are two procedures for re-booting a comms hub. One, the supplier asks the DCC ( the company responsible for all comms hubs) to carry out a remote reset. An instruction is sent to the hub to power it down for 15 minutes.

By the sound of it, this has been tried but it wasn’t successful. An engineer is now needed to pull the main house fuse for a minimum of 15 minutes. Based on my experience, he/she will remain onsite until the Octopus smart meter team confirms that it is able to pull smart meter data.

There is I understand an ongoing issue with one model of comms hub. The DCC is aware of the issue and it is working with the manufacturer to develop a firmware fix (and has been for some months). 

liviboy

I've been through this for the last 2 years. Every 3 months or so my comms would stop. The fix was SMS coming out and pulling the fuse. As soon as it was plugged back in it all worked again.

They eventually replaced the entire metering assets on 30th January so are now 3 months in to installation. Comms usually failed around 2 weeks after the 3 months were up so I'm waiting and seeing what happens. It began with the IHD losing data unless switched off and on and this went on for around a week to 10 days and then finally external comms would cease.

Officer_Dibble

An update...2 days before the engineer visit (which we'd waited a month for) the meters sprang into life again. This would suggest to me that a remote reset could have been done 5 weeks ago and the appointment wasn't necessary, but what do I know. Anyway, the only issue now is that 5 weeks of data's missing - not ideal when we're on Flux. Anyone got idea how long it'll take to appear? The engineer who visited was very vague.

[Deleted User]

Officer_Dibble said:

An update...2 days before the engineer visit (which we'd waited a month for) the meters sprang into life again. This would suggest to me that a remote reset could have been done 5 weeks ago and the appointment wasn't necessary, but what do I know. Anyway, the only issue now is that 5 weeks of data's missing - not ideal when we're on Flux. Anyone got idea how long it'll take to appear? The engineer who visited was very vague.

If your meters were working then there is no data loss. A smart electricity meter stores 13 month’s worth of import data and 3 month’s worth of export data. Octopus will have to carryout a manual data pull. Third-party apps may not recover all the data.