Smart Meter Not Sending Data to DCC (2+ weeks now)

MeteredOut

debitcardmayhem said:

I wonder if there is a pull/push command that can force the hub to reset, it would be logical bearing in mind that they can send rates to the meter that way? Just speculating though ….

I do wonder if Octopus did try to do that, as my IHD had new "supplier message" displayed on it a few days ago - these normally appear when a new tariff has been pushed out (eg, after 1st Jan)  but appeared again a few days ago.

debitcardmayhem

debitcardmayhem said:

I wonder if there is a pull/push command that can force the hub to reset, it would be logical bearing in mind that they can send rates to the meter that way? Just speculating though ….

There is a doc here , haven’t read it all yet but p31 talksog a soft reset https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/media/kdged1me/communications-hub-supporting-information-v20.pdf#page32

MeteredOut

debitcardmayhem said:

debitcardmayhem said:

I wonder if there is a pull/push command that can force the hub to reset, it would be logical bearing in mind that they can send rates to the meter that way? Just speculating though ….

There is a doc here , haven’t read it all yet but p31 talksog a soft reset https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/media/kdged1me/communications-hub-supporting-information-v20.pdf#page32

Sounds like its a physical thing though (I'm in North)

"The Communications Hub can be unseated from a powered ICHIS host for at least 10 seconds and then reseated, triggering a reboot."

Qyburn

It seems like a shoddy design throughout, what with the substandard data transfer protocol, and now this requirement to pull the fuse to reset the hardware. Any decent bit of industrial gear would have a watchdog function and reset itself. And/or they could have included a hard reset button for the comms hub.

To put this in context I wrote data collection software using V23 dial up modems which was more reliable than smart meter data collection.

QrizB

Qyburn said:

It seems like a shoddy design throughout, what with the substandard data transfer protocol, and now this requirement to pull the fuse to reset the hardware. Any decent bit of industrial gear would have a watchdog function and reset itself.

There is a remote reset option - Octopus tried this with my meter - but in my case it didn't work and it required a power cycle.

Qyburn

QrizB said:

There is a remote reset option - Octopus tried this with my meter - but in my case it didn't work and it required a power cycle.

Remote reset sounds like it relies on communications, not much help if the comms hub firmware is in some screwed up state. You need something that recovers if it's not working.

MeteredOut

So 30 minute data has started appearing on my Octopus and EDF accounts, since Wed/Thu this week, and on the Bright App, since Tuesday, but, interestingly, nothing on n3rgy.com, Hugo or Loop.

I've asked both Octopus and Loop to try pull the missing data since the end of last since.

No idea if it just started working itself or if Octopus did something. Their rep on Twitter did say "The type of communication hub you have should automatically reconnect after 30 days. We still need to wait a few more days for this process to complete before re-checking whether we’re now connected." though i suspect this is standard page 13, paragraph 2 of the "lets fob off the customer till later" manual.

EssexHebridean

My meters stopped communicating a while ago few months back. I rang Octopus and was told that they would book an engineer visit for me, but in fact around the time I was expecting the call or email to sort that out communication started again. I have no confirmation but strongly suspect that they went through the remote reset process on it.

Phones4Chris

greyteam1959 said:

Phoning them or contacting them on social media seems to be the way to go. 
They usually answer the phone fairly quickly. 
Emails seem to be responded to by the jolly old bots.

Not always the case. I've had a lengthy to and fro via email for weeks now, and they are human beings responding to mine, I can tell by the way the responses are phrased etc. Mind you, the saga was started with a phone call. If they were bots then they are really damned clever ones who have eventually got my issue sorted - I'll detail that in my own thread in due course.

Qyburn

I've found emails to Octopus simply don't get acted on. Possibly because they just use a single email address so it relies on someone positively looking at the inbox and deciding to action your particular email.

Example 1 I was asked to email the DNO G.99 acceptance. When I phoned the following day the lady looked, found my email, and said she'd pass it on to the correct team. If I hadn't phone then presumably it would have just sat there unactioned.

Example 2 I reached stage with one issue where I wanted it logged as a complaint, which I sent by email. Again phoning a few days later I mentioned this, again the agent looked and found my email, and offered to log the complaint while I was on the phone.