Octopus - smart meter problems

Phones4Chris

MarzipanCrumble said:

My new meters were fitted Nov 24.  However the synchronised flashing has only just started.  Before they flashed separately at various intervals.

I have a pink mini which never connected.  I am loathe to mess with my router which does bboth 2.4 and 5 GHz  and pink mini only connects if 2.4 GHZ and no 5 GHZ

Ugh when so many on here say ditch the IHD is the IHD now so important to have connected?

Well you could have mentioned that you'd had the new meters in Nov.24 in your initial post here. And the fact that the meter details on your account don't reflect the new meter means the response you'd have got from me and no doubt others would have been to contact Octopus immediately and if you didn't get a satisfactory response in a timely manner, to then raise a formal complaint.
The IHD can be a useful device, even with the limitations on what it can show. It's now pretty obvious that the reason it not currently working is because the meter registration has been messed up. As mentioned in my previous reply, give Octopus the IHD's GUID as well, when contacting them.

Scot_39

MarzipanCrumble said:

My new meters were fitted Nov 24.  However the synchronised flashing has only just started.  Before they flashed separately at various intervals.

I have a pink mini which never connected.  I am loathe to mess with my router which does bboth 2.4 and 5 GHz  and pink mini only connects if 2.4 GHZ and no 5 GHZ

Ugh when so many on here say ditch the IHD is the IHD now so important to have connected?

Perhaps your signal is now better in the area.

Perhaps another mesh comms hub fitted near by to get you a relay chain to the DCC network and supplier.

The ihd is just a tool.An information source.

It takes no direct part in billing per se - just highlights in real time - well 10 sec updates - lot less frequent for gas - what your electric use is.  You have to tgen decide to switch things on or off if want to save.

Many put theirs straight in the drawer.

I like mine counting down to my rate changes  - but I coped without for years with same times on rts and digital meters, before smart.

MarzipanCrumble

Just to clarify:  This was/is an ongoing issue.  I had SM2s which had a industry problem (appearing on threads here) communicating in the summer - they had communicated before.  

I do not have a problem with Octopus - they have tried.  But I now have Octopus meters and an Octopus mini (which does not work) and an MPAN which tells me it is not recognised as a SM by DCC.  Yet i now have synchronised W,S,M lights which indicate their is a possibility for communication with DCC.

I have emailed Octopus - yet to receive a reply.

I am a little confused because up until Spring of last year my previous SM2 communicated.....  So I know for a fact it is possible.  And I feel very resentful I am excluded from the best tarrifs, exporting elecricity if I install solar panels etc etc.  Just because O2 is a weak signal.

QrizB

MarzipanCrumble said:

And I feel very resentful I am excluded from the best tarrifs, exporting elecricity if I install solar panels etc etc.  Just because O2 is a weak signal.

I don't think O2 is your problem any more, and it might not have been your problem beforehand either. If you had one of the Comms hubs with a firmware fault, it must've been communicating properly otherwise it wouldn't have been bricked by the firmware update.

Ildhund

MarzipanCrumble said:

My SM2 are not connecting with Octopus.  

Me confused again, sorry. What's an SM2? If you mean a SMETS2 smart meter, then fine, but it would help not to abbreviate too much. You also wrote about "the old SM2s that Octopus replaced"; somewhere else, you wrote that the old meter connected fine to the supplier, and elsewhere again that "O2 signal is very weak/non existant in that room".  

So now I'm wondering if the electricity meter that was replaced was in fact a SMETS1 device, which had a network-agnostic SIM that just picked up the strongest mobile signal it could find. This would explain why the old meter connected but the new one can't, because it relies on a network provided by O2. Can you remember what type of meter the old one was, or describe what it looked like? Your clarification would help us all understand what's going on.

Meanwhile, you could run this little utility: homebrew.n3rgy.com which will give some basic information about your HAN. Enter your MPAN, tick the tiny confirmation box and click Check meter. You may see warnings about certificate expiry or out-of-date firmware, which you can safely ignore. Otherwise, it will give the make and model of the devices connected to the HAN together with their status. If you choose to copy the results into your reply, please delete the GUIDs and MPAN(s), which could be abused if you left them visible. 

techno12

My smart meter magically started working the other week, after 2+ years of nothing.

I've had 4 visits by MPAAS to 'reset' or tweak it to no avail - there was just no signal at all even with a T2 antenna.

I guess O2 have boosted the signal in my area recently as I suddenly received a bill from EDF with "Smart Meter" reading about 6 weeks ago, so I got the Hugo app and yeah it was showing half-hourly readings.
I was never sent an IHD as it never worked and the original installer said I would only get one once the meter was commissioned and working.

The gas meter won't connect as that's 15+m away so I've requested a dual band comms hub, but EDF never got back to me. I'll try them again next month after my next manual meter read...

It also still drops out occasionally for a few days then comes back, so I'll tweak the aerial next time I head down there (large communal cellar in Victorian building shared by 10 flats).

I wonder how the switch to Vodafone will work out for me, signal could be better or worse, who knows!

Phones4Chris

@techno12 If you have a smart phone, you can get it to tell you what networks you can receive by looking at your network SIM settings and turn OFF - "Connect Automatically". It will then scan for all available networks and produce a list. Once you know what's available you can switch "Connect Automatically" back ON.

Phones4Chris

@MarzipanCrumble I still think this was most likely to be a fouled up registration because the correct meter details were not showing on your account. Has that part now been corrected?
Running that little routine suggested by @Ildhund could also be useful.

MSE_ForumTeam5

@MarzipanCrumble - we've split your questions and replies into a separate thread

MarzipanCrumble

OK
Thanks for all your help
From contacting Bright app and running the n3rgy checkmeter I now know my meter is not registered with DCC.  I think Octopus just thought it would never connect.

SM2 = SMETS2

I will phone Octopus tomorrow

Here is a photo of the meter - HAN and GAS are dead i.e. do not flash
SW WAN and MESH flash in unison every 5 secs