Replacing a smart meter comms hub

Reed_Richards

Smart metering expertise required, if anyone has it.

The comms hub on my smart meter was replaced a week ago but the replacement could not be commissioned.  The WAN light flashes ever 5 seconds but the HAN light is solid green, which I think confirms this (I'm in the north on Arqiva LRR).  I am thrashing around trying to find out what the problem is and I think I have found that the old comms hub needs to be decommissioned first.  The data that I find at https://homebrew.n3rgy.com/ stills shows the old comms hub (and has today's date).  Does this confirm that the old hub is still "on the system" and needs to be removed before communication can be established with a new one?  

Ildhund

Sorry I can't help. You might find some inspiration for what has to be done in this Octopus blog, which lays out some of the complexity of installation, configuration and commissioning of smart metering equipment: Solving smart meter issues | Octopus Energy. There is certainly work to be done if the MAC address printed on your hub isn't the same as the one returned by a new Homebrew check.  

Reed_Richards

Thanks for replying, @Ildhund.  There is most certainly work to be done because the new comms hub has yet to be "commissioned" i.e. made visible on the comms network so the Homebrew check is bound not to show it, because the system does not know it is there.  My question is whether successful commissioning would automatically overwrite the obsolete data or whether the old record needs to be cleared before a new one can be entered?  If it's the latter then the commissioning attempts are bound to fail.

Reed_Richards

The last line of the data I get at  https://homebrew.n3rgy.com/ says:

Cache: 2025-08-20 07:18:43.726925 [refreshing cache 32 days, 23:10:34.718874] 

Any idea what the "refreshing cache" time means ( @Ildhund )?  The last data I got from my old comms hub was on 20th July which is 31 days ago, so "32" days is close.  And if this does represent the time of some last communication then it's quite useful data if you have a comms problem.

[Incidentally, the "cache" time is when I requested the data.]

Ildhund

Reed_Richards said:

Any idea what the "refreshing cache" time means ( @Ildhund )?  

Sorry, no - I've no idea how this stuff works, and I've not seen that sort of message. The information Homebrew retrieves is not particularly volatile, so for n3rgy to check for updates only after a month has passed sounds reasonable. 

Reed_Richards

It's the very bottom line that you get when you ask https://homebrew.n3rgy.com/ for data on your MPAN.  Is it not there for you?

debitcardmayhem

What is the installed date for your communication device ? does it correspond to when your new hub was installed 

Reed_Richards

No it does not; it still shows the old GUID and the old installation date for the hub that was removed 9 days ago.

debitcardmayhem

Have you contacted your supplier, they if they installed it they should tell the DCC

Ildhund

Reed_Richards said:

It's the very bottom line that you get when you ask https://homebrew.n3rgy.com/ for data on your MPAN.  Is it not there for you?

Sorry if I misled you. Just now I see Cache: 2025-08-01T00:06:21.102Z [cached]. I don't see any more - it was the 'refreshing' bit that I've not seen. The timestamps are also a bit different, μs where I only get ms. 

Qyburn

I just see "Cache: 2025-08-20T07:29:20.962Z [cached]" no refresh date.

Just now it shows the most recently installed gear, but for quite a while it still showed the GUID of the comms hub that had been removed. N3rgy confirmed to me that "cached" means cached by the DCC, they themselves don't hold or cache data.