Updating meter hub from 3g to 4g - now no data?

Ayr_Rage

Finally, after much pulling of teeth, we've got to the crux of the matter.

The smart meters are likely to be perfectly fine and hopefully communicating over the radio network.

Can you see readings appearing in your online accounts, either via the website or apps?

As no new IHD was provided and the current one wasn't or couldn't be paired with the new comms hub you may have to find an alternative for inside your home.

glennevis

Last month Octopus sent an engineer to replace my faulty 3G comms hub with the 4G version. He didn't need to do anything to either meter. Just a visual check of both to confirm the 'serial numbers' before he started.

It didn't affect my IHD (which had been provided by Eon before I switched to Octopus).

brook_heather

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82033986#Comment_82033986

No the IHD should just continue to work - I had my 3G comms hub upgraded to 4G last month by Octopus without any issues.

Reed_Richards

No the IHD should just continue to work

I wonder why? Presumably the Comms Hub acts something like a router and provided the IHD knows the identity (HAN address) of the meters that it is trying to communicate with then it doesn't matter if the comms hub is replaced.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82037768#Comment_82037768

Perhaps someone who actually knows how these things work could give the definitive answer. I've always assumed that the IHD talks to the comms hub but maybe it does talk directly with the meter(s).

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82037768#Comment_82037768

It matters because the HAN is formed by the comms hub, without that the meters and the IHD cannot communicate at all.

Similarly even the electricity meter needs to communicate via the HAN as the direct connection between the electricity meter and the comms hub is only for power, not data.

As long as the comms hub has been properly updated with the security certificates and has been set to pair with the IHD / meters during the install then all should work without further intervention.

… but the installers may not do it right, and the certificates may not have been properly updated so that is where things don't connect and often requires remote intervention to restart the pairing process.

Reed_Richards

It matters because the HAN is formed by the comms hub

You're missing the point of my analogy, @MWT . You could replace your home router by a different router and none of the devices connecting to each other and to the internet would be any the wiser even though the LAN is formed by the router. You would have to set-up the replacement router correctly to achieve this (making sure the WiFi network name and password were the same and the router defined the same IP address range). But perhaps the equivalent parameters are the same for all comms hubs? It would be sensible to make that so, in which case one comms hub could always be a drop-in replacement for another.

flaneurs_lobster

But perhaps the equivalent parameters are the same for all comms hubs? It would be sensible to make that so, in which case one comms hub could always be a drop-in replacement for another.

Isn't that unlikely since every comms hub would then talk to every smart meter and IHD in range? My leccy cupboard (in the garden) has four of the things.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038250#Comment_82038250

Point understood, but as you point out you can't just drop in any router and expect it to work, the minimum you have to do is configure it to look like the router it is replacing, same SSID same password.

You can't do exactly the same for all the comms hubs as it has to know where it is going to be installed and which devices to attach to or you'd have one router connecting to the neighbours devices when it was replaced.

The security certificates have to be loaded onto the router and then it is set to pair.

Reed_Richards

When my old comms hub was replaced the engineer tried two others before he got the third one to work. He took them fresh out of their boxes, they certainly could not have been preloaded with anything specific to my meter. He took a picture of the bar code on my meter (I only have electricity) and sent that by mobile phone to someone at the other end. There is also a bar code on the comms hub, perhaps he recorded that too. In which case once the comms hub establishes WAN communications it can be instructed to find and establish a HAN link to the meter via the MAC address on the meter bar code. But the IHD must have already been told the MAC address of the meter so doesn't care that it's a new HAN on a new comms hub.