I have been setting up my Open Energy Monitor system, and believe I have everything set up correctly but all my feeds continue to say inactive.
I used the emoncmspiv5avr_2may.img image with my pi which has the rfm12pi soldered and attached to the pins correctly.
I loaded the EmonTx CT123 example onto my emontx. The only thing I changed was the frequency constant. Both my pi and my emontx are running 433hz, on network group 210. My emontx is set to be node 10 while by base is 15. The emontx CT123 example has serial logging built in; so, I ran it attached to my computer and was able to see that it is indeed spitting out data.
To create my inputs I ran http://192.168.1.10/emoncms/input/post.json?node=10&csv=100,200,300. I then created a feed for each of these inputs.
All of the feeds continue to say inactive, but all the feeds say inactive.
Following advice from another thread on this topic I ran /etc/init.d/rfm12piphp restart log and checked the log file at /var/log/rfm12piphp.log, but there were no errors present and the script is running.
One thing I have noticed is that the LED on my rfm12pi only blinks once when I first boot the raspberry pi, otherwise it is just blank, should this light be blinking?
Any advice on the next step I should take in debugging this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone in the Open Energy Monitor community for all your hard work.
Re: All Feeds Inactive but Set up Seems correct
Chris, you don't manually create the inputs, as the inputs are automatically created by the system upon receipt of a data input signal from one or more of the emonTX's.
I would delete any feeds that you have created, also then delete the inputs. Reboot your RaspPi and look at the inputs page to see if any inputs have been created (sometimes takes a few seconds).
If not, look again at the log by using;
$ tail -F -n 40 /var/log/rfm12piphp.log
and you should see the input data arriving in real time. (Ctrl-C to exit!)
Paul
Re: All Feeds Inactive but Set up Seems correct
Should the two LED's (emonTx and RFM12Pi) not blink synchronously? And if not, this indicates that the receiver isn't receiving anything? The emonTx LED flashing regularly (every 2 - 5 s) and serial dataoutput indicates that the emonTx has not locked up. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's transmitting, though usually that is the case.
Re: All Feeds Inactive but Set up Seems correct
Thanks for the response. I deleted all my input and rebooted the pi. The contents of /var/log/rfm12piphp.log are
MESSAGE RX:> 15i
BASEID SET CORRECTLY
MESSAGE RX:> 4b
FREQUENCY SET CORRECTLY
MESSAGE RX:> 210g
GROUP SET CORRECTLY
The light on my emontx blinks about every 7 seconds, but the light on the rfm12pi does not. This light comes on briefly when the pi first boots then it turns off and remains off. If I turn "Broadcast time to synchronize emonGLCD" then the light on the rfm12pi blinks according to the value I provide (I am not using emonGLCD just tried that while debugging and thought I would include the results).
Now that my inputs have been deleted the input screen simply reads
"No inputs created. Inputs is the main entry point for your monitoring device. Configure your device to post values here, you may want to follow the Input API helper as a guide for generating your request."
I tried updating the rfm12pi firmware following directions at http://wiki.openenergymonitor.org/index.php?title=RFM12Pi_V2. I ran
sudo avrdude -v -c arduino -p ATMEGA328P -P /dev/ttyAMA0 -b 38400 -U flash:w:RF12_Demo_atmega328.cpp.hex
and received the following
avrdude-original: Version 5.11.1, compiled on May 23 2012 at 11:08:25
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch
System wide configuration file is "/etc/avrdude.conf"
User configuration file is "/root/.avrduderc"
User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping
Using Port : /dev/ttyAMA0
Using Programmer : arduino
Overriding Baud Rate : 38400
done with autoreset
avrdude-original: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
Could it be that there is something wrong with my rfm12pi? Any thoughts on where to go from here?
Re: All Feeds Inactive but Set up Seems correct
Hello Chris, it sounds like you've got everything set up correctly. The last error with uploading firmware would appear if the rfm12piphp script is already running, you could try calling:
sudo /etc/init.d/rfm12piphp status
to check if its running and
sudo /etc/init.d/rfm12piphp stop
to stop it if it is
But re uploading the firmware shouldnt make any difference as you have confirmed that the rfm12pi board replies correctly to a frequency and group id set which tells us the atmega and serial link between the pi and the rfm12pi board are working.
How close is your emontx to the raspberrypi? it might be worth double checking the frequencies and group id's of both are the same.
Does anything appear in the rfm12piphp.log beyond the initial setup of frequency, group and nodeid? any lines either starting with an OK or a ? mark?
Re: All Feeds Inactive but Set up Seems correct
Initially they were about the 20 ft apart. I have also tried with them right next to each other. There is nothing in the log other than the lines I posted above.
Re: All Feeds Inactive but Set up Seems correct
Hello Chris, I just checked out your order and I see you have the raspberrypi expansion board kit v1, so the above upload error is because you need to upload the attiny firmware rather than the atmega328 firmware.
I would double check the solder connections on the rfm12 modules on both the emontx and the raspberrypi expansion boards, its easy to leave a dry joint, I have done it several times.
The led on the emontx will still flash even if the radio is not sending correctly, so it could be an issue with either end.
Re: All Feeds Inactive but Set up Seems correct
OK, thanks. Good to know about the version number. I'm a bit new to soldering so that's what I was afraid of. I will re-check them and let you know if I find a resolution. Thanks for all the help, this is a very empowering project. Once I get some demos up and running I hope to help spread the word.