Elsner Weather sensor device

[othm...@gmx.ch]

On the homepage of digitalSTROM I have read that on the Hackathon in Berlin last year some people have been successful 
in integrating an Elsner Weather Station via RS485. 

I am not realy sure if the connection goes via plan44_vdcd. But if so I am very interested in this. Unfortunately, 
I could not find more detailed explanation e.q. what kind of hardware and software are realy necessary to do that.

Can anyone support me?

Norbert

[Lukas Zeller]

Hi Norbert,

> On 14.07.2016, at 18:19, othm...@gmx.ch wrote:
>
> On the homepage of digitalSTROM I have read that on the Hackathon in Berlin last year some people have been successful
> in integrating an Elsner Weather Station via RS485.
>
> I am not realy sure if the connection goes via plan44_vdcd.

It does ;-)

> But if so I am very interested in this. Unfortunately,
> I could not find more detailed explanation e.q. what kind of hardware and software are realy necessary to do that.

At the Hackathon we did that on a Raspberry Pi plus a USB-to-RS485 dongle.

The software side is the free P44-DSB-X Image, see https://plan44.ch/automation/p44-dsb-x.php?lang=e&lay=desk&lay=desk

The current version (1.5.x) of this image supports the Elsner P03 out of the box (just create a custom device in the Web-UI with the "custom device type" set to "ElsnerP03" and "Custom device specification" set to the name of the serial port to use, normally /dev/ttyUSB0).

Note however that this kind of direct support has been removed in the 1.6.x P44-DSB-X software from the main vdcd, in favour of a so-called "external device" implementation, which is part of the project at github (see https://github.com/plan44/vdcd/tree/master/external_devices_samples/p44utils_based_C%2B%2B). You need to build and install that sample to get support for the P03 on newer P44-DSB-X firmware.

Also note that some Enocean-enabled Elsner Weather stations (e.g. those branded by Eltako) work directly with the P44-DSB commercial products.

Best Regards,

Lukas

[Lukas Zeller]

Hi Norbert,

> On 16.07.2016, at 11:47, <othm...@gmx.ch> <othm...@gmx.ch> wrote:
>
> Many thanks for your answer.
>
> When I use P44-DSB-... to connect the P03/3, can I see on the digitalStrom
> system all analog signals from the weather sensor?

See, yes (in the hidden sensor tab, at least - append /?goto=sensors to the dSS URL in the browser to enable it).

Hoever, what's still missing in the dSS is a mechanism to configure actions (do X when Sensor Y>Z...).

So that's why I implemented the "evaluator devices" in the P44-DSB, see https://plan44.ch/downloads/P44-DSB-Sensor-Evaluators.pdf. Evaluators are available in firmware 1.6.0.0 and newer.

> That's the real reason
> why I am interested in that solution. Otherwise, I can use PS8A with
> additional digitalStrom input devices.
>
> On the homepage from Elsner there are three different typs of P03/3: basic,
> GPS, CET. Which one have you used?

IIRC it was the basic type. Anyway, GPS position and/or DCF77 time are not implemented in the software, so even if your station does have these features, it would not make a difference.

> Have also tried out the never sensor P04/3?

I don't have a P04, but I just had a quick look at the datasheet. The protocol seems similar, but not identical to that of the P03. It would require adapting the "external device" implementation a bit.

Someone with a P04 for testing at hand and some C++ experience could do that quickly. If anyone wants to donate a P04, I would volunteer for doing the adaption ;-)

Best Regards,

Lukas