voltcraft-vsm-102-telnet v1.0.1

Read Voltcraft VSM-102 electricity meter(s) via rs485-to-telnet converter.

This module will contionusly query one or more Voltcraft VSM-102 electricity meter(s) connected to an rs485-to-telnet converter. I use a Chiyu BF-430, but any similar device should work as long as there is no login required to access the bus.

The electricity meter itself seems to be discontinued, but I have a few that I wanted to get readings from. So instead of hacking together a "good enough" solution, I decided to actually package the code as an npm module for simple reuse. Especially since every time I hack something together for these meters, I have to wade through the incomplete, and in parts inaccurate, documentation for the device. This way I don't ever have to do that again.

NOTE: This module will relentlessly hammer the bus trying to get readings. It is therefor a very bad choice if your bus includes other devices!

Example

const meter = require('voltcraft-vsm-102-telnet');

meter.run({ host: 'hostname.example.com', port: 50000}, result => {
  console.log(result);
});

Installation

npm install voltcraft-vsm-102-telnet

VERY IMPORTANT!

Buggy readings: Purchased power (kWh).

The Voltcraft VMS-102 contains a pretty serious bug related to meter readings of purcased power (kWh). The documentation states "Meter readings in kWh with 6 pre-decimal and 2 post-decimal digits".

This is simply not true. In reality there are 5+2 digits, and the values does not roll over at 99999.99kWh. This gives readings of ?????.??*kWh, which are not valid.

Use option verbose: true to include these readings, knowing they are reported as parsed. This means a valua of NaN for invalid readings!

Buggy readings: Total infed power (kW).

In addition, the OBIS 1-0:1.7.255*255 (Li: total infed power) does not always equal the sum of infed power for L1+L2+L3. It is therefor not normally included in response either.

Use option verbose: true to include this value.

API

meter.run(options, callback);

Parameter options

An object with the following properties:

Paramater callback

Callback function that will receive result.

The callback function receives the following objects:

Option verbose: false (default)

{
  ts: 1636906149995,      /* Timestamp. ms resolution */
  power: { 
    unit: 'kW',           /* Always 'kW' */
    L1: 3.0136,           /* OBIS 1-0:21.7.255*255 */
    L2: 4.0275,           /* OBIS 1-0:41.7.255*255 */
    L3: 2.6157,           /* OBIS 1-0:61.7.255*255 */
  },
  serial: '11400529'      /* OBIS 0-0:96.1.255*255 */
}

Option verbose: true

Only fields sent when verbose: true is commented. The rest of the fealds are the same as above.

{
  ts: 1636906115251,
  checksum: { 
    bcc: 120,             /* BCC sent from device */
    lrc: 120,             /* LRC calculated over data sent from device */
    match: true           /* Do they match? */
  },
  power: { 
    unit: 'kW', 
    L1: 0.9239, 
    L2: 1.7303, 
    L3: 0.6819, 
    total: 3.3361         /* OBIS 1-0:1.7.255*255  */
  },
  energy: { 
    unit: 'kWh',          /* Always 'kWh' */
    total: NaN,           /* OBIS 1-0:1.8.0*255 */
    L1: 33399.95,         /* OBIS 1-0:2.1.7*255 */
    L2: 58744.73,         /* OBIS 1-0:4.1.7*255 */
    L3: 71589.76          /* OBIS 1-0:6.1.7*255 */
  },

  /* First line of device response. Presumably model+firmware? */
  model: 'EFR-M4-DRV004101222',

  /* OBIS 1-0:96.5.5*255 */
  state: {
    outage: {
      L1: false,          /* bit[5]: true if L1 outage. */ 
      L2: false,          /* bit[4]: true if L2 outage. */ 
      L3: false,          /* bit[3]: true if L3 outage. */ 
    }
    idle: false,          /* bit[6]: true if idle, false if 'above start-up' */
    error: false          /* bit[0]: true on error. */ 
  }
  serial: '11400529'
}

License

MIT © Thomas Hellström rel@xed.se