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Comment by ArchOversight | Hacker News Reader

My old house had a meter that could be read by rtlamr but the new one has a newer meter that sends encrypted data back over some proprietary mesh network, and no longer provides that data in cleartext.

I wish there was an open standard and one I could easily plug in to. Even just a flashing LED on the side of the meter would work for me.

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You can add your own submeter after the utility meter, if you want to monitor your power usage. It’s more expensive than utilizing the utility meter, but sometimes you don’t have a choice.

Here’s a leviton kit with a 120/240v 200a meter and two CTs:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Series-1000-Single-Phase...

Equipped with both isolated pulse output and RS-485 serial port (modbus native) standard for easy interface with most AMR and BAS systems

I believe the description is wrong. There is no RS-485 serial port on these devices, at least not what I can find in the manual/wiring diagrams. There's just the isolated pulse output.

The RS485 terminals aren’t labeled on some of the cutsheets as not all models have it, here’s a quick start sheet that shows the terminals: https://leviton.com/content/dam/leviton/lighting-controls/co...

Ah, alright! Thank you!

I agree. Right around the time I figured out the format of the data from my Elster electric meter, they enabled encryption across the mesh network. Luckily the water meters remained in the clear, and our natural gas utility uses Itron, which are easily read with rtlamr (like OP describes)

I actually have an appointment this week to have our electric and water meters replaced, as our utilities are managed by the city and they’ve switched to a new provider. I think they’re putting in Itron, and I’m hopeful readings can be picked up by rtlamr.

Just want to note that Itron has several models of residential electrical meters and they have the different capabilities.

Mine is an Itron, and it uses the encrypted mesh to communicate.

Yeah, it looks like ours are too (Itron Gen5). So I’ve pivoted to using “AI on the edge” with an ESP32 Cam to read my water meter. I already have an Emporia Vue monitoring my electricity usage, so I’m good there.

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