Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM?

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crazydane
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:31 am

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by crazydane » Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:52 pm

I was going to locate the DB in one of my network racks. It just needs power and Ethernet and doesn't need to be located near the GEMs, right? I already have plenty of UPS capacity in my racks.

Good idea about also putting the GEMs behind a UPS. The PT is 120V only, right? So it will only monitor one leg of my service, but they are never off by more than 0.2V, so that should be fine.

I have a whole house diesel generator that kicks in when the power goes, so it will be nice to have the GEMs and DB online the whole time and not reboot during the 20 seconds or so before backup power comes on-line.

Guess my next step is to contact support about putting together a package deal. Looks like the on-line configurator is under construction atm.

I never did re-label all my circuits after all the changes I have made over the years. With a channel dedicated to each breaker, it should be pretty straight forward to walk through the house with my laptop and turn lights on and off and plug something into the outlets and see what reacts in the DB web interface. Sure beats turning the breakers off one at a time, and run through the house to see what is no longer working. :D
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by Teken » Wed Sep 06, 2017 5:03 pm

crazydane wrote:I was going to locate the DB in one of my network racks. It just needs power and Ethernet and doesn't need to be located near the GEMs, right? I already have plenty of UPS capacity in my racks.

Good idea about also putting the GEMs behind a UPS. The PT is 120V only, right? So it will only monitor one leg of my service, but they are never off by more than 0.2V, so that should be fine.

I have a whole house diesel generator that kicks in when the power goes, so it will be nice to have the GEMs and DB online the whole time and not reboot during the 20 seconds or so before backup power comes on-line.

Guess my next step is to contact support about putting together a package deal. Looks like the on-line configurator is under construction atm.

I never did re-label all my circuits after all the changes I have made over the years. With a channel dedicated to each breaker, it should be pretty straight forward to walk through the house with my laptop and turn lights on and off and plug something into the outlets and see what reacts in the DB web interface. Sure beats turning the breakers off one at a time, and run through the house to see what is no longer working. :D
Dash Box: There are three methods to connect to the DB to GEM which hinges on you buying the right combination from the onset.

- Serial connection: This is the ideal method as it doesn't rely on the network ever being on line. This comes by default no need to ask for it.
- Ethernet Connection: This is the second best method but does rely on your network being 100%
- Wifi Connection: It goes with out saying a strong and reliable RF must be present.

I would encourage you to purchase the WiFi / Ethernet combination for the GEM as this allows flexibility should final placement or network environment dictate.

Speaking only for myself I am all about hard wiring and don't use wireless unless I absolutely have to. If you can run CAT5e / CAT6 to the GEM you're golden. WiFi can be added to the DB at anytime and is simply a 3rd party WiFi stick. Otherwise hardwire it using Ethernet to communicate to the GEM.

Potential Transformer (PT): You're in luck the Brultech company offers a higher precision PT which supports either 120 vs 240. I use both in my set up as I wanted the 1% tolerance but in real world use its so close to the standard 120 PT it really offers nothing besides.

*Look Mom I can get 1% better than you* :lol: :mrgreen:

Almost everything I have stated here has been covered in my *Projects* thread in my signature. So while you wait for a reply from the sales department you can give it a one over.
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
crazydane
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:31 am

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by crazydane » Wed Sep 06, 2017 6:01 pm

I plan to go the wired Ethernet route. I have about a dozen Ubiquiti UniFi switches placed throughout the 3 levels of my house. Lots of Cat6 cable running in conduits between floors and plenty of UniFi APs hardwired throughout as well. Here's the core of my network, which is also my primary storage location:

Image

I got 10G connections running to the servers and several 10G connections up to my office.

The 3 UPS at the bottom of the left rack will keep the network running for well over an hour in the case of power failure, but backup power typically comes online in 20 seconds, sometime a little longer if it is very cold and the diesel generator has to preheat longer.

I too use only wired unless I have no other choice, like with all my Echo's and Echo Dot's.

I have started to read your Projects thread. Very impressive! I thought I was the crazy one. I was wrong, very wrong. lol
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by Teken » Wed Sep 06, 2017 6:32 pm

What a beautiful sight to behold!! Somehow I don't think saving power is the main driver here!!


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Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
crazydane
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:31 am

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by crazydane » Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:55 pm

You're right about that. My main driver is to accurately account for my power consumption, especially for all my computer equipment. But I do want to track ALL consumption while I'm at it.

So I wonder if the Brutech crew is on vacation this week? I have not gotten a response yet to my inquiry for a rather larger order.
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by Teken » Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:57 pm

crazydane wrote:You're right about that. My main driver is to accurately account for my power consumption, especially for all my computer equipment. But I do want to track ALL consumption while I'm at it.

So I wonder if the Brutech crew is on vacation this week? I have not gotten a response yet to my inquiry for a rather larger order.
I know Ben is away until the 11th of this month. I've forwarded this inquiry to the Brultech sales team.
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
fl_insight
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2015 12:08 pm

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by fl_insight » Thu Sep 07, 2017 10:09 pm

I have the Gem with dashbox and sense. Sense has not worked at all, especially since I have a grid tied battery backup solar pv system. Also have smartthings and am converting to powerly to integrate meter data.

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adamall
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:22 pm

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by adamall » Fri Sep 08, 2017 11:01 am

Just another option other than the Dashbox would be to use influxdb and Grafana. I do not have the dashbox but it looks like a great easy way to collect, store, and view all of your data collected by GEM devices.

The route I went was way more complicated and time consuming to setup than the Dashbox but that is mainly because I am not a linux person. I went this route because I already had a NAS box with plenty of storage available and the capability to run some linux containers. I have three containers running, one for the python script (btmon) to collect data from the GEM device and send the data to influxdb (a time series database), the second container is for influxdb, and the final container is for grafana.

Based on your pictures and description of your networking gear it looks like you like to tinker with things so this may be an option. It is certainly not the easiest but gives you a lot flexibility and the ability to use some of your existing equipment.

Some pictures of my dashboards in grafana are attached.
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ben
Site Admin
Posts: 4254
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:39 am

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by ben » Mon Sep 11, 2017 2:43 pm

I talked with the people here when I got back and it seems like everything has been taken care of.

Does the backup generator you use put out an accurate 60Hz? There'll be accuracy issues if it doesn't when the generator is on.

Make sure you don't hook the PT up to a UPS/etc. Have the PTs directly connected to your outlets.

The GEM is capable of sending to 2 different sources if at some point you wanted to try out a different piece of software. The DashBox can be hooked up to COM2 of the GEM (2nd COM port is limited in packet formats), and COM1 can be used for whatever you want.
Ben
Brultech Research Inc.
E: ben(at)brultech.com
crazydane
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:31 am

Re: Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM

Post by crazydane » Wed Sep 13, 2017 2:13 pm

@Ben, yep everything has been taken care of!

Generator is pretty close to 60Hz, but it has a mechanical governor so I will vary a few percentage points up or down, depending on load. Fortunately power outages are fairly rare.

Yep, the PT will be hooked up directly to the one of the legs on one of the 200A panels.

My plan is to connect the dash box via it's 2 serial ports directly to the 2 GEMs by my 2 main panels. I have noted to use port 2 on both of them.

@adamall influxdb and Grafana looks very nice, but yes, I get it was a lot of work to get up and running. Been a while since I have dappled with that, so I'll start out with the Busy Box and it looks like it will more than suit my needs, at least for the foreseeable future.

Peter
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