Frient eletricity meter

Hi there
I just added a FRIENT Electricity meter to my homey.
It is using an optical probe to count LED pulsations.
On the smartphone, I have these features shown, and except the top left one, I am wondering what are the others made for ?
Any clues ?
Thanks

The Top-right value should be the momentary used power, the total of all active appliances.
The bottom looks like it gives a “connected” indication, but I’m not sure about that.

Hello,
is there any way of changing the factor from 1000 to 10000 per kwh?

Hi, are there any news if the factor can be changed to 10000?

Thank you!

Email today from Frient:

Hi.

Thank you for reaching out.

We have received many questions about that function.

Currently, we are looking into possibilities for the integration of such functions in Homey.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with any specific information about when such an integration will be done.

Best regards,

frient.

Any chance how to recalculate pulses in Homey when mlj meter is set to 10000 and Frient only supports 1000?

I have connected my meter to my “Home Assistant” and with the Homey “Home Assistant” App I have it available in my Homey. In “Home Assistant” (zigbee2mqtt) I can change it to 10000

I’m aware of that possibility. Unfortunately, I only have Home Assistant in Docker and I only use it as a Dashboard via mqtt broker. Hopefully soon there will be a possibility to change pulses directly in Homey

I guess it goes like this too. Meter is set to 10000 pulses, Frient in default setting has 1000 pulses. I set up a virtual device where I send the adjusted readings divided by 10.

So, at first I thought: Oh wow, so THIS is why the output never seems to make any sense. How do I know what my meter is set to though?

Then I started calculating and… it still doesn’t make any sense. Most of the time, it seems like the peak W the interface registers, is twice the peak W of the power plug I’m using for the device. That’s on heavy duty devices though, because those show best. But when I compare the interface with what my power company says I used last month, it’s a factor of 3,25, and when I calculate it for since I installed the Frient interface about three months ago, it’s a factor of five.

I mean… I can’t make heads or tails of it… There isn’t even a clear drop in energy usage while I was on vacation and believe me, apart from the fridge I have basically every device in my home turned off by a smart plug as soon as I leave the house.

Does anyone have an explanation?

Look at your meter, see how many pulses it has.

image

Ok, I’m daft. See, I defaulted to calculating because I couldn’t find it anywhere on the meter. Just now I checked again, still couldn’t find it anywhere, so I decided to just Google the user manual.

Then I discovered it was very neatly covered by the velcro I had sticked over the led when I set the Frient Interface up a while ago :rofl:

It’s 2000 imp/kWh. So that seems to fit with what I see in W peak when I compare power plugs. Only thing is that it still doesn’t explain why it doesn’t fit with my energy usage overall. Anyone have an idea what that might be about?

Edit: I think it has to do with the way it calculates my usage versus solar panel input, but since my energy company calculates things in a bit of an atypical way, it’s difficult for me to know exactly how. Maybe they know, but that’ll have to wait until after the weekend.

I bought this meter a few days ago and it works great, but unfortunately it does not update measurements any more after a restart of Homey. It just gets stuck at the last reported value before the reboot, and I have to open it up and press the reset button to get it reporting again. Restarting only the Frient app is fine.

image

Has anyone else also noticed this behavior (I also sent a diags report to Frient)?

[Update] After some trial & error it looks like it starts reporting again by itself after 10-15 minutes. Contacted Frient, and they told me this is by design.

What type of virtual device did you use?
When I setup virtual device - type sensor - power adn power meter values, I have different virutal sensor values than you and does not work :frowning:

Hi @TedTolboom, as I noticed in an other topic that you are assisting in the development of the Frient app, or even developing it alone, so I’m writing to you directly.

When I was looking for a Homey compatible smart meter a few months ago, I also came across the Electricity Meter Interface from Frient. However, because Frient’s website already states that the pulse rate cannot be changed in the Homey app, I also contacted Frient by email, but the answer was not satisfactory. So this is the reason why I had decided against buying it and purchased a Qubino 3-phase SmartMeter.

Would it be possible for you to notice this point on your ToDo list?

The App ist updated.
Now its possible to change the impuls settings!
:star_struck:

1 Like

Greetings,
I have just installed frient’s Electricity Meter Interface. It is successfully connected over Zigbee to the Homey Bridge. Soo far, soo good.
It seems the default Pulse Configuration is set to 0, meaning 1000 impulses/kWh, correct?
In my case my meter blinks with 2000 impulses/kWh.
My question now is what actual value should I set in the Pulse Configuration? 2?

Best regards, Anthony

Hi, how do you connected your electricity meter interface directly to home assistant?