Not receiving any data

[Armghan]

Hi folks,

I've built the Tweet-a-Watt per instructions. I'm receiving packets from transmitter in X-CTU app. I couldn't get the Python setup to work on my Windows 7 machine so came to the forums and found Energy Logger software. The problem is that I don't get a kwh reading. The transmitter and receiver functionality works. I am getting a kwh reading on the lcd. The Energy Logger software is set to the correct com port etc.

Any ideas where I should start troubleshooting?

[adafruit]

did you go through all the steps to verify that the xbees are configured, the right leds are on, data comes in thru xctu, etc?

[Armghan]

Yes..checked all of the above:
Updated all Xbees.
Confirmed communication with both Xbees.
Blinking LED pattern is correct.
Data packets are seen in X-CTU terminal.
KWH is displayed on the Kill-a-Watt unit. There is a pc attached to the unit to generate kwh.

[adafruit]

could be the energy monitor software then. the hardware is fine

[Armghan]

Ok. I am now receiving data in Energylogger. I had to build a 2nd transmitter. I think the op-amp was fried on the 1st attempt. However, the data doesn't make sense. The readings are off the charts. The calibration doesn't work really well in Energylogger.

I am now trying to install the Python package to better understand data by graphing etc. The problem is that I am now getting the dreaded "Access is denied on Com 8" error after issuing the python.exe wattcher.py command. It looks like there is no available solution in the forum. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[adafruit]

ya this is a python thing, we dont develop python, only use it...it sounds like something happened in windows 7 to break how it worked since windows 2000 but we havent had time to figure out what it was

[Armghan]

One of my programmer friend found a solution. It looks like Windows thinks the Com port is still in use by another program. All you need to do is tell Wattcher.py to close the port and reopen it:

ser.close()
ser.open()

It resolved the access denied error but now there is another issue:

The data I'm getting from the transmitter doesn't make any sense. I'm getting 31+ amps and +- 4000 watts readings. I noticed similar readings in Energylogger software. Why would I get such high readings?

We will try to inject known voltage and current in to the kill a watt today to see what happens. Please feel free to share ideas, thanks.

[Armghan]

Ok. It looks like we are not receiving any amp data. I will troubleshoot the AD4 and op-amp current out pin.

[adafruit]

good work on the debugging there, you're right that bad Amp data will mess up the calibration (whcih you should do also!)

[aHao]

Hi, I'm having this same error with python. I try to run wattcher with python2.5 in CMD window of a windows XP version.

Basically it's the same, it says: could not open port COM3:(5, create file','Access is denied.'). I did a search on the forum and I came to this topic. i'm glad you found the solution but where do I put the ser.close and open commands?

Do I type those in CMD?
c:\wattcher> ser.close ?