I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few weeks
back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits over the cable
from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably by measuring the
current induced in the clip and calculating W = V x A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out of the
meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a wall
before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible to
differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?

Jake wrote:
I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few weeks
back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits over the cable
from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably by measuring the
current induced in the clip and calculating W = V x A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out of the
meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a wall
before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible to
differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?


probably not

On 26/11/2011 02:14, Jake wrote:
I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few weeks
back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits over the cable
from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably by measuring the
current induced in the clip and calculating W = V x A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out of the
meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a wall
before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible to
differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?

Would not have thought so - same current will flow in both.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:14:25 -0000
"Jake" wrote:

I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few
weeks back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits
over the cable from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably
by measuring the current induced in the clip and calculating W = V x
A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out
of the meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a
wall before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible
to differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?



Try it, they are usually easy to put on and off. Mine works fine on
any of the four cables going to the meter.

The more important thing is the place it where it has the least
shielding from pipes and large earthed metal things.

R.

After serious thinking Jake wrote :
I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few weeks
back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits over the cable
from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably by measuring the current
induced in the clip and calculating W = V x A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out of the
meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a wall
before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible to
differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?

It should work equally well around any one of the four cables.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Four cables? Anyway, any of these devices have a spoken output or interface
to a computer so one can download the data and get it spoken in that way
instead?

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
. uk...
After serious thinking Jake wrote :
I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few
weeks back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits over
the cable from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably by
measuring the current induced in the clip and calculating W = V x A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out of
the meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a wall
before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible to
differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?

It should work equally well around any one of the four cables.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Brian Gaff brought next idea :
Four cables? Anyway, any of these devices have a spoken output or interface
to a computer so one can download the data and get it spoken in that way
instead?

I understand some do have a computer interface enabling data to be
downloaded, but I've not seen one which can speak the data.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Brian Gaff wrote:

Four cables?

L+N into meter, L+N out of meter. My old one didn't even attempt to say
which cable to use, just clip it over one of then ... which was fine.

Anyway, any of these devices have a spoken output or interface
to a computer so one can download the data and get it spoken in that way
instead?

The CurrentCost ones have a serial port (TTL level I think) mine also
came with a USB lead to connect into it, the protocol spits out gobs of
XML with recent and historical summary data.

I think it would make rather boring listening! there is open source
software around that accepts the data, doubt that has voice output either.

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:34:20 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

The CurrentCost ones have a serial port (TTL level I think)

Correct but standard serial start/stop/parity/bit rate.

mine also came with a USB lead to connect into it, the protocol spits
out gobs of XML with recent and historical summary data.

Yep. The raw XML would be hard to listen to but it shouldn't be to
hard to have something log the data and the format it for a third
party "text to speech" program.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:

The raw XML would be hard to listen to but it shouldn't be to
hard to have something log the data and the format it for a third
party "text to speech" program.

I never installed the windows software that came with it (All linux at
home then), maybe a screen reader could make sense of the numbers it
gathered?

Andy Burns wrote:
Brian Gaff wrote:

Four cables?

L+N into meter, L+N out of meter. My old one didn't even attempt to say
which cable to use, just clip it over one of then ... which was fine.

Anyway, any of these devices have a spoken output or interface
to a computer so one can download the data and get it spoken in that way
instead?

The CurrentCost ones have a serial port (TTL level I think) mine also
came with a USB lead to connect into it, the protocol spits out gobs of
XML with recent and historical summary data.

Gridwatch grabs XML data. You could have your own domestic gridwatch :-)

I am slighlty tempted..


I think it would make rather boring listening! there is open source
software around that accepts the data, doubt that has voice output either.

Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:

The raw XML would be hard to listen to but it shouldn't be to
hard to have something log the data and the format it for a third
party "text to speech" program.

I never installed the windows software that came with it (All linux at
home then), maybe a screen reader could make sense of the numbers it
gathered?


Let me know if you want a crude XML parser code.


Only problem is how would one get the USB from there to here, in my case..

In article ,
Andy Burns writes:
Brian Gaff wrote:

Four cables?

L+N into meter, L+N out of meter. My old one didn't even attempt to say
which cable to use, just clip it over one of then ... which was fine.

Anyway, any of these devices have a spoken output or interface
to a computer so one can download the data and get it spoken in that way
instead?

The CurrentCost ones have a serial port (TTL level I think) mine also
came with a USB lead to connect into it, the protocol spits out gobs of
XML with recent and historical summary data.

I think it would make rather boring listening! there is open source
software around that accepts the data, doubt that has voice output either.

Beware - there's been some talk on the home automation channels
that the currant range of products are much more difficult to
interface to, and that simple serial or USB data streams are a
thing of the past, with the current products having undocumented
proprietary USB interfaces.

OWL do a separate black box receiver which can feed directly into a
computer, but it will only work with their application, which is a
pile of rubbish, and requires the PC on 24x7 running their full
screen app, which isn't going to appeal to anyone interested in
having a cost meter! A good idea, destroyed by a useless
implementation which fails at every level.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In message , Brian Gaff
wrote
Four cables? Anyway, any of these devices have a spoken output or interface
to a computer so one can download the data and get it spoken in that way
instead?


You can get a separate remote USB receiver for the Owl brand model but
the PC software that comes with it is not too good. I cannot remember if
it mimics the display or just logs the data to give a graph of usage.

In my experience these monitors are most useful for around a week,
before the novelty value has worn off. In the first week you can see if
turning things on, off or in standby can make a significant difference
to the bills.

An occasional glance at the meter now may indicate that something power
hungry has been inadvertently left on.
--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Let me know if you want a crude XML parser code.

Thanks, but no longer relevant, I gave the CurrentCost away after I had
smartmeters fitted, the display unit for those doesn't have any output,
so that rather set back my thoughts of drawing my own graphs ...

Only problem is how would one get the USB from there to here, in my case..

I found that Farnell sell an USB dongle that might allow reading the
radio feeds from the meters to the display, but it seems a bit steep on
a punt ...

http://uk.farnell.com/amber-wireless/amb8465-m/adapter-usb-wireless-m-bus-w-ant/dp/1749517

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Gridwatch grabs XML data. You could have your own domestic gridwatch :-)
I am slighlty tempted..

I already have a server chuntering away 24x7, I like the idea of making
it sing for its 120 watt supper in as many ways as possible, I run cacti
in one VM to monitor ADSL router and UPSes, that was where I planned to
feed the CurrentCost data.

It would be nice to feed the smartmeter data into it (especially as the
gas consumption is now available) if anyone knows about M-BUS or that
Amber Wireless dongle? Mr Gabriel perhaps?

Then a noddy weatherstation to grab wind/temperature data and occupancy
sensors in all rooms and 2-port valves on all radiators, link it into
the GPS on my phone so it knows when I'm setting off to return home, all
I'll need then will be the white cat to stroke menacingly ...

Andy Burns wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Let me know if you want a crude XML parser code.

Thanks, but no longer relevant, I gave the CurrentCost away after I had
smartmeters fitted, the display unit for those doesn't have any output,
so that rather set back my thoughts of drawing my own graphs ...

Only problem is how would one get the USB from there to here, in my
case..

I found that Farnell sell an USB dongle that might allow reading the
radio feeds from the meters to the display, but it seems a bit steep on
a punt ...

http://uk.farnell.com/amber-wireless/amb8465-m/adapter-usb-wireless-m-bus-w-ant/dp/1749517

I've just had a net scout, and it seems the current prove transmits
wirelessly to the unit so that can be parked by the server.

Linux scripts exist to read that straight into a database..which is fun.

May have to get one of those.

Andy Burns wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Gridwatch grabs XML data. You could have your own domestic gridwatch :-)
I am slighlty tempted..

I already have a server chuntering away 24x7, I like the idea of making
it sing for its 120 watt supper in as many ways as possible, I run cacti
in one VM to monitor ADSL router and UPSes, that was where I planned to
feed the CurrentCost data.

It would be nice to feed the smartmeter data into it (especially as the
gas consumption is now available) if anyone knows about M-BUS or that
Amber Wireless dongle? Mr Gabriel perhaps?

Then a noddy weatherstation to grab wind/temperature data and occupancy
sensors in all rooms and 2-port valves on all radiators, link it into
the GPS on my phone so it knows when I'm setting off to return home, all
I'll need then will be the white cat to stroke menacingly ...

Yes..I like this 24x7 monitoring stuff and turning the desktop PC into a
'home control room'

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

http://uk.farnell.com/amber-wireless/amb8465-m/adapter-usb-wireless-m-bus-w-ant/dp/1749517

I've just had a net scout, and it seems the current prove transmits
wirelessly to the unit so that can be parked by the server.

Linux scripts exist to read that straight into a database..which is fun.

May have to get one of those.

That's for smartmeters using EN 13757-4 protocol at 868MHz, I thought
the CurrentCost used 433MHz and assumed it would be a proprietary
protocol, never looked.

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 10:44:19 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Only problem is how would one get the USB from there to here, in my
case..

Getting confused now between smart meters and the CurrentCost energy
monitor.

The USB on the CurrentCost energy monitor dribbles out of the display
unit (via a serial TTL USB convertor in the lead) not the sensor
unit. The display unit gets the information wirelessly so that can be
placed next to your PC/server/WHY.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 10:57:02 +0000, Alan wrote:

In my experience these monitors are most useful for around a week,
before the novelty value has worn off. In the first week you can see if
turning things on, off or in standby can make a significant difference
to the bills.

I'm inclined to agree but I quite like having a plot of daily power
consumption available from my server.

They aren't really sensitive enough to show how much that Sky box is
taking in standby/on or anything of similar low power. What it might
pick up is combined low level consumption, I'd really love to know
what is taking the 300W that our consumption never drops below. I
guess is a combination of "essential" routers, PABX, couple of
lights, server etc etc but even "essential" stuff I'd like to reduce
the comsuption of. 300W is 7 units/day about 1/3 of the daily total
(ish), halving that would save over £100/year.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:

I'd really love to know
what is taking the 300W that our consumption never drops below.

When I totted mine up a while back ...

Doorbell transformer in C/U
Non-maintained emergency light in cupboard under stairs (where C/U is)
TV distribution amp in loft
Programmable stat for C/H
programmable stat for UFH
clocks on microwave, oven (VCR flashing 12:00 is long gone)
Bedside radio/alarm (DAB in my case with greedy non-switchmode wallwart)
Any other wallwart that gets warm even when unused
Two UPSes (now reduced to one) and a MasterSwitch
DECT base-station and charge-stations
ADSL router
VOIP adapter
Ethernet switch
Wifi Access point/firewall
Security light on PIR sensor
low level security light on dawn-to-dusk sensor
Battery charger(s)
laptop docking stations/monitors/USB hubs/powered speakers
Interlinked smoke alarms
Plugin display for smartmeters itself!

they all add up, If I shutdown my server I can get the rest of the house
to around 200W while the fridge freezer is not running, 250W when it
does kick in.

As mentioned I do (usually) have a server running 24x7 so I trickle
along at an average 400W which I don't think is too bad,

Tempted by Andrew Gabriel's syphoning-off of 12V and 5V from the server
to run as much of the ADSL/DECT/VOIP/Ethernet/WiFi kit without
individual wall-warts ...

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 10:44:19 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Only problem is how would one get the USB from there to here, in my
case..

Getting confused now between smart meters and the CurrentCost energy
monitor.

The USB on the CurrentCost energy monitor dribbles out of the display
unit (via a serial TTL USB convertor in the lead) not the sensor
unit. The display unit gets the information wirelessly so that can be
placed next to your PC/server/WHY.

Yes I realised that when I looked at the product spec.

Bit of a long haul for the actual radio link and a lot of metal in the
way..still it might work...

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 10:57:02 +0000, Alan wrote:

In my experience these monitors are most useful for around a week,
before the novelty value has worn off. In the first week you can see if
turning things on, off or in standby can make a significant difference
to the bills.

I'm inclined to agree but I quite like having a plot of daily power
consumption available from my server.

They aren't really sensitive enough to show how much that Sky box is
taking in standby/on or anything of similar low power.

I had a smart meter fitted and it will pickup low level standby power.

What it might
pick up is combined low level consumption, I'd really love to know
what is taking the 300W that our consumption never drops below. I
guess is a combination of "essential" routers, PABX, couple of
lights, server etc etc but even "essential" stuff I'd like to reduce
the comsuption of. 300W is 7 units/day about 1/3 of the daily total
(ish), halving that would save over £100/year.

Mine would be the pond pump, fish tank filters/lights/heaters, router, NAS,
WAP, sky box, mail server, alarm, fridge, freezer, outside light/pir,
security camera, CH timer..

On Nov 26, 2:14*am, "Jake" wrote:
I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few weeks
back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits over the cable
from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably by measuring the
current induced in the clip and calculating W = V x A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out of the
meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a wall
before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible to
differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?

They are not very accurate. I have been comparing mine to actual meter
readings on a weekly basis and it's pretty rubbish - overestimating
actually.

Jonathan

On 26 Nov,
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

OWL do a separate black box receiver which can feed directly into a
computer, but it will only work with their application, which is a
pile of rubbish, and requires the PC on 24x7 running their full
screen app, which isn't going to appeal to anyone interested in
having a cost meter! A good idea, destroyed by a useless
implementation which fails at every level.

The readings on my Owl (and almost certainly other similar devices) are very
misleading. According to it my microwave takes about 80watts on standby. My
plug in energy monitor says 5.5w with 0.07 power factor. When my fridge or
freezer (inductive load) come on with the microwave connected they take only
a few tens of watts, mich less than their rating, due to the power factor
correcting of the (capacitive) microwave mains filter (effectively 4.4uF
across the mains taking 380ma)


I'm thinking of using a spare owl current probe into a plug in energy monitor
to do the correct sums on the incomig feed, or even into computer sound
card(via isolation), I&V seperately digitalised and multiplied for full
details, but I haven't the programmng skills for that (could prolly do it on
a BBC Micro theough!)

--
B Thumbs
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

dennis@home wrote:
"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 10:57:02 +0000, Alan wrote:

In my experience these monitors are most useful for around a week,
before the novelty value has worn off. In the first week you can
see if turning things on, off or in standby can make a significant
difference to the bills.

I'm inclined to agree but I quite like having a plot of daily power
consumption available from my server.

They aren't really sensitive enough to show how much that Sky box is
taking in standby/on or anything of similar low power.

I had a smart meter fitted and it will pickup low level standby power.

What it might
pick up is combined low level consumption, I'd really love to know
what is taking the 300W that our consumption never drops below. I
guess is a combination of "essential" routers, PABX, couple of
lights, server etc etc but even "essential" stuff I'd like to reduce
the comsuption of. 300W is 7 units/day about 1/3 of the daily total
(ish), halving that would save over £100/year.

Mine would be the pond pump, fish tank filters/lights/heaters,
router, NAS, WAP, sky box, mail server, alarm, fridge, freezer,
outside light/pir, security camera, CH timer..

You forgot the nurse call alarm.

--
Adam

* Sometimes I like to lay in my neighbours garden and pretend to be a
carrot *

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:19:19 -0800 (PST), Jonathan wrote:

On Nov 26, 2:14Â*am, "Jake" wrote:
I applied for a free energy saving monitor in an internet offer a few weeks
back and it has now arrived. It comes with a clip that fits over the cable
from your meter and transmits your usage, presumably by measuring the
current induced in the clip and calculating W = V x A.

It says I need to attach it to the live cable - and has a graphic of
attaching it to the furthest right cable out of four, 2 in and 2 out of the
meter.

In my situation, the meter is outside and the cables pass through a wall
before they run inside my consumer unit, and it is not possible to
differentiate between the two.

Does it matter whether the clip attaches to the live or the neutral?

They are not very accurate. I have been comparing mine to actual meter
readings on a weekly basis and it's pretty rubbish - overestimating
actually.

Jonathan

I've been comparing mine now for just a year or so - mine under-reads
multiplying by 1.09 on the comparison spreadsheet is enough to match it
generally.

Managed to get 160kWh per week down to 100 KWh over the course of a year -
base load is now down to about 70W, fridge freezer and freezer kicks in to
push it up to 350 on a regualr basis.

My currentcost meter feeds a netbridge which feeds a pachube free account
so gives 24/7 data across the internet/smartphone etc without running a
computer.


--
(º€¢.¸(¨*€¢.¸ ¸.€¢*¨)¸.€¢Âº)
.€¢Â°€¢. Nik .€¢Â°€¢.
(¸.€¢Âº(¸.€¢Â¨* *¨€¢.¸)º€¢.¸)

In message
,
Jonathan wrote

They are not very accurate. I have been comparing mine to actual meter
readings on a weekly basis and it's pretty rubbish - overestimating
actually.

Does it matter?

If your initial usage is n power monitor units and after a week of
discovering what takes unnecessary power the usage is n/2 power monitor
units then you are saving money.

Don't forget to set the unit price at 41p to show your kids how much
"green" energy costs.

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:19:19 -0800 (PST), Jonathan wrote:

They are not very accurate.

My CurrentCost is pretty damn close, maybe half a unit/day out on
about 20 units. I did find that the clamp is pretty sensitive to
cable position and orientation. The most accurate result is with the
cable tight to the inside of the jaws and the cable running at right
angles to the clamp. Just clipped around hanging loose isn't good
enough.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:05:53 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

Tempted by Andrew Gabriel's syphoning-off of 12V and 5V from the server
to run as much of the ADSL/DECT/VOIP/Ethernet/WiFi kit without
individual wall-warts ...

I was thinking of providing a single 12v supply for all the
switches/routers/AP's etc but hadn't found a "nice" connector for the
distribution. Borrowing 12v from the servers PSU is a good idea, I
already do that for the VFD display attached to it. And thinking a
bit further a couple of chocolate blocks and bell wire terminated in
plugs for the kit would do for the distribution...

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:

I was thinking of providing a single 12v supply for all the
switches/routers/AP's etc but hadn't found a "nice" connector for the
distribution. Borrowing 12v from the servers PSU is a good idea,

I was thinking of running a molex connecter to a spare PCI slot like this

http://jab-tech.com/4-Pin-Molex-PCI-...3-pr-2475.html

that way if I do want to run the external kit when the server's off, I
already have a standalone 12V/5v psu that feeds into a molex, which
could stand in.

I have the speech software, it just needs to be a textual file or stream
of a recognised type. As you say pretty boring but not as useless as an
energy monitor that is silent in a house with nobody who can see it!


Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Andy Burns" wrote in message
o.uk...
Brian Gaff wrote:

Four cables?

L+N into meter, L+N out of meter. My old one didn't even attempt to say
which cable to use, just clip it over one of then ... which was fine.

Anyway, any of these devices have a spoken output or interface
to a computer so one can download the data and get it spoken in that way
instead?

The CurrentCost ones have a serial port (TTL level I think) mine also came
with a USB lead to connect into it, the protocol spits out gobs of XML
with recent and historical summary data.

I think it would make rather boring listening! there is open source
software around that accepts the data, doubt that has voice output either.

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
Dave Liquorice wrote:

I was thinking of providing a single 12v supply for all the
switches/routers/AP's etc but hadn't found a "nice" connector for the
distribution. Borrowing 12v from the servers PSU is a good idea,

I was thinking of running a molex connecter to a spare PCI slot like this

http://jab-tech.com/4-Pin-Molex-PCI-...3-pr-2475.html

that way if I do want to run the external kit when the server's off, I
already have a standalone 12V/5v psu that feeds into a molex, which could
stand in.


You need a fuse.. I have seen the wires glowing red after a 12V PC power
supply has been shorted.
They lasted a good few minutes as we left it on to see what would fail
first.
The potential for a fire is quite high.

On 26/11/2011 09:12, Brian Gaff wrote:
Four cables?

Got any O's?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:46:25 -0000, Brian Gaff wrote:

I have the speech software, it just needs to be a textual file or
stream of a recognised type.

The CurrentCost unit spews out plain text XML every 6 seconds IIRC.
One would need somthing to take that from a USB (or serial port via
TTL RS232 convertor) and strip out the markup replacing it with
something sensible to be spoken.

I have a Perl script running on a linux based server that extracts
the instantaneous power from that data stream, records the min and
max values and calculates the average every minute. This is then
written to a tab delimited log file for other things to use.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:08:19 +0000, The Medway Handyman
wrote:

On 26/11/2011 09:12, Brian Gaff wrote:
Four cables?

Got any O's?

Bill hooks.