Installation: Remote datalogger

Note

This will install a datalogger that will forward telegrams to a remote instance of DSMR-reader, using its API.

The remote datalogger script has been overhauled in DSMR-reader v5.0. If you installed a former version, reconsider reinstalling it completely with the new version below.

Attention

To be clear, there should be two hosts:

  • The device hosting the remote datalogger
  • The device (or server) hosting the receiving DSMR-reader instance

Receiving DSMR-reader instance

Make sure to first prepare the API at the DSMR-reader instance you’ll forward the telegrams to. You can enable the API and view/edit the API key used in the configuration.

Hint

If your smart meter only supports DSMR v2 (or you are using a non Dutch smart meter), make sure to change the DSMR version in the configuration as well, to have DSMR-reader parse them correctly.

Also, you should disable the datalogger process over there, since you won’t be using it anyway:

sudo rm /etc/supervisor/conf.d/dsmr_datalogger.conf
sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update

Remote datalogger device

Switch to the device you want to install the remote datalogger on.

Execute:

sudo apt-get install -y supervisor python3 python3-pip python3-venv libopenjp2-7-dev

sudo useradd dsmr --home-dir /home/dsmr --create-home --shell /bin/bash
sudo usermod -a -G dialout dsmr
sudo chown -R dsmr:dsmr /home/dsmr/

sudo -u dsmr python3 -m venv /home/dsmr/.venv/
sudo -u dsmr /home/dsmr/.venv/bin/pip3 install pyserial==3.5 requests==2.27.1 python-decouple==3.6

Datalogger script

Create a new file /home/dsmr/dsmr_datalogger_api_client.py with the following contents: dsmr_datalogger_api_client.py on GitHub

Or execute the following to download it directly to the path above:

sudo wget -O /home/dsmr/dsmr_datalogger_api_client.py https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dsmrreader/dsmr-reader/v5/dsmr_datalogger/scripts/dsmr_datalogger_api_client.py

API config (.env)

Attention

Since DSMR-reader v5.x, all env vars for this script were prefixed with REMOTE_. E.g.: DATALOGGER_INPUT_METHOD is now DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_INPUT_METHOD.

This only affects new installations of the script.

Hint

The .env file below is not mandatory to use. Alternatively you can specify all settings mentioned below as system environment variables.

Create another file /home/dsmr/.env and add as contents:

### The DSMR-reader API('s) to forward telegrams to:
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_HOSTS=
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_KEYS=

Keep the file open for multiple edits / additions below.

Add the schema (http:///https://) and hostname/port to DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_HOSTS. Add the API key to DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_KEYS. For example:

# Example with default port:
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_HOSTS=http://12.34.56.78
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_KEYS=1234567890ABCDEFGH

# Example with non standard port, e.g. Docker:
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_HOSTS=http://12.34.56.78:7777
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_KEYS=0987654321HGFEDCBA

Tip

Are you using the remote datalogger for multiple instances of DSMR-reader? Then use DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_HOSTS and DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_KEYS as comma separated lists:

# Example with multiple DSMR-reader installations:
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_HOSTS=http://12.34.56.78,http://87.65.43.21:7777
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_API_KEYS=1234567890ABCDEFGH,0987654321HGFEDCBA

### API host "http://12.34.56.78"      uses API key "1234567890ABCDEFGH"
### API host "http://87.65.43.21:7777" uses API key "0987654321HGFEDCBA"

Serial port or network socket config?

Choose either A. or B. below.

A. Serial port (.env)

Are you using a cable to read telegrams directly from a serial port?

Then add the following contents to /home/dsmr/.env:

DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_INPUT_METHOD=serial
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SERIAL_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0

# DSMR meter version 4/5
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SERIAL_BAUDRATE=115200
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SERIAL_BYTESIZE=8
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SERIAL_PARITY=N

When needing a different port or serial settings, change the values accordingly. E.g.: For an older smart meter:

# DSMR meter version 2/3
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SERIAL_BAUDRATE=9600
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SERIAL_BYTESIZE=7
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SERIAL_PARITY=E

B. Network socket (.env)

Are you using a network socket for reading the telegrams? E.g.: ser2net.

Then add the following contents to /home/dsmr/.env:

DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_INPUT_METHOD=ipv4
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_NETWORK_HOST=
DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_NETWORK_PORT=

Set the hostname or IP address in DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_NETWORK_HOST and the port in DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_NETWORK_PORT.

Other settings (.env)

These settings are optional but can be tweaked when required:

  • DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_TIMEOUT: The timeout in seconds that applies to reading the serial port and/or writing to the DSMR-reader API. Omit to use the default value.
  • DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_SLEEP: The time in seconds that the datalogger will pause after each telegram written to the DSMR-reader API. Omit to use the default value.
  • DSMRREADER_REMOTE_DATALOGGER_DEBUG_LOGGING: Set to true or 1 to enable verbose debug logging. Omit to disable. Warning: Enabling this logging for a long period of time on a Raspberry Pi may cause accelerated wearing of your SD card!

Supervisor

Hint

The following steps are also meant for the device you’ve just installed the remote datalogger on.

Create a new supervisor config in /etc/supervisor/conf.d/dsmr_remote_datalogger.conf with contents:

[program:dsmr_remote_datalogger]
command=/home/dsmr/.venv/bin/python3 -u /home/dsmr/dsmr_datalogger_api_client.py
pidfile=/tmp/dsmrreader--%(program_name)s.pid
user=dsmr
group=dsmr
autostart=true
autorestart=true
startsecs=1
startretries=100
stopwaitsecs=20
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisor/%(program_name)s.log
stdout_logfile_maxbytes=10MB
stdout_logfile_backups=3

Have Supervisor reread and update its configs to initialize the process:

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update

The script should now forward telegrams to the API host(s) you specified.