No Power IoTaWatt - Any hope, or no dice?

Tony · November 30, 2023, 8:49am

Hi all,

I set up my IoTaWatt a few years ago in a small wall mounted box on the back of the wall with my fusebox. Had some sparkies install the CTs and run the cables back through the wall and install a double-gang power point for the VT and USB power.
It ran pretty well, reporting data into my influxDB instance, though being in an apartment complex, the wifi situation is atrocious and over time more and more, the readings would come in bursts, rather than live, as the IoTaWatt struggled to pick out my network from the other blaring networks all around. Not a unique problem to it, and I have been more and more moving as much stuff as I can to wired over time.

Because of this intermittency, and how regular my power usage patterns were, I eventually stopped checking it, and rigged a script to email me if power usage changed from the norm by much, on a day by day, week by week and month by month scale. That also worked pretty well and I now don’t remember the last time I went to connect directly to the IoTaWatt.

Recently, the host the Influx database was on had a very catastrophic breakdown, and now I’ve replaced it and restored pretty much everything, but the per-source passwords I set up for influxDB access were never backed up so I went around setting all my feeds with new password. This is when I realised that I couldn’t connect to the IoTaWatt any more. Checked in the box, and it has no LED.

I’ve tested the power supply and it can power other devices, and subbed the USB cable, but still no life from it. I briefly popped it out of it’s casing, and can’t see anything obviously fused or blown.

Just wondering if anyone else has had one completely lose power like this, and if there are any quick fixes I might be able to put into effect? Or is it time to grab a new one?
I do have electronics skills, but all my experience is with kit like racked servers, workstations, and so on. The ESP and its little bells and whistles definitely leaves me needing guidance and direction if I am gonna troubleshoot it and try bring it back to life

Obviously, I haven’t really needed to use it closely too much since the early days when it helped me track down some terribly inefficient failing devices and replace them with units that then ran at less than half the consumption, so I’m not even concerned that buying a new one would make me feel like I’ve spent more than it has saved me, so not the end of the world.
I might wait for a bit if this one is unrecoverable in hopes that the ESP32 version becomes available sometime in the next year or so, especially with the teaser from Bob about the improved accuracy available and that little hint of ethernet being maybe possibly slightly almost something that can be considered

Anyway, any help and pointers would be really appreciated! I’d love to get this little guy up and running again!

Oh, and model is W14 v5

DaveC · November 30, 2023, 11:23pm

I had a similar failure when I unplugged the power lead to the Esp8266 module one day. I tracked it down to a failed SD card that couldn’t be read. I replaced the SD card and copied the new config files to the card and all was OK then and the unit worked ok. Suggest that you remove the SD card and try to read the files.

Tony · December 1, 2023, 1:57am

Well, aside from some of the files modified date being in 2098, the card reads fine, so I guess it’s not that… Thanks for the suggestion though, would have been amazing if that was all it was.

I notice that in the DOWNLOAD directory, the last bin file is 02_07_05, so I guess that sorta dates how long since it went down…

Tony · December 1, 2023, 2:15am

So the last log entries:

iotamsgs.log

** Restart **

SD initialized.
11/04/22 14:50:22z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1667573422 
11/04/22 14:50:22z Reset reason: Software/System restart
11/04/22 14:50:22z Trace:  8:8, 8:9, 9:3, 9:5, 9:9, 1:2, 1:3, 1:3, 1:6[1], 1:6[2], 1:6[2], 1:6[2], 1:6[2], 1:6[3], 1:5[20], 1:6[4], 20:0, 20:1, 20:2, 20:3, 1:6[6], 1:3, 1:3, 1:6[1], 1:6[2], 1:6[2], 1:6[2], 1:6[3], 1:5[21], 1:6[4], 21:0, 21:2
11/04/22 14:50:22z ESP8266 ID: 12668703, RTC PCF8523 (68)
11/04/22 14:50:22z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_07_05
11/04/22 14:50:22z SPIFFS mounted.
11/05/22 01:50:22 Local time zone: +10:00, using DST/BST when in effect.
11/05/22 01:50:22 device name: IotaWatt
11/05/22 01:50:22 HTTP server started
11/05/22 01:50:22 influxDB_v1: Starting, interval:5, url:http://hassio.lan.tonyrothwell.id.au:8086
11/05/22 01:50:22 timeSync: service started.
11/05/22 01:50:22 statService: started.
11/05/22 01:50:22 dataLog: service started.
11/05/22 01:50:25 dataLog: Last log entry 11/05/22 01:50:20
11/05/22 01:50:27 historyLog: service started.
11/05/22 01:50:27 historyLog: Last log entry 11/05/22 01:50:00
11/05/22 02:10:08 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -64db
11/05/22 02:10:08 MDNS responder started for hostname IotaWatt
11/05/22 02:10:08 LLMNR responder started for hostname IotaWatt
11/05/22 02:10:08 Updater: service started. Auto-update class is MINOR
11/05/22 02:10:22 Updater: Auto-update is current for class MINOR.
11/05/22 02:10:24 influxDB_v1: Start posting at 11/04/22 22:50:15
11/05/22 03:11:46 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 03:11:48 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/05/22 03:50:29 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 03:50:44 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/05/22 04:10:55 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -14
11/05/22 04:54:54 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 04:56:32 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/05/22 08:11:38 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -4
11/05/22 09:54:16 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 10:14:46 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -62db
11/05/22 12:55:22 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 13:00:54 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/05/22 14:03:14 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 14:05:52 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/05/22 17:03:19 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 17:08:08 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/05/22 18:03:26 WiFi disconnected.
11/05/22 18:38:13 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -62db
11/05/22 19:39:25 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -11
11/05/22 20:01:01 Heap memory has degraded below safe minimum, restarting.

** Restart **

SD initialized.
11/05/22 09:01:01z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1667638861 
11/05/22 09:01:01z Reset reason: Software/System restart
11/05/22 09:01:01z Trace:  18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:2, 18:3, 18:4, 18:5, 1:6[6], 1:3, 1:3, 1:6[1], 1:6[2], 1:6[3], 1:5[21], 1:6[4], 21:0, 21:1, 21:10, 21:10
11/05/22 09:01:01z ESP8266 ID: 12668703, RTC PCF8523 (68)
11/05/22 09:01:01z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_07_05
11/05/22 09:01:01z SPIFFS mounted.
11/05/22 20:01:01 Local time zone: +10:00, using DST/BST when in effect.
11/05/22 20:01:01 device name: IotaWatt
11/05/22 20:01:01 HTTP server started
11/05/22 20:01:01 influxDB_v1: Starting, interval:5, url:http://hassio.lan.tonyrothwell.id.au:8086
11/05/22 20:01:01 timeSync: service started.
11/05/22 20:01:01 statService: started.
11/05/22 20:01:01 dataLog: service started.
11/05/22 20:01:04 dataLog: Last log entry 11/05/22 20:01:00
11/05/22 20:01:06 historyLog: service started.
11/05/22 20:01:06 historyLog: Last log entry 11/05/22 20:01:00
11/05/22 20:04:15 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -62db
11/05/22 20:04:15 MDNS responder started for hostname IotaWatt
11/05/22 20:04:15 LLMNR responder started for hostname IotaWatt
11/05/22 20:04:15 Updater: service started. Auto-update class is MINOR
11/05/22 20:04:51 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -4
11/05/22 20:08:22 influxDB_v1: Start posting at 11/05/22 18:30:15
11/05/22 21:04:25 Updater: Auto-update is current for class MINOR.
11/06/22 01:05:19 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -14
11/06/22 02:05:30 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -11
11/06/22 02:15:18 WiFi disconnected.
11/06/22 02:15:27 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -62db
11/06/22 08:15:26 WiFi disconnected.
11/06/22 08:16:08 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -62db
11/06/22 09:07:45 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -14
11/06/22 10:02:54 Heap memory has degraded below safe minimum, restarting.

** Restart **

SD initialized.
11/05/22 23:02:55z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1667689375 
11/05/22 23:02:55z Reset reason: Software/System restart
11/05/22 23:02:55z Trace:  1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:3, 1:6[1], 1:6[2], 1:6[2], 1:6[3], 1:5[5], 1:6[4], 5:0, 5:2, 1:6[6], 1:3, 1:3, 1:6[1], 1:6[2], 1:6[3], 1:5[21], 1:6[4], 21:0, 21:1, 21:10, 21:10
11/05/22 23:02:55z ESP8266 ID: 12668703, RTC PCF8523 (68)
11/05/22 23:02:55z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_07_05
11/05/22 23:02:55z SPIFFS mounted.
11/06/22 10:02:55 Local time zone: +10:00, using DST/BST when in effect.
11/06/22 10:02:55 device name: IotaWatt
11/06/22 10:02:55 HTTP server started
11/06/22 10:02:55 influxDB_v1: Starting, interval:5, url:http://hassio.lan.tonyrothwell.id.au:8086
11/06/22 10:02:55 timeSync: service started.
11/06/22 10:02:55 statService: started.
11/06/22 10:02:55 dataLog: service started.
11/06/22 10:02:58 dataLog: Last log entry 11/06/22 10:02:50
11/06/22 10:03:00 historyLog: service started.
11/06/22 10:03:00 historyLog: Last log entry 11/06/22 10:02:00
11/06/22 10:03:09 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -61db
11/06/22 10:03:09 MDNS responder started for hostname IotaWatt
11/06/22 10:03:09 LLMNR responder started for hostname IotaWatt
11/06/22 10:03:09 Updater: service started. Auto-update class is MINOR
11/06/22 10:03:32 Updater: Auto-update is current for class MINOR.
11/06/22 11:03:14 WiFi disconnected.
11/06/22 11:09:39 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/06/22 11:10:01 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -4
11/06/22 11:39:26 influxDB_v1: Start posting at 11/06/22 07:38:10
11/06/22 13:03:06 WiFi disconnected.
11/06/22 13:03:16 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -63db
11/06/22 13:09:57 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -11
11/06/22 14:03:18 WiFi disconnected.
11/06/22 14:04:12 WiFi connected. SSID=Can't stop the Wifi, Mal, IP=192.168.42.204, channel=1, RSSI -62db
11/06/22 14:10:10 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -4

So the updater didn’t have any valid responses when it was checking (I think) and it was restarting every day or so due to the heap memory degrading… as in too little free memory?

I might just put a blank config on the SD card and see if it come back, just in case…

Edit: not really unexpected but no change with the stock config

dabbler68 · December 1, 2023, 11:52am

Mine is fairly new and I was having some problems with corrupted files on the SD card. Then a couple of days later it was not available. No LED light. So I replaced the USB power supply and that solved it.

But that power supply still charges my phone OK. So maybe try a more powerful USB power supply.

I bought a set of 3 x 3.0 amp USB power supplies from Amazon. After 12 months the output on all of them has dropped to a miserable level. I doubt they would power the IoTaWatt.

overeasy · December 1, 2023, 9:30pm

So, if that’s the most recent message log, the unit has not worked for more than a year. That doesn’t exactly agree with the original problem description. As a curiosity, when was the unit purchased and from where?

I would suspect the USB power, not just inadequate to power the unit now, but possibly responsible for damage to the ESP8266 LDO regulators. I can’t stress enough that PHONE CHARGERS ARE NOT APPROPRIATE POWER SUPPLIES. I ship new units with a 1000mA switching power supply. If you look around, or follow some of the links in the store, you can find one pretty easily for short money. A power supply recommended for a Raspberry Pi is usually a safe bet, although usually 2A or better and thus a few bucks more.

If you were in the USA, I’d say just send me the unit and I’ll take a look at it, but it’s not practical from OZ.

Wouldn’t hurt to try a different SDcard, or just no SD card to see if you get a LED.

Tony · December 2, 2023, 2:45am

The power supply was a 5v by 2.4a unit, so plenty of grunt there. I bought it specifically for the IoTaWatt at the time after reading @overeasy repeatedly having to tell people not to use 1a phone chargers. Didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot

Tony · December 2, 2023, 2:53am

How do you mean it doesn’t line up with the original outline?

The alerts were only ever set up for uncharacteristic high usage, but I never thought to set up anything for “using too little power”, which is why I had no idea initially when it would have stopped working

Based on my emails, it was end of December 2020, and I grabbed it off the “Stuff” store. Still love that your store was called “Stuff”

Definitely not a warranty job, though if you like I can dig up my USB microscope and get a bunch of images of the boards, see if anything stands out as “that doesn’t look right”.

I’ve been in need of a new multimeter for a while, so if you feel like walking me through some poking around, I’m game to go pick one up and see what’s what.

That said, I’m assuming that we’d be in “for curiosity’s sake” territory at that stage.

I did try a different blank SD card, formatted MBR and FAT but there was no light either

overeasy · December 2, 2023, 3:03am

You left me with the impression that it stopped recently, not that it matters.

The reason I asked about purchase date and location is that the end of 2022 is when a few hundred units went out with defective SDcards. Fifty went to Australia. But that’s moot.

Not really interested in trying to fix remotely. The schematic is on GitHub if you are so inclined.

Tony · December 2, 2023, 6:22am

Ahhh I see. Sorry, recently discovered, but was open as to how long since it went down.

I’ll go have a look and see if I can figure it out.

Then unless it’s something super trivial for me to get running again I guess I’ll wait until your ESP32 version is final, or I’ll grab one of the current ones from the local reseller if my bills tell me to get monitoring

Either way, thanks heaps once again for making the IoTaWatt, great tech!