Pulses on digital display

[rbarberop]

Hello!

I live in Toronto and (like many north american cities), we have an Elster 'smart' meter for electricity. It's quite hard to find manuals online for these smart meters, and it looks like they have an IR port for configuration, but not an LED for the pulse counter.

I realized, checking this issue, that my smart meter despite being a different model, also shows the 'square and arrow' in the LCD display and it looks like they are, in fact, pulse counters. In my case, the meter has a label that says "Ks 1.0", which looks like it means that 1 pulse is a wh.

My question is... would the home Assistant glow work as is? I'd assume that, since I don't have an LED flashing, but just an LCD display blinking, I might need something different, perhaps something more sensitive? Even a way to light the LCD display with a constant white LED for readings during the night?

Any tips would be welcome!
R

(This picture is from the issue I mentioned, my smart meter is quite similar, but different model (Elster R1S)

[TurtleSwift]

You might be better off by reading the LCD directly with an AI on the edge device AI on the edge. Essentially, you rig a camera in front of the meter which watches the display and translates the pictures to numerical values. Hardware wise, you'd need an ESP32 and a compatible camera. HomeAssistant integration is done.

[rbarberop]

Thanks for your response! I looked at the AI on the edge solution, but given the focal distance of the cameras, I'd have to add an enclosure on the smart meter... which is unpractical, given the location (on the side of the front door of the house). That's why a simple pulse sensor would be a much more attractive option.

I've reached out to this company to see if their sensor might work with LCD of if it might be too faint.

[TurtleSwift]

Fair point. Another option would be PiggyMeter as I mentioned in the linked thread. Or possibly a CT clamp sensor, bypassing the meter all together. I had similar problems to yours when I wanted energy consumption tracked in HA and contemplated using my own meter... after a while and getting a photovoltaic system, I was able to just connect to a data logger on the inverter and had no need to connect to a meter. In any case, I wish you luck and hope you find a working solution.