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I’ve just had a Kaisa MA329b Smart Meter fitted. Has anyone been able to find a user manual for this model?

The OVO Engineer said he wasn’t given any information about this meter type, so couldn’t help.

 

Hi @HexhamUser , there have been a few questions about this but a full manual has been difficult to find. One of the other threads is here

 


Thanks. I’d seen that thread. It seems a bit surprising that OVO don’t have a manual for this model?


Thanks. I’d seen that thread. It seems a bit surprising that OVO don’t have a manual for this model?

They probably have an engineering (or installer) version which is likely to be restricted. 
I did find this site

https://www.scribd.com/document/512683726/Kaifa-Manual


Thanks again. Strange that it is only on that site. I’m not keen on having to register and then cancel the subscription fee (to get a “free” download). I wnder why Kaifa don’t make the manual available.


We might be able to help you here anyway.

Was there anything in particular you wanted to know? We’ve got ways to get tons of info so with a bit more insight into what you’d like, we can dig deeper for you.


I did try Kaifa directly, but they said they don’t have any official guides and Ovo should help!

Thanks @Blastoise186 . I have no information at all about the meter, so I was hoping for a “User Manual” describing the meter in detail, indicating, for example, what all of the symbols on the screen represent, how do I get at functionality such as the separate meter readings for the two rates(I’m on Economy 7), how do you use the press buttons to do things, and so on. So-called “User Guides” are inevitably cursory and don’t explain everything, hence the desire for a “User Manual”. 


Gotcha. I might be able to get you something useful, but this may take a while.

You OK to hang in there for a few days?


Will do 👍


Hey @HexhamUser

 

I’ve also took a look to see if I could locate a manual but had 0 luck! I’ve asked internally to see if I can make any progress on this for you. I’ll come back with an update as soon as I can 😊


Thanks @Chris_OVO . Kaifa told me today:

Kaifa's business model is B2B so we only provide documentation to our business customers (Energy Suppliers). Our documentation is very detailed and holds proprietary technical information which is only shared under NDA, or to our customers who have contracts with us.

It is the Energy Supplier's responsibility to write user manuals for the products they supply, and this way it can be branded with their logo and contain their contact information​.


Kaifa told me today:

It is the Energy Supplier's responsibility to write user manuals for the products they supply, and this way it can be branded with their logo and contain their contact information​.

 

That's an interesting take on things.

Doing it that way means that you will end up with different (but similar) user manuals from each supplier rather than one 'standard' user manual.

You can see why they do it - it costs Kaifa nothing, whereas each supplier then has to pay someone to produce and maintain their own version of a user manual.
(And it looks like no supplier has done that yet for the MA329b).


Hey @HexhamUser

 

I agree with @Nukecad this is a new take for me. I’ve never heard of a product manufacturer telling suppliers to create manuals before or referencing NDA agreements. I’ve reached out to one of our engineer team leaders @Lukepeniket_OVO who’s going to take a look to see if they can find one for you. 


Just a note that I’ve never seen a manual from any supplier, just sometimes a page on how to take readings


The repository at SmartMe is incomplete, but often helpful. I see they’ve added the Aclara SGM 1400 series manual at some stage - it wasn’t there when I needed it last year. Their Kaifa collection is pretty sparse.

 


The 329B is a 3 phase meter so not a common install. 

With Kaifa their software generally allows a regular scrolling of the display to be able to view the various registers required for readings. 


im really struggling to find much literature about the Kaifa 3 phase unfortunately…

I did see another question about the ‘J’, the J is for when the meter has joined the HAN, solid J indicates it is connected.


Hi @Lukepeniket_OVO,

 

Thanks for coming back with an update. We appreciate you trying. 


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