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Why is my SMETS2 Chameleon In Home Display (IHD6) no longer showing data, a few weeks after smart meter was installed?

  • 23 August 2020
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New smart meter installed yesterday. Had to switch elec off as problem discovered during installation. When power restored smart meter no longer connecting. Is plugged in, have rebooted, have disconnected and reconnected wifi, have left device shutdown overnight, the only thing flashing are the bars in top left hand corner. Help ??!! Please :)

Blastoise186
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Hi @Sf19 ,

If you’ve only recently had the meter installed, it can take a few weeks to fully activate and the IHD might not be active at first. Could you post some screenshots for us please?

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S
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Hi Blastoise186,

It was working fine when the engineer left,  but won't kick back in post the electricity being switched off.  Cheers

 

Blastoise186
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Ah ha! Gotcha.

That’s an IHD6 if memory serves. There are a few known issues with both IHD3 and IHD6 models which we’re trying to pin down. This thread has a few examples 

If you’re OK with this, @Tim_OVO will have some questions for you soon that can help to diagnose the issues. We’ll keep you posted on that and if you’re able to fill them out, it would definitely help us out a lot.

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Blastoise186
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In the meantime, can you give 

 a try? Sometimes the suggestions in that article can help too. :)

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Tim_OVO
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Thanks for the post, @Sf19 

 

I’ve moved this to another topic on the same thing. As you can see, it’s pretty common. 

 

Please have a read of the ‘best answer’ (at the top), which outlines all of the likely causes of this, and what to do. 

 

You can use this topic to keep us updated. You’ll help the next members that comes after you. :blush:

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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@Tim_OVO  So this rumbles on and my patience gets thinner.  After forced updates which didn’t work I was sent a new IHD., probably a couple of months ago now.  Having set it up it has worked fine until the past couple of days and now, well it isn’t. 

The IHD seems to be stuck in a loop of automatically rebooting itself and then when it comes back on the screen flashes (pulses might be more accurate) but with no data on being shown. I’ve attached photos to show what I mean. 

Have to say though, I’m pretty much at the end of my tether with this entire experience.  Wish I had never bothered.  I think the ‘solved’ banner at the top of this thread was a little premature.

 

Blastoise186
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Welcome back @Melchett , thanks for the update. I’m sorry to hear you’re still struggling with this one.

Please allow me to introduce myself, as you’ve probably not seen me before. I’m Blastoise186 aka Blastoise, one of the newer forum volunteers. I started helping out after you first reported issues, so I’m currently catching up with the thread. I also try to help solve tricky issues where possible.

I’ve been keeping a very close eye on a whole bunch of these IHD issues and I think I’m seeing a very common trend here between quite a few of them, but I can’t figure out why. For some reason, there seems to be a common issue between the IHD3/IHD6 and the WNC branded Communication Hubs in many of the threads where the IHD has died. I’m beginning to think that there’s something wrong with the WNC hubs that causes them to break IHDs more frequently than some of the others like the Toshiba hubs.

I’m going to have a chat with Tim about this when I get chance, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my hunch is right.

 

Please bear with us and we’ll try to get to the bottom of all these issues as soon as we can.

Thanks for understanding.

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Tim_OVO
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Thanks for the update @Melchett, I’ve been meaning to let our community members know of work that’s happening in this space. 

 

We are working on a resource that we hope will allow us to better diagnose IHD and smart connectivity issues, @Blastoise186 I’ll share this with you as soon as I can. 

 

The ideal situation (all TBC as this work is ongoing) is that we will be able to allow you to diagnose the cause, and what the required steps are. That might be: do nothing, this is not a fault but part of the pairing process and will be amended in X days, or, this is a fault, we need you to confirm X, Y, Z on the IHD and A, B, C on the meter, and copy this into a web chat. That will mean we can get on with fixing it quickly without much effort from you. 

 

 We’re not there yet, @Melchett - can you provide a link to this topic in a web chat here. Average wait is 10 seconds. This can then be taken off your hands and a case raised with screenshots already provided. 

 

Appreciate your ongoing patience and commitment to getting these devices working. 


Tim

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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@Tim_OVO

Will do.  Although I have to say with everything that is going on - combined with the higher prices Ovo now charge - I’m not sure how much longer I will be a customer for.  I don’t have much patience left.  I have minimal free time between work and caring responsibilities,  I’d rather not spend it chasing Ovo’s faults. and paying a premium for the privilege (I know you personally are trying to be helpful, but this is entirely an Ovo issue following a move to smart meters.)

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Thanks for the update @Melchett, I’ve been meaning to let our community members know of work that’s happening in this space. 

 

We are working on a resource that we hope will allow us to better diagnose IHD and smart connectivity issues, @Blastoise186 I’ll share this with you as soon as I can. 

 

The ideal situation (all TBC as this work is ongoing) is that we will be able to allow you to diagnose the cause, and what the required steps are. That might be: do nothing, this is not a fault but part of the pairing process and will be amended in X days, or, this is a fault, we need you to confirm X, Y, Z on the IHD and A, B, C on the meter, and copy this into a web chat. That will mean we can get on with fixing it quickly without much effort from you. 

 

 We’re not there yet, @Melchett - can you provide a link to this topic in a web chat here. Average wait is 10 seconds. This can then be taken off your hands and a case raised with screenshots already provided. 

 

Appreciate your ongoing patience and commitment to getting these devices working. 


Tim

@Tim_OVO@Blastoise186 

 

Sorry, Tim - Ovo’s blown it.  I went on to the webchat to ask for this to be raised and explained how long this has been going on for and that between my job and caring responsibilities I didn’t have time for this.  I sent a link to this thread and was told ah we have to do an IHD health check (it’d be one heck of a coincidence for 2 IHDs to have the same fault) which would take 10 working days to resolve.  Half way through the IHD check the webchat failed.  So it’s back to square one. 

We’re into formal complaint and me leaving territory now unless someone can sort this out in a sensible timeframe without me having to jump through the same hoops everytime.   Given that I’m paying a significant premium to be with Ovo compared to other deals currently available I’m struggling to see the benefit of staying.

Transparent
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Oh, this is hopeless, @Melchett .

I learned this morning that OVO has an operational SMETS Notification system. This means they can see alerts being sent by SMETS devices on your site, and therefore presumably can check to see if the Communications Hub and the IHD are actually sending data to each rather (as opposed to simply being connected to the ZigBee Home Area Network).

The SMETS Notification/ messaging system is surely key to this.

Previously I’d assumed that OVO were working blind, and having to rely on what us customers reported by way of symptoms.

Perhaps it’s just the Customer Services staff who are working blind. Perhaps they have to create a specific request for a SMETS technician to check a log-file for Notifications sent by the kit on a customer site.

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M
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Oh, this is hopeless, @Melchett .

I learned this morning that OVO has an operational SMETS Notification system. This means they can see alerts being sent by SMETS devices on your site, and therefore presumably can check to see if the Communications Hub and the IHD are actually sending data to each rather (as opposed to simply being connected to the ZigBee Home Area Network).

The SMETS Notification/ messaging system is surely key to this.

Previously I’d assumed that OVO were working blind, and having to rely on what us customers reported by way of symptoms.

Perhaps it’s just the Customer Services staff who are working blind. Perhaps they have to create a specific request for a SMETS technician to check a log-file for Notifications sent by the kit on a customer site.


@Transparent  Whilst I’ve been shopping around I’ve come across the same issues with Bulb smart meter customers and Bulb are taking the view that the comms hub needs to be re-booted which has to be done by the DCC, and that the root of the issue is the connection between the comms hub, the smart meter and the smart network.   Now I can’t pretend to understand the fine detail behind this, other than it sounds like a network connectivty issue.   Sounds to me like it’s not fit for purpose - which is a sentiment on the Bulb forum about the way the IHDs have been incorporated into the system.

So whilst I might well face the same issues if I moved to Bulb, at least I’d be paying considerably less and they will pay my exit fee!

Transparent
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That’s interesting @Melchett - you’re second person to say something like this in the last 5 days!

The other comments were in a Private Message, so I won’t re-broadcast them here. But I do have a couple of observations.

1: I believe it is possible to commission the on-site devices in such a way that the connections are stable and remain so. Perhaps both Bulb and OVO haven’t yet found a software mechanism to detect when the on-site comms go AWOL and act on that, but other Energy Suppliers are having more success.

2: I think all SMETS_commands have to issued by DCC! But it’s the Energy Suppliers or equipment manufacturers who initiate these commands via a secure/encrypted four-way protocol. It might be the case that some of those requests require an additional level of authorisation by DCC, such as a command to reset a Comms Hub in such a way that it causes a short-term power-outage.

Like you, I don’t know the fine detail, but it is inevitably the case that customers with Smart Meters will leave those Suppliers who are unable to adequately monitor the system status and apply the required mitigation when things go wrong.

If Covid19 hadn’t intervened, I think I could’ve helped OVO resolve this problem in early summer when the Forum here was alive with bug-reports. All it takes is a cup of OVO coffee and an hour’s pooling of ideas around a whiteboard.

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Blastoise186
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Hi @Melchett ,

Thanks for getting back to us, and I’m sorry you’re still getting caught up with this issue.

I think there might have been a server glitch this afternoon, since my live chat also got cut off mid session, but I was able to reconnect quickly. I’m not sure what happened, but it sounds related. However, it seems as if a bug was triggered that meant the chat session didn’t reconnect me properly and somehow reset to a new one. I’m going to report this shortly to get that looked into.

If you have entered the complaints process, someone should respond within five working days and they’ll aim to try and sort this out. Several clues have been uncovered recently which I believe are being looked into. But if you’d prefer to leave OVO anyway, I can understand your decision.

Either way, I wish you a Happy New Year and good luck in 2021.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
A
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Hi,

Hope you can help with a strange one.

Overnight my IHD6 has stopped displaying Electricity meter related data. As far as the IHD6 is concerned its only getting data from the gas meter. 

On the IHD6 I have 3 solid bars of signal from the Coms Hub but only the GAS meter details logged. When placing the IHD6 on top of the Coms unit there was no change - its not a signal issue from the Coms hub to IHD6.

On the Coms Hub I have 4 slow flashing lights (no MESH light) HAN light flashes as expected.

On the Electricity meter I have usage data and what I believe is the HAN icon. HAN appears to be working correctly.

I've tried switching off the IHD6 for 30 minutes, no change after signal acquisition.

 

Does anyone have any good ideas as to what’s happened? 

 

Many Thanks

 

Andy

 

Blastoise186
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Hey there @Andy302 ,

Can you go into the IHD settings, tap IHD Info and tell me what the firmware versions are please? This helps us to know what you’re on.

I have an idea of what the issue is too. But I just want to check

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
A
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HI,

 

GUID:

0C-A2-F4-00-00-4E-F0-49

S/W

IHD6-CAD-PPMID 1.4

 

Hope thats what you need!

 

thanks

Blastoise186
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Perfect. It’s not that particular one then.

There’s a couple of things you can try here if memory serves. Firstly, go into Config Menu and then do Join Network. That might force the IHD to pick up the electricity meter again properly.

If that fails, you can try doing Clear Settings and Data. Or as a last resort, try asking the Support Team to re-pair your IHD with the meters again as it might have gotten kicked out somehow.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
A
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Hi, 

Thanks, Ive already tried settings and data clear. Where do I find the Config menu? Is it on the IHD6 as I can only see settings… nothing about joining a network.

 

Cheers

Blastoise186
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Yup, if you go into Settings and then press the right arrow, it should be in there somewhere.

Can you also check Meter Info for me, just to make sure the IHD knows about your meters? That might provide a further clue

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
A
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OK, in Settings I have Wifi, alerts and tones, night mode, brightness, home screen, language, clear settings and data and account pairing. No sign of join network.

Meter info only has GAS meter data, reading, MPRN and supply status. 

Its almost like the electricity side has been wiped from the IHD6.

Blastoise186
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Possibly. The Support Team might need to pair it back up again.

Sorry for the trouble there!

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TomThumb
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It would be also be good to confirm  @Andy302 if you are seeing the most recent usage history / meter readings via you online Ovo account, 

Be aware that If there are any lost com’s back to Ovo from last night,  this might not become apparent until today’s data is published to your account tomorrow.

 

Tom...

3 meters: Smart Gas & Smart Elec / Traditional Gas meter
Blastoise186
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Something else that might help, would be if you’re OK with connecting your IHD to Wi-Fi @Andy302 . This may allow it to pull down some firmware updates and might help to fix the issue you’re seeing.

There’s a guide at 

which can help there too.

While it’s possible that something is causing interference, I very much doubt that if you’ve got a perfect signal. But I would suggest moving the IHD a little further away from the electric meter just to be safe.

But yeah, it ultimately looks like your IHD6 has somehow unpaired itself from the electricity meter, but not the gas meter. Weird...

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!

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