Thanks for the news @Smart781.

OVO are evaluating possible use of the CAD version of the Chameleon IHD. However the connection across the internet is not a duplicate path for meter readings.

Energy Suppliers may use the WiFi link for differing reasons, but it should not be deployed in any scenario where SMETS commands can be forwarded to the Communication Hub or the meters themselves. This would compromise the security of the UK domestic energy supply system because the internet could be hacked by 3rd parties with malicious intent.

Hi @Smart781 - I think this is actually the first time I’ve seen this topic. It’s an interesting post this, I’ve added an update box linking to IHD guides I’ve made since this was posted. 

I wonder how the upgrade of SMETS1 meters is going to effect the IHD3, which I believe has been given to customers with SMETS1 smart meters…..

Anyway, the IHD3 does have WiFi functions, and is recommended in order to ensure the latest firmware upgrades. At least that’s the advice in the SMETS2 IHD guide…..

That’s a good question too actually. If the advice I’ve had recently is anything to go by, the only “safe” connections for these devices are the WAN that’s powering the Comms Hub link to DCC and the HAN for all the local devices. In the absence of any other details, I think we’d have to assume that the Wi-Fi capability might become more limited or even disabled in the future.

Speaking with my cybersecurity hat on for a second, the more types of connections you open up, the more vulnerable the kit becomes. For example, if the gas meter and IHD can only talk to approved devices via the Comms Hub on the electric meter, then the only way to hack them  without physical access and cracking open the case would be to compromise the HAN somehow.

The same applies with the electricity meter. Even with two connections on the WAN and HAN, it’s still a closed system and very easy to keep things under control. But you cannot do this with Wi-Fi as there’s far too many variables here.

I really wish I could share more information on this subject, but I have to use extreme caution here. Because if I’m not careful, the content I write could be abused somehow. Thanks for understanding

It’s OK @Blastoise186 - the security aspects of having IHD CADs with connections both to the Home Area Network and the house WiFi were resolved a couple of years ago, before the mass roll-out of SMETS2  Meters.

You can’t send SMETS_commands to the Communications Hub via the IHD.

Even if a future IHD were used to set user-preferences for a Domestic Controlled Device, such as an EV Smart charger, the request is sent via the internet to your Energy Supplier, then through the secure portal of the Data Communications Company (DCC) and back to your Smart Meter.

DCC have sanity checks on all command sequences, and verification of which site(s) the command is destined for. So it would be very hard work to compromise the integrity of the UK electricity supply by that method.

I can think of easier ways to achieve it… which I’m obviously not going to post here!

@Tim_OVO Has there been any update regarding the IHD3-CAD? I was given one as part of my smartmeter installation, which has Wifi, and I believe it sends the usage data to the Chameleon cloud. There is supposed to be an api which we can use to query the data, but There seems very little information on how to access it.

I know that bulb use the same IHD/CAD to integrate with smartthings which allows access to the data from the IHD. Do you have plans for anything similar?

Hey there @kihon , welcome back!

I’m afraid I don’t have much more news to share on this one right now, other than the fact I’ve now finally got an IHD6 that’s awaiting setup. You are correct there however, as Chameleon does have a way to get all versions of the IHD3 and IHD6 to use CAD features and it does indeed have an API for this stuff. It’s just not well documented...

Those that have them built-in - such as the Chameleon IHD3-CAD-PPMID, IHD6-CAD-PPMID and IHD6-CAD-PPMID-S1 - can connect directly to Wi-Fi without any outside help. However, for models that don’t have it built-in, Chameleon does have a CAD Gateway device that can act like a bridge to enable those ones too.

I’ve not heard any news from OVO as to the current status of the CAD functionality, but I’ll try to see if this can be chased up.

HI @kihon 

I did take this away to try and get any more news on your options. 

I’m still trying. From what we can tell a Chameleon API is not available to the public, which would mean anything like this is dependent on the supplier. 

Now that’s interesting because even though my own IHD6-CAD-PPMID isn’t yet configured or commissioned/activated… Kecleon still seems to be talking to something out on the internet, as can be seen in this screenshot from Exploud.

According to the live data from Exploud, Kecleon appears to be actively downloading something at a speed of roughly 30-50bps down, and uploading at 150bps right now. Given the breakdown of traffic, I suspect it’s possibly a firmware update, but I can’t say for sure without breaking out Wireshark from my toolkit (which I wouldn’t be able to share the info from for privacy reasons).

So maybe there is a Chameleon Cloud of some kind after all…?

Thanks @Blastoise186 and @Tim_OVO  for the update. 

@Blastoise186  is there any sign if the CAD is uploading data every few seconds? (Wanted to figure out if it was doing a real time update of the current usage)

Thanks again.

Kihon

Heya @kihon .

At this point, I will admit that Kecleon hasn’t yet been activated or paired up to Raichu, so I’m unable to say for sure whether the activity I’m seeing now would be comparable to a fully activated IHD6 as it’s not yet communicating with any smart meters.

Kecleon is an IHD6-CAD-PPMID however, which might soon be joined by a second one - that one will be an IHD6-CAD-PPMID-S1 which I’ll be naming Kecleon Green and the current one Kecleon Purple. There’s a joke behind this. 

However, what I can do is pull historical data from Exploud and show you the final data from yesterday, which is in the screenshot below. This is something I’m able to do with UniFi kit that’s not usually that easy with most stuff.

Kecleon seems to have gone a bit shy today though. I’ve not seen much activity and there’s no sign of any firmware updates.

If the CAD really was uploading real-time data, that would almost certainly show up. But it’s curious that Kecleon was doing something despite being unconfigured. Exploud doesn’t lie though and it reports all traffic as best it can.

While I could SSH into Exploud, run tcpdump to capture the network traffic from Kecleon and then analyse the resulting PCAP in Wireshark, I’m not sure I’d find much of interest. The traffic is encrypted anyway so the best I’d be able to see would be limited to “who” Kecleon was talking to and “where” the traffic was going. I wouldn’t be able to dig any deeper than that.

However, I suspect it was doing something every few seconds as Exploud was reporting regular bursts of traffic in a pattern that makes sense for a CAD. But I’m still curious as to what server on the internet Kecleon is managing to reach. That’s a puzzle I’ve yet to solve...