API

The PoE Meter works with an easy to use API. To communicate with it, just open a serial port with the following settings:

• Baudrate - 115200
• Data bits - 8
• Parity - none
• Stop Bits - 1

To open the serial port we recommend:

• minicom - if you are using a linux/raspbian/opkg machine
• PuTTY - if you are using a windows machine
• pySerial if you are developing a python application
• MobaXterm - "Putty on steroids" for windows

To learn how to open the serial Port, please check the following sections minicom and MobaXterm , depending on your operating system. Once the connection is setup, head try getting the Firmware version to test it.

Minicom

To open a serial connection to an MDB-USB Interface or an MDB-Pi Hat with minicom, just issue the following command:

sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200

sudo apt-get install minicom #Example of minicom installation using apt-get

MobaXterm

MobaXTerm can be downloaded in this link. It is our recommendation for Windows users as it stores the Serial Port Definitions and auto detects available COM Ports. As a bonus it is also capable of starting SSH and Telnet sessions, storing the IP Addresses and usernames.

After installing the application, open it and follow these steps:

1 - Click Session(top left corner)

2 - Select "Serial" on the pop-up.

3 - Select the correct baudrate 115200

4 - Once previous step completed, on User Sessions (stored sessions) there will be a "Serial" Entry. To open it, just double click it.

5 - Select COMX.

Retrieve Version Info

V

PoE_Meter V0.0.7 D0:FFFFC000:1:0:0

Answer:

• PoE_Meter Vs.s.s Dxxxxxxxxxxxx

Where:

• s.s.s = firmware version
• xxxxxxxxxx = flash health

Retrieve Hardware Info

H

H1.0 S383632521930511C4A3BD843

Answer:

• Hx.x Syyyy

Where:

• x.x = hardware version
• yyyyyyyyyy = Micro-controller unique serial number

Display & Buttons Manual Control

Manual/Automatic Read Input

Inputs can be configured to automatic report, or manual read. The automatic report of the inputs can be configured with the following commands:

I0 #query inputs

I1 #enable automatic status change report

I2 #disable automatic status change report

I2

i,000F #all buttons not pressed

I2

i,000E #button 1 pressed

i,000D #button 2 pressed

i,000B #button 3 pressed

i,0007 #button 4 pressed

Press buttons 3 and 4

​

I0

i,0003 #buttons 3 and 4 are pressed and 1 and 2 are released

Set Display Status

Turn display on/off;

• Default:
  • On, if communication with acquisition units is established;
  • Off, if no communication with acquisition units is established and USB communication is detected;
  • Whenever an USB command is received, following a disconnect/buffer-full or on initialization, display is turned-on and cleared;

SDS:0 #off

SDS:1 #on

Set Display Color

Allows configuration of the Highlighted and Non-highlighted background and font colours

Configuration:

• 0 - Non-highlighted background color - default White;
• 1 - Non-highlighted text color - default Black;
• 2 - Highlighted background color - default Black;
• 3 - Highlighted text color - default White;
• 4 - Indicators background color - default Black;

Allowed colours:

• R – Red
• G – Green
• B – Blue
• Y – Yellow
• O – Orange
• W – White
• K – Black
• V - Violet
• L - Light Blue

SDC:0,R #Set non-highlighted background color to red

Set Display Text

Set the text to be displayed (one line at a time). The default is with no text and the maximum characters per line is 20, more will be discarded.

Configuration:

• Line - 1 to 6;
• Highlight status
  • 1 - Highlighted
  • 0 - Non-highlighted

SDT:2,0,57656C636F6D65 #Send “Welcome” to line 2 as non-highlighted

SDT:2,0,20 #Clear line 2 as non-highlighted

Set Display Indicator

Allow individual configuration of the 12 display indicators. The default is All inactive (black);

Configuration

• Display indicator - 1 to 12;

Allowed colours

• R – Red;
• G – Green;
• B – Blue;
• Y – Yellow;
• O – Orange;
• W – White;
• K – Black;
• V - Violet;
• L - Light Blue;

SDI:5,R #Set indicator 5 to red

Hardware status indication in stand-alone mode

Only available after calibration ("normal" mode) and if in stand-alone mode

• Indicators

  • ID 1 - Working mode
  • ID 9 - Acquisition unit 1 status
  • ID 10 - Acquisition unit 2 status
  • ID 11 - RTC status
  • ID 12 - uSD card status

• Colors

  • Yellow - Testing
  • Green - Ok
  • Red - Fail

LOG mode data sending

• Dump log file via USB;
• Send a start "frame" - "START:";
• Send the initial timestamp "DD/MM/YYYY:HH:MM:SS" in the second line followed by data starting in the third line;
• Every data chunk is sent with the same format as for Reporting using interval mode, except it does not send "r2" nor aggregation interval, it just sends the offset (in seconds) from the initial timestamp;
• Send an end "frame" - ":END" in the line after the last data;
• After sending the full file, existing file is deleted;
• If no log file exists, an error is sent - "ERR01";
• While logging data sending is in progress, no other data is sent through USB, but after finishing sending logging data, previous configuration is restored, so if PoE meter was configured to send data (readings or inputs auto-report), it will start to send it again.

Exit command

The Exit command can only be used after calibration to exit USB mode back to stand-alone mode, set Report mode off, set stand-alone mode interval to 1 second, disable inputs auto-report and reset Display colors to defaults

X

Answers

Following is a list of answers that can be received: