Installation

We assume here the Raspberrypi has been prepared with the guide below.

We also assume the packages to flash the Arduino have been setup.

Upload_Arduino_sketch_from_Raspberrypi_to_RPICT

Get the firmware:

wget lechacal.com/RPICT/sketch/RPICT_FULL_OUTPUT_001_v4.1.0.ino.hex

Flash it with:

lcl-upload-sketch.sh RPICT_FULL_OUTPUT_001_v4.1.0.ino.hex

Configuration

The configuration mechanism remain the same as for the default factory firmware.

Over_Serial_Configuration_-_Sketch_4

The web tool can be used in exactly the same way.

RPICT configuration web tool

Only one thing differ. The section 'Output Channels' can be left empty as the full output firmware will not use this and have its own control of the output.

The use lcl-rpict-config.py command line tool can also be used with this firmware.

Usage

Plain output

When using the lcl-run command produces the following output.

lcl-run

The output format is described in detail in the next part of this guide.

There is one line per computation node.

Decoded Output

We have created a small python library to decode the data.

The zip package downloaded above contains a very simple example usage.

 import rpictpylib as rpict
 import serial

 if __name__ == "__main__":
	ser = serial.Serial("/dev/ttyAMA0", 38400)
	ser.flush()
	
	while True:
		try:
			line = ser.readline().decode().strip()
			dec  = rpict.decode_full_output(line, ['rpict4v3'])
			
			if dec != None:
				
				print("---------------------------------")
				print(dec)
		
		except KeyboardInterrupt:
			ser.close()
			break
			
		except UnicodeDecodeError:
			pass

The serial port is read and stores each received line in the 'line' parameter. The parameter 'dec' is the decoded information in the form of a python dictionary.

decode_full_output() function is used to decode the line. It takes a list of the stack of RPICT cards used which is a list composed of any 'rpict7v1' 'rpict8' 'rpict4v3'.

Run it using

python3 fulloutput-demo.py

This prints out python dictionary containing the data like below.

Clearly this is not the most human readable form. This is why we have created a couple of additional functions.

print_sequential(dec)
display_matrix()

Sequential Print Out

We invite you to look inside the python script called lcl-fulloutput-decode.py which demonstrate how these are used.

To present the data in sequential form you can run

lcl-fulloutput-decode rpict4v3 -s

(replace rpict4v3 with whatever you have. If you have a stacked setup use for example rpict4v3,rpict8)

The text below will be shown.

This is a little bit easier to read and you can see the complete information. Note for example that you can see the time which is the time since the microcontroller started.

In the above command replace rpict4v3 with the card model that is used. For example if a stacked system is used one would run

lcl-fulloutput-decode rpict4v3,rpict8 -s

Matrix Print Out

The matrix display is certainly the most comfortable for real time monitoring. The time information disappear as several computation output are shown and are not from the same computation time.

Just use the command without the -s option.

lcl-fulloutput-decode rpict4v3

Output Format

The output format generally follow the following rule.

{node_type}{coordinates}{time}{data}

node_type is an id describing the type of computation used. See table below.
coordinates provides information on which ports are used.
time gives the start and end time since mcu boot.
data are all usual data like Irms Vrms Active Power etc.

Node Types

We call a node a single computation performed by the mcu. They are all listed below.

Table 1: Node Types
code	Node Type	Description
2	snode	Signal Node.	Compute RMS only of a single channel. Efficient and lightweight computation.
3	pnode	Power Node.	Computes all power related values of a current/voltage pair. Requires definition of both current and voltage sensor ports.
4	fnode	Frequency Node.	Computes frequency only on a given sensor port.
5	tnode	Three Phase Node.	Same as pnode but for three phase.

Using the very first output we see on this page (plain output) we can see the first code for each line is 2 4 4 4 and 5. This means we are using one single signal node then three frequency node and one 3phase node.

Coordinates

The coordinates are used to point to the ports used to read the signals. For example CT1 on slave 1 and V1 on master card.

We call CT1 CT2 V1 V2 etc 'ports'.

We call slave 1 slave 2 master etc 'levels'.

In the output they are given as integer with a specific code shown in tables below. Each node type has different coordinates structure.

Single Signal node: port level
Power node: port_I level_I port_V level_V
Frequency: port level
3phase: port_I1 level_I1 port_V1 level_V1 port_I2 level_I2 port_V2 level_V2 port_I3 level_I3 port_V3 level_V3

Codes are given below.

Table 2: current_pin voltage_pin
Pin number snode_pin/pnode_pinI/pnode_pinV etc...	RPICT7V1	RPICT8	RPICT4V3
0	V1	CT8	V3
1	CT7	CT7	V2
2	CT6	CT6	V1
3	CT5	CT5	nc
4	CT4	CT4	CT4
5	CT3	CT3	CT3
6	CT2	CT2	CT2
7	CT1	CT1	CT1

Table 3: slave master pins
Pin number HWMCPSCT/HWMCPVOL	Board type
10	Master
6	Slave 1
7	Slave 2
8	Slave 3
9	Slave 4

RPICT Full Output Firmware

Contents