Energy Logger 4000 utility

This project provides a utility which can be used to read info and binary logs from the Voltcraft Energy Logger 4000 as sold by Conrad. A setup file (setupel3.bin) can also be read and written, this allows you to configure the device via the SD card.

Requirements

To use this program, you will need the following:

A Python interpreter (version 2 or 3). Almost all Linux distributions have this already installed. For Mac OS X and Windows users, see Pythons download page.
(Recommended) A SecureDigital card to communicate with the EL4000. The EL4000 manual recommends a 4 GB card which which works fine for me.
(Recommended) A Voltcraft Energy Logger 4000. It should also work with a EL3500 since it has the same file format, but I could not test this.

This program has been tested with a Voltcraft Energy Logger 4000F (with a French power plug and a German adapter, bought via eBay) on a Dutch energy network.

Usage

Since this program is a console application, you need to open a terminal (or cmd) first. Available options:

$ python el4000.py --help
usage: el4000.py [-h] [-p {raw,base,watt,va,csv}] [-d DELIMITER] [-v]
                 [-s [key=value [key=value ...]]] [-o]
                 binfile [binfile ...]

Energy Logger 4000 utility

positional arguments:
  binfile               info or data files (.bin) from SD card. If --setup is
                        given, then this is the output file (and input for
                        defaults). The order of files are significant when a
                        timestamp is involved

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p {raw,base,watt,va,csv}, --printer {raw,base,watt,va,csv}
                        Output formatter (default 'base')
  -d DELIMITER, --delimiter DELIMITER
                        Output delimiter for CSV output (default ',')
  -v, --verbose         Increase logging level (twice for extra verbose)
  -s [key=value [key=value ...]], --setup [key=value [key=value ...]]
                        Process a setupel3.bin file. Optional parameters can
                        be given to set a field (-s unit_id=1 for example). If
                        no parameters are given, the current values are
                        printed

Example: print time and watt as CSV

Given a data file A0810702.BIN, you can write a results.csv file with:

$ python el4000.py -p csv A0810702.BIN > results.csv

Its content may look like:

timestamp,voltage,current,power_factor
2014-06-27 13:13,237.1,0.215,0.420
2014-06-27 13:14,236.5,0.206,0.420
2014-06-27 13:15,235.7,0.199,0.420
2014-06-27 13:16,237.3,0.204,0.420
...

If you happen to see "1970-01-01" as timestamp, be sure to include the info files (102 bytes) before others (and use --data-only to hide the contents of this info file). Compare:

$ python el4000.py -p csv A07EF88B.BIN
timestamp,voltage,current,power_factor
1970-01-01 00:00,238.5,0.000,0.000
1970-01-01 00:01,239.5,0.000,0.000
...
$ python el4000.py -p csv --data-only A07EF88A.BIN A07EF88B.BIN
timestamp,voltage,current,power_factor
2014-06-25 16:53,238.5,0.000,0.000
2014-06-25 16:54,239.5,0.000,0.000
...

Example: show information file

The information file is 102 bytes, its contents can be examined just like a data file:

$ python el4000.py A0810701.BIN
header_magic                        b'INFO:'
total_power_consumption             0.534 kWh
total_recorded_time                 2119h 04m
total_on_time                       2115h 15m
total_kwh_today_min_0               0.1 kWh
...
total_kwh_today_min_9               0.0 kWh
total_recorded_time_today_min_0     3h 42m
...
total_recorded_time_today_min_9     0h 00m
total_on_time_today_min_0           3h 42m
...
total_on_time_today_min_9           0h 00m
unit_id                             0
tariff1                             0.221
tariff2                             0.227
init_time_hour                      16
init_time_minute                    53
init_date_month                     6
init_date_day                       25
init_date_year                      14
end_of_file_code                    b'\xff\xff\xff\xff'

Example: configure setup file

The available setup options and values can be displayed with the the --setup option (or its abbreviation, -s). Example:

$ python el4000.py setupel3.bin --setup
header_magic    b'\x00\x00\x00'
unit_id         0
hour_format     0
date_format     0
time_hour       0
time_minute     0
date_month      0
date_day        0
date_year       0
currency        0
tariff1         0.0
tariff2         0.0

To actually set values, specify one or more options to --setup. Definitions can be found in the file defs.py. Overview of options:

unit_id: ranges from 0 to 9.
hour_format: 1 for 12h format, 2 for 24h format.
date_format: 1 for mm/dd/yy, 2 for dd/mm/yy display.
time_* and date_*: set the initial clock. Note that date_year is in abbreviated form. Instead of 2014, use 14.
currency: 1 for £, 2 for Sfr, 4 for $ and 8 for €
tariff, tariff2: ranges from 0.000 to 9.999.

To modify (or create) the setupel3.bin file for a 24h clock, dd/mm/yy date format and euros, use:

$ ./el4000.py setupel3.bin -s hour_format=2 date_format=2 currency=8
Changing hour_format from 0 to 2
Changing date_format from 0 to 2
Changing currency from 0 to 8
WARNING:Format:Invalid value 0 for name date_month
WARNING:Format:Invalid value 0 for name date_day
Setup file:  setupel3.bin
header_magic    b'\xb8\xad\xf2'
unit_id         0
hour_format     2
date_format     2
time_hour       0
time_minute     0
date_month      0
date_day        0
date_year       0
currency        8
tariff1         0.0
tariff2         0.0

Contact

If you have issues, questions, ideas or suggestions, feel free to contact me at peter@lekensteyn.nl or open a ticket at https://github.com/Lekensteyn/el4000/. Pull requests are also welcome.

Copyright

Energy Logger 4000 utility is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Lekensteyn/el4000