Measure

Warning

Incorrect use of electrical and measuring devices carries a risk of electric shock (electrocution). It can cause serious injury or even death!

Preparation

To start measuring you’ll need the following:

• A computer (running Windows, Linux, MacOSX).

• Supported smartplug which can accurately measure small currents (Shelly Plug S, Shelly 1PM or Tapo P110 recommended)

• A fixture in which you can fit your light and a power plug on the other end which you can connect to your smartplug.

• Install the measure script as described here: https://github.com/bramstroker/homeassistant-powercalc/blob/master/utils/measure/README.md

Taking measurements

Important

Devices must have a unique and specific model identification. Generic model identifiers, which could represent multiple different models, are not acceptable. A common example for this are lights identifying as Tuya TS0505B. This is important for accurate auto-discovery and integration. Devices that are rebranded or sold under different names on platforms like AliExpress may not be suitable for integration, as it’s challenging to ensure they are the same across different users. These profiles are not acceptable to get included in Powercalc library, but you are free of course to use them in your own installation.

The measure script will walk through different brightness and color settings and take measurements with your smart plug.

Before you are going to take the actual measurements you have to select a POWER_METER and LIGHT_CONTROLLER by editing the .env file. You also need to set the credentials and information depending on which power meter and light controller you are using. When you want to use the OCR method see Measure using OCR.

Next, you’ll need to take note of the supported_color_modes of the light you are about to measure. You can find that in Developer tools -> States. Search for your entity there and look at the attributes column. For each of the supported color modes you need to run the measure tool. When the xy is in the supported modes you’ll need to choose hs in the measure tool, as this is just another representation of a color.

Important

make sure you temporarily pause possible automations you have in HA for your lights, so the light won’t be switched in the middle of measuring session.

Now start the script to begin the measurement session:

docker run --rm --name=measure --env-file=.env -v $(pwd)/export:/app/export -v $(pwd)/.persistent:/app/.persistent -it bramgerritsen/powercalc-measure:latest

The script will ask you a few questions and will start switching your light to all kind of different settings. Depending on the selected color mode and sleep settings this will take a while. This will take 1 hour to a few hours to complete. Time to take a cup of coffee.

Measure smart speakers

Version 1.2.0 of the measure script fully automates the measurement session for smart speakers. Just select Smart speaker in the first step of the wizard.

Prepare / finalize the files

When the script has finished you can find the actual files in /utils/measure/export directory.

You can inspect the CSV files for correctness by checking for 0 values or large inconsistencies. When everything looks fine you can safely remove the CSV file (only keep the .csv.gz file) as this is not needed when submitting to the repository.

Next create a manufacturer and model folders in data directory and copy the files there. See the other directories for examples how this is structured.

Submitting your work with a Pull Request

To create a Pull Request (PR) on the Powercalc GitHub repository, follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository by clicking on the “Fork” button on the top right of the repository page. This will create a copy of the repository under your own account.

2. Next, upload the directory containing your changes to the custom_components/powercalc/data directory of your forked repository. Make sure to keep the manufacturer/model folders intact.

3. If you’re familiar with Git, you can also use a Git client to make the changes to your local copy of the repository, commit the changes, and push them to your forked repository on GitHub.

4. Once your changes have been uploaded to your forked repository, go to the original repository and click on the “New Pull Request” button. This will open a new page where you can review the changes and submit the PR for review.

5. Once the PR is submitted, the repository maintainers will review your changes and may request additional changes or merge the PR into the main repository.

6. You should also monitor the PR for any feedback and address them accordingly.

Note

You don’t have to modify docs/supported_models.md file manually. This will be done automatically after your PR is merged

Common Problems

Getting lot of 0 readings

Some power sensors, such as Arlec PC191HA, PC287HA appear not able to sense small amounts of current/power.

Sometimes, measuring multiple of the same light is required to get an accurate set of readings.

To do this, use the group integration, ensure your lights are configured in an identical fashion.

When this is also not working use one of the recommended smart plugs

Tuya power plug will not connect

For Tuya measuring devices, disable or delete the plug from local tuya and reboot the plug as they only support 1 connection at a time.