Hey Team NCD,
I have a question about the main difference between two sensors you sell, and why one wouldn’t work on a natural gas meter we tried hooking up to:
- IoT Long Range Wireless Two Channel Counter Transmitter - https://store.ncd.io/product/long-range-iot-wireless-two-channel-counter/
vs.
- IoT Long Range Wireless Production Counter Transmitter - https://store.ncd.io/product/iot-long-range-wireless-production-counter-transmitter/
We were able to hook up the 1st option (the 2 channel black sensor) to the Natural Gas Meter and Count Pulses. Hookup was straightforward, and everything worked right away.
However, we actually want to use the newer production counter (white box), but we tried multiple different wiring scenarios, and were not able to receive any pulses. We tried using Pins 1, 2, and 3 in all various configurations, and we had no luck. We have successully used the White production Counter on various Water Meters etc without issue (either using Pins 1 and 3 OR 2 and 3, depending on the hardware we are connecting to).
So ultimately our question is: why were we able to see a pulse using the older 2-channel counter, but not the newer white production counter? Or thinking is that the newer production counter is the sensor we want to use, since it has a sealed box, better connection cables, no jumpers, and more batteries/capacity, and generally easier to work with.
This is the gas meter in question:
The manufacturer says the following: the output of the meter is wired to a counter which supplies 3VDC to the digital contact.
Thank You Kindly! 
The primary distinction lies in the input type:
- The black box connects directly to the digital input.
- The white box utilizes an opto-coupler input.
A 3V input won’t suffice to activate the opto-coupler; approximately 5V is necessary (I will verify the precise voltage requirement).
It’s possible to build the white box so that its digital inputs are directly accessible, similar to the black box’s design.
Thanks Bhaskar! So seems for now we should continue using the black one in these cases, ya? Cheers!
I’ll inform our production team to create the product with flexible options. This way, users can easily choose how they want to use the white box products and even switch setups whenever needed, right out in the field
Awesome! This is why we love NCD!
For that white box sensor it would also be great to have an option to report pulses in EITHER the following:
- Only based on time interval (pulses every x min)
- Only based on pulse interval (report every x pulses)
- Or Both
Right now, it only allows one to use BOTH time and pulse interval, which sometimes can cause a rapid fire of readings if the time interval and pulse interval align within a few seconds.
In a perfect world, there would be an option to report every X pulses, OR every Y minutes, if there hasn’t been enough pulses reported in that time. For example, I want to be able to report every 10 counts. But I also want a report after 10 minutes of the LAST reading. This is a useful feature for water meters/gas meters, when there is no flow at night, but we still want to know that a sensor is reporting. Hope that makes sense. If not, I can explain more clearly!
The white box product already does that.
if you dont want the data every so often set the pulse thershold to a really high value
Hi @Bhaskar we ordered the 1 Channel Pulse Counter (Black version), and are currently deploying it. For some reason, the pulses are not being counted, and yet the 2 channel device we have, wired the same way, is seeing the pulses. The sensor is on, and we confirmed pulses with a push button.
2 CHANNEL WIRING WORKING:
1 CHANNEL WIRING NOT WORKING:
We would expect the 1 channel to work exaclty like the 2 channel.
Any idea on what could be the issue?
what’s the voltage across the CH1 and COM on single channel ?
We will test this and get back to you. Question for you: what voltage are we expecting?
And to be clear, are we testing the voltage of the pulses, or simply of the sensor between CH1 and COM ports?
just between com and ch1 . it should be 3.3V
Hi Bhaskar, we just tested both the 1 channel and 2 channel and both are showing 2.97 V across Channel 1/COM.
The voltage should be around 3.3V.
what’s the firmware version ?
can you share picture of the board?
what happens if you use reset and com instead com and ch1 as input terminals.
Hi @Bhaskar, we will provide images of the board tomorrow.
For now, here is the info for the 1-Channel Counter (we have two)
This is the 2-channel counter that is working:
We actually tried all permuations of COM/CH1/RESET on the one-channel counter, and none were reading the pulses.
Again, the 2-channel counter we had (black version) worked perfectly using Channel 1/COM, and it had a 2.97 V reading for Channel 1/COM when we tested it today.
