It turned out this works better as an add-on to mqtt so I can have better control and resources to parse digits. Please refer to https://github.com/junalmeida/homeassistant-addons

This repository is archived.

Home Assistant - Meter Parser Integration

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This is a custom component to allow parse of dial and digits utility meters like water, gas, and electricity to provide energy consumption information to home assistant using a regular ip camera.

This repository is under alpha stage, so expect bugs and breaking changes.

Highlights of what Meter Parser can do

• Parse Meters
• Provide a consumption sensor of total_increasing state type.
• Cheap IP or PoE cameras must do

Potential Downsides

• Positioning a camera and getting a good image could be difficult.
• Could be hard to setup calibration parameters, such as zoom_factor.
• To recognize digits, I am relying on OCR services on the internet. I am open to suggestions on better local libraries to scan digits. Recognizing dials is simple and local, no internet connection or APIs are required.

Installation (HACS) - Highly Recommended

1. Have HACS installed, this will allow you to easily update
2. Add https://github.com/junalmeida/ha-meterparser as a custom repository as Type: Integration
3. Click install under "Meter Parser Integration" in the Integration tab
4. Add your meter to your configuration.yaml file as shown below
5. Restart HA

Usage

• Entities will show up as sensor.<friendly name>, for example (sensor.water_meter).
• Setup you camera and sensor in configuration.yaml

# Example configuration.yaml entry
sensor:
  - platform: meter_parser
    scan_interval: 60 # in seconds, higher intervals is better to avoid rate limits
    source:
      - name: Water Meter
        entity_id: camera.water_meter # any camera entity
    meter_type: digits # digits or dials, at this moment, digits uses internet to ocr.
    ocr_space_key: "123456789" # required for digits, grab a key at https://ocr.space/ (watch for rate limits)
    digits: 6 # required for digits, number of expected total digits (including decimals)
    decimals: 1 # optional number of decimals
    debug: True # when true it stores an image with scanned dials
    device_class: water # energy, gas or water
    unit_of_measurement: m³ # m³, ft³, kWh, MWh, Wh, gal, L

  - platform: meter_parser
    scan_interval: 15
    source:
      - name: Electricity Meter
        entity_id: camera.electricity_meter
    meter_type: dials # read out dial pointers, internet is not used.
    dials: ["CCW","CW", "CCW", "CW"] # readout convention (counter clockwise, clockwise)
    dial_size: 280 # minimum expected dial diameter in pixels, this could be hard to figure out, so position your camera, and access with VLC to check the diameter of each dial, then set a minimum with an error margin. 
    debug: True  # when true it stores an image with scanned dials
    device_class: energy # energy, gas or water
    unit_of_measurement: kWh # m³, ft³, kWh, MWh, Wh, gal, L

Reporting an Issue

1. Setup your logger to print debug messages for this component by adding this to your configuration.yaml:

   logger:
    default: warning
    logs:
      custom_components.meter_parser: debug
      meter_parser: debug

2. Restart HA
3. Verify you're still having the issue
4. File an issue in this Github Repository, add logs and if possible an image of your meter.

Credits

🎉 Dial Parser code is based on the awesome work of @mirogta, please support his work.

Footnotes

1. Icons made by Smashicons from flaticon.com ↩