[APP][Pro&Cloud] Shelly

What would be a convenient integration? I’m willing to change the app but I have no clue on how to improve it considering the limitations of Homey itself.

Also that some users don’t see this device as a smart meter is weird and something I can not reproduce. Are you using Homey 2023 or an older version?

HP 2023 here. And I did not want to cast blame on you @Phuturist as I now that many of the issues are beyond your control. And I am not really sure if making the integration more convenient is even possible now. I just think how it works now doesn’t serve the most common purposes … or at least my purposes…very well.

To me it would make more sense that the device would show up as a single device instead of three different devices. The meter readings of different phases could be listed separately under the single device. It would be more intuitive and generate less clutter to the GUI.
And this way, the device could have only one measure_power capability (the total of three phases) which I believe is the expected behaviour to most users. After all, the device is typically installed to measure either the grid source or a single appliance that uses three phases. For single phase appliances more affordable metering devices are widely available.

With the current implementation, if the device is installed to measure the grid source, the three different power readings also corrupt the Homey’s Energy-part of the app. Homey sees them as three different power consumers among the other loads instead of whole house meter. That is, Homey sees the total energy consumption as usage from grid + usage of all other measure_power capabilities.

Thus, the Shelly Pro 3 EM is better suited to measure the energy consumption of a single appliance e.g. water boiler. And still the users don’t see the total power of that appliance in the Energy part of Homey as a single figure. And moreover, the users need to make extra efforts to configure the device properly with the Power by the Hour app. That also among others expect the measure_power to have the measured power of the metered device.

In an ideal world, the user could choose whether to include the device as a smart meter or not. Could this be something that the user could change in the advanced settings or when including the device?

And maybe even select to include it in the Homey as one device or three devices. As this is probably not possible, I would gravitate to implementing it as a single device. I cannot see many use cases with need for only one of the phases in Homey. Neither do I see many use cases requiring three different measure_power capabilities.

Long story short: Include it as a single device, make it as a user option to have it as a whole house meter or a meter for a single appliance.

Btw. Very similar discussion about Cubino’s device and its metering properties here: Qubino 3-phase smart meter - Homey Energy

I really think that the device should be configurable for both use cases: single appliance measurements and whole house measurements. I read somewhere in another post that there is some sort of boolean parameter cumulative that can be implemented to the devices. This would then make Homey change its interpretation of the device’s intended usage (to be accumulated to the house energy figures or not)

Obviously if making this user-configurable is not possible, changing the current behaviour is likely to make more harm than benefit. At least I have one Pro 3 EM measuring my EV and another one measuring my water boiler. I wouldn’t like to have two whole house smart meters instead :slight_smile:

This is quite a breaking change within the current architecture but I’ll see what I can do. I’d need a list of the values you want to see under this single device based on the values available under http://yourshellyip/rpc/Shelly.GetStatus .

The cumulative parameter has been implemented already. Each Shelly 3EM channel is added with this parameter to true. There is an action card under the device of each channel to set it to false. It could be you will have to restart the app afterwards. You would ofcourse lose being able to set it for each phase on a single device implementation.

And one other question, is your device set to monophase or triphase under the Shelly device settings?

I would basically put there the parameters that are currently listed under the three separate devices. Probably it would satisfy 99.9% of the users. The total ones would be the “primary” fields and the figures for the individual phases would be “secondary side information”. If the card gets too cluttered, you could also leave out some more advanced information like power factor and apparent power. Most users don’t even know what it is, and they have very little to do with typical home automation - and the ones who need them, could also just check it in the Shelly cloud app. I am fully aware that this is “dangerous” now. There will certainly be some users who get angry if some data is removed…

I cannot imagine a setup where someone would buy that device and desire that type of behaviour. I mean if the cumulative boolean turns the device into an appliance meter or whole house meter, one expects all phases act accordingly.

Triphase.

The relevant measurement data is under the em:0 and and emdata:0. If there are some limitations in the amount of fields to include in Homey, I would consider excluding following:

"a_aprt_power": Apparent power of phase A
"a_pf": Power factor of phase A
"b_aprt_power": Apparent power of phase B
"b_pf": Power factor of phase B
"c_aprt_power": Apparent power of phase C
"c_pf": Power factor of phase C
"total_aprt_power": Total apparent power

But then again, I am not sure if excluding those fields is needed or beneficial in the greater scheme of things. I guess the typical philosophy is “include everything and let users decide if they want to use it or not”. I like that approach too :slight_smile:

But how would this be any different from the current implementation other than having a single device? The current implementation does already add all available values. Only difference would be to have all values under one device. I don’t understand how it would solve any of the mentioned shortcomings.

Perhaps the main question is how Homey uses these values in relation to the energy tab. Perhaps I need to use the total energy usage of emdata set as the default meter_power capability. I already asked Athom about this before but didn’t get a clear answer.

Main benefits of single device over three different:

  • Less clutter in the GUI
  • Only need to add (and manage, configure, troubleshoot) one device
  • More intuitive: I cannot see a reason to configure each phase for a different load. For single phase appliances, significantly more affordable measurement devices are widely available.

Just changing the total power in L1 to the meter_power or measure_power (I do not know the difference) would result in awkward configuration where L1 parameter values would be interpreted and treated differently to L2 and L3 parameters in Homey.

Can you tell where I can read the difference between meter_power and measure_power capabilities?

EDIT: meter_power is Energy (kWh) and measure_power is power (kW).

If this has something to do with the calculation of the Homey’s energy tab, is it possible to make it user-configurable?

I find this very counter intuitive. The 3EM allows for measurement of three phases. Isn’t the whole idea you can measure the seperate phases? Adding them all as sub capabilities will result in not having trigger cards for for instance the power usage (Wh) or power measure (kWh) of a specific channel. I will have to choose which value will be the primary value for that. And it will probably be the total power usage for all 3 channels and the total power measure (kWh) for all three channels.

Homey doesn’t really support that. In fact, I don’t think Homey is really capable of supporting a device with this many readings properly. Adding this functionality myself would make the app immensely complex.

Typical use cases:

1. 3-phase appliances
Mostly resistive loads with three equal resistors. Total power is the primary interest.

2. Grid source
Again the total power and energy is the primary interest.

The only use case that I can see benefiting from the current implementation is such that the user has installed the Pro 3 EM to measure three different single phase appliances. E.g. one clamp for washing machine, one clamp for whirlpool, one for single phase boiler. But the Pro 3 EM costs > 100 EUR, and proper single phase measurement devices cost only ~15 EUR. Thus, this use case is not likely very common. It’s more common that the device is bought to measure a single physical energy source or consumer. In that case, it is the total power that is the primary interest as explained.

I do not see the limitations related to flow cards. Can you elaborate?
If the user needs to do some flows for the sub-capabilities, it’s always possible to trigger them with the logic flow cards, e.g When power of phase 2 is changed”

Regarding the number of capabilities per device, I know there are apps that create a legion of capabilities without problems. Probably there are some hard limits but I suspect this would not be close to that.
I do have a HomeWizard P1 meter connected to the HAN port. There is only one device for that and practically all those capabilities in there.

Btw. That HomeWizard app also gives the user the freedom to choose how the device’s energy numbers are calculated in the homey:

This is also available for the 3EM, at least for the most users that see the device show up as smart meter. It’s not an app specific thing. Why some users don’t see it as smart meter is still a question though.

Isn’t it so that this is exactly the setting that controls whether the Pro 3EM is treated as (whole house) smart meter or not? I guess I will need to once more address this with Athom. I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, consider implementing the Pro 3EM as a single device in the Homey - for the mentioned reasons. Not sure how to do it, but maybe a user poll would be appropriate?

I have already added this to the to-do list. Might take some time though to implement.

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Hello! Is there a plan to jntegrate the shelly wall display?

It’s already integrated, see the list of supported devices in the app store.

But only as a thermostat. Broader functionality isnt planned?

It’s added based on the selected profile of the device settings itself. You need to re-add the device if you change the profile after you paired the device. If it’s still added as thermostat even though the device profile under the settings isnt set to themostat that would be a bug. Please let me know.

It’s gonna take even longer. My Shelly Pro 3EM which I use for testing purposes died and needs to be replaced by Allterco Robotics. That will take some time.

No worries mate! You’re doing good job with the app!