HOW TO: Configure Scheduled (cron) Reporting on the ConnectPort X2e for Smart Energy

Introduction:

Pseudo reporting is where a Gateway is configured to poll a Smart Energy device in order to simulate ZCL reporting.  If the attribute value had exceeded a reportable_change amount during the min/max interval time period, the new value (along with all other attribute values) are reported.

Cron reporting is similar to Pseudo reporting, except that a cron string is used to specify exactly when data should be polled/reported  (i.e. when the read_attributes requests are sent), rather than based on a configured min/max interval and reportable change.  With cron reporting, every read is expected to generate a report unless some error occurs.
 

Available Cron Reporting configuration parameters:

The tables below, found within the Smart Energy Framework User Guide for the ConnectPort X2e for Smart Energy documentation, describe the parameter options used in a <start_reports> request when creating a Cron Reporting request.

Key:  A parameter type of int = integer, and bool = a value of True or False.  Parameters listed with * specify optional parameters).
 

Parameters common to all types of Reporting:

Parameter	Type	Description
destination_address	MAC	64-bit extended address of the target device.
source_endpoint_id*	int	8-bit identifier of the endpoint on the local device from which the ZCL commands will be sent. Only provided if explicitly specified.
destination_endpoint_id	int	8-bit identifier of the endpoint on the target device containing the target cluster.
profile_id	int	16-bit profile identifier of the target endpoint.
server_or_client	int	Whether the target cluster is a server (0) or client (1) cluster.
cluster_id	int	16-bit identifier of the cluster over which the ZCL command will be sent.
manufacturer_code*	int	If applicable, the 16-bit manufacturer code of the ZCL attribute.
attribute_id	int	16-bit identifier of the attribute to be reported.
force_configuration	bool	If True, this reporting configuration will continue to be reattempted until successful, rather than being dropped after the first failure.
status	int	The status of the configuration operation, which may be 0 (“success”), some other ZCL status code (e.g. 0x86 “attribute not found”) or some internal status code (e.g. 0x202 “conversation timeout”).

Parameters specific to scheduled reporting (reports are generated by sending reads on a cron schedule):

Parameter	Type	Description
pseudo_reporting*	bool	Either not set or set to True to enable pseudo reporting.
schedule	cron	The schedule for when reads will be sent. Every read is expected to generate a report unless some error occurs.

Note:  When creating a cron reporting configuring, cron strings start with a “seconds” field, NOT with a “minutes” field (as is the case with some other cron implementations). For example: */5 * * * * * means “every fifth second”, while 0 */5 * * * * would mean "every 5 minutes".
 

How to configure scheduled attribute reporting:

The following <start_reports> request example would configure a ConnectPort X2e for Smart Energy Router gateway to read and send upstream the Current Summation Delivered (0x0) and Instantaneous Demand (0x400) attribute data of a Smart Meter Coordinator's Simple Metering server cluster (0x702) every 10 seconds.

In the following example, 00:11:22:33:44:55:66:77 represents the EUI-64 address of the Smart Meter:

<start_reports synchronous="true">
  <record_list type="list">
    <item type="StartReportRecord">
      <schedule type="cron">*/10 * * * * *</schedule>
      <destination_address type="MAC">00:11:22:33:44:55:66:77</destination_address>
      <cluster_id>0x0702</cluster_id>
      <server_or_client>0</server_or_client>
      <attribute_id>0x0000</attribute_id>
    </item>
    <item type="StartReportRecord">
      <schedule type="cron">*/10 * * * * *</schedule>
      <destination_address type="MAC">00:11:22:33:44:55:66:77</destination_address>
      <cluster_id>0x0702</cluster_id>
      <server_or_client>0</server_or_client>
      <attribute_id>0x0400</attribute_id>
    </item>
  </record_list>
</start_reports>

What did the request do?

We can dissect the request above to see what is happening....

destination_address - the EUI-64 of the Smart Meter
cluster_id - the ID of the Simple Metering server cluster (found under the destination_endpoint specified above)
server_or_client - the type of Meter cluster for cluster_id above (0 = server cluster, 1 = client cluster)
attribute_id - the ID of the interesting attribute found under cluster_id
schedule - the cron schedule of when attribute reads will be sent
 

Conclusion:

The <start_reports> configuration above can be used to report the readable ZCL attribute(s) data of any Smart Energy device at a consistant interval, whether or not ZCL attribute reporting is supported.
 

Additional Information:

HOW TO: Configure ZCL (real) Reporting on the ConnectPort X2e for Smart Energy
HOW TO: Configure Pseudo (differential) Reporting on the ConnectPort X2e for Smart Energy
HOW TO: Run Smart Energy Framework RPC commands from Digi Device Cloud Web Services