Tshwane prepaid meters online / remote access

[Mobus]

I just got my old post-paid meter replaced by a PCMA (power-c metering africa) prepaid meter (model KY124, dated 2019).

Anyone know if you can access the log somewhere online?

Can you enter the 20 digit token online somehow? Say you are away from home for a while and need to load a new voucher without access to the physical keypad?

In general, what has been your experience with these meters? Are the reliable and accurate?

 

[maumau]

Old post, but ....

This is a good question, to be able to load prepaid from elsewhere would be a bonus.

@Mobus

 

[Johnatan56]

Have you tried buying via e.g. the FNB or Capitec app? Does it load it directly (since needs the meter number)?

 

[Lupus]

Have you tried buying via e.g. the FNB or Capitec app? Does it load it directly (since needs the meter number)?

if it's like City Powers meter, when you purchase, you just get a token you've got to enter in manually.

 

[Johnatan56]

if it's like City Powers meter, when you purchase, you just get a token you've got to enter in manually.

Only ever had postpaid, thanks for the info.

Don't think most meters have online functionality, so won't be able to enter it remotely.

 

[Lupus]

Only ever had postpaid, thanks for the info.

Don't think most meters have online functionality, so won't be able to enter it remotely.

Nope, which is rather silly. In Johannesburg you cannot even get the details changed without having to go to the one walk in center in the entire city, cause my details for some reason are someone elses for quite sometime before lockdown.
But you can only get it changed in Town, so I would need to drive 26km for that.

 

[Mobus]

My take on the meter after about a months usage.

The PCMA prepaid meters Tshwane are using seem to be totally offline. Authentication / verification of bought tokens are probably done using offline decryption only. The pavement side meter seems to contain a plc, relay and usage meter. Comms between the meter and the in-house keypad run over your mains cable (house side only - i.e. plugging your keypad in at the neighbours house doesn't successfully establish a link to your meter). There is no rf or gsm comms from what I can tell. And probably also no upstream power line comms via the city's power infrastructure.

If there is ever a hope for online functionality, the OEM would need to produce a new keypad upgraded with wifi / ethernet and connect to your home network.

Edit/disclaimer: this is all just speculation based on my own use and guesses of how the system may operate. I do not advocate any reverse engineering. I also heard the system has tamper detection and saw in the tshwane budget doc that they may charge you severe fines for "resetting" a tampered meter.

 

[djacobs007]

Does anyone have a manual for this meter. Much Appreciated.

 

[extrusion]

Also looking for a manual.
Also, any way to have it beep when low on electricity ?
Thanks.

 

[phoneJunky]

And how do you set the time?

 

[Mobus]

And how do you set the time?

I have no manual. This is just trial and error on my PCMA KY124.

888 - reads time from keypad. Pointless but confirms your time is wrong or if time doesn't display normally.
009 - reads date from meter (and possibly sync to keypad?)
030 - reads the time from the meter and syncs it to the keypad. (not sure if it also reads the date, possibly use with 009)

 

[Mobus]

This is what else I have for a PCMA KY124 keypad talking to a PCR421 meter (trial and error):

000 "Total energy"
001 0 kwh (some limit perhaps?)
002 Instantaneous voltage
004 Instantaneous current
005 First 6 numbers of your PCMA meter serial #
008 Last 6 numbers of your PCMA meter serial #

* note this 12 digit serial is slightly different from your 11 digit card number used to buy units. In my case the first 10 digits of the card number is the same as the last 10 digits of the serial number, followed by a 2.

006 "Total purchased"
007 "Credit balance"
009 Read date from meter (sync?)
030 read time from meter (definitely sync keypad)
100 0kwh (min instantaneous power for the day perhaps?)
101 11kW (max instantaneous power for the day perhaps?)
200 "Last month Cons" = looks more like consumption since day 0
202 some kwh reading less than 200
204 some kwh reading less than 202
206 some kwh reading less than 204
208 some kwh reading less than 206
813 "Current power"
821 "Last purchased time"
841 "Last purchased"
888 read time from keypad?

I stopped guessing codes at 040. Most return NULL, except those noted above.
Also guessed 111,222,333,444,555,666,777,888,999 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 100,200,300,400,500,600,700,900 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 101-111 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 201-211 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 880-900 = NULL, except where noted above.

 

[Mobus]

Also looking for a manual.
Also, any way to have it beep when low on electricity ?
Thanks.

I highly doubt it. The keypad polls the meter for a reading if and when a user enters the query "007". In theory the keypad should be able to automatically poll the meter once every hour/day/some interval and warn you, but it seems counter to the basic design implemented. Such an interval counter would probably require a more advanced microchip and consume more power itself. The keypad was designed for low power in order to run of batteries so that the user can enter voucher codes without power.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Only ever had postpaid, thanks for the info.

Don't think most meters have online functionality, so won't be able to enter it remotely.

The meters do have remote functionality, but it isnt publicly accessible.
The use the remote functionality to check for fraud and abuse monitoring.

 

[DA-LION-619]

My take on the meter after about a months usage.

The PCMA prepaid meters Tshwane are using seem to be totally offline. Authentication / verification of bought tokens are probably done using offline decryption only. The pavement side meter seems to contain a plc, relay and usage meter. Comms between the meter and the in-house keypad run over your mains cable (house side only - i.e. plugging your keypad in at the neighbours house doesn't successfully establish a link to your meter). There is no rf or gsm comms from what I can tell. And probably also no upstream power line comms via the city's power infrastructure.

If there is ever a hope for online functionality, the OEM would need to produce a new keypad upgraded with wifi / ethernet and connect to your home network.

Edit/disclaimer: this is all just speculation based on my own use and guesses of how the system may operate. I do not advocate any reverse engineering. I also heard the system has tamper detection and saw in the tshwane budget doc that they may charge you severe fines for "resetting" a tampered meter.

Uses UHF if I remember, it’s just the meter.
The meter reports to the DCU.

The concept/standard for the tokens is called STS, I think Eskom came up with it.
By design the meter has a HSM for decrypting the token checking factors such as the time the voucher was created/purchased.

 

[Mobus]

The meters do have remote functionality, but it isnt publicly accessible.
The use the remote functionality to check for fraud and abuse monitoring.

Do you know if Tshwane actually use this functionality?

Reading between the lines (on PCMA's website and others) it seems like comms between the keypad and meter is mostly powerline comms (PLC) or a two-wire comms standard called DCPLC. Comms between the meter and the upstream "server"/"concentrator" devices used for monitoring, authentication etc is default PLC with onsite/manual servicing via RS458 and IR. Other remote connections are optional and include 5km range RF, GPRS or LAN. I suspect Tshwane is to cheap to subscribe to all the upstream management options. I also read somewhere about a user portal product but Tshwane definitely don't have that.

I was surpised though that the meter managed to keep time even after several street/ neighbourhood outages. Turns out the meter has an onboard RTC (which can be sync'ed via upstream comms).

My keypad managed to loose a few hours on its clock, perhaps due to a weak battery or battery exchange at somepoint (or it just a very bad internal clock - perhaps synced to AC 50hz like those old school analogue timer switches) . Date was still correct though.

 

[DA-LION-619]

This is what else I have for a PCMA KY124 keypad talking to a PCR421 meter (trial and error):

000 "Total energy"
001 0 kwh (some limit perhaps?)
002 Instantaneous voltage
004 Instantaneous current
005 First 6 numbers of your PCMA meter serial #
008 Last 6 numbers of your PCMA meter serial #

* note this 12 digit serial is slightly different from your 11 digit card number used to buy units. In my case the first 10 digits of the card number is the same as the last 10 digits of the serial number, followed by a 2.

006 "Total purchased"
007 "Credit balance"
009 Read date from meter (sync?)
030 read time from meter (definitely sync keypad)
100 0kwh (min instantaneous power for the day perhaps?)
101 11kW (max instantaneous power for the day perhaps?)
200 "Last month Cons" = looks more like consumption since day 0
202 some kwh reading less than 200
204 some kwh reading less than 202
206 some kwh reading less than 204
208 some kwh reading less than 206
813 "Current power"
821 "Last purchased time"
841 "Last purchased"
888 read time from keypad?

I stopped guessing codes at 040. Most return NULL, except those noted above.
Also guessed 111,222,333,444,555,666,777,888,999 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 100,200,300,400,500,600,700,900 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 101-111 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 201-211 = NULL, except where noted above.
Also guessed 880-900 = NULL, except where noted above.

Code	Function	Code	Function
000	Total energy kWh	809	Power consumption of last 10 months
001	Total reverse kWh register	810	Power consumption of last 11 months
002	Voltage	811	Power consumption of last 12 months
004	Current	813	Current power kW
005	Meter address high bit	815	Current tariff number
006	Total purchased kWh	818	Current tariff price
007	Current balance	821	Last credit Date and Time
008	Meter address low bit	822	2nd most recent credit date and time
009	Date (year/month/day)	823	3rd most recent credit date and time
030	Time (hour/minute/second)	824	4th most recent credit date and time
050	Alarm threshold 1	825	5th most recent credit date and time
100	Alarm threshold 2	831	Last power purchase token
101	Load threshold	832	2nd most recent power purchase token
200	Power consumption of last month	833	3rd most recent power purchase token
202	Power consumption of last 2 months	834	4th most recent power purchase token
204	Power consumption of last 3 months	835	5th most recent power purchase token
206	Power consumption of last 4 months	841	Last purchase kWh
208	Power consumption of last 5 months	842	2nd most recent purchase kWh
802	Power consumption of last 6 months	843	3rd most recent purchase kWh
803	Power consumption of last 7 months	844	4th most recent purchase kWh
807	Power consumption of last 8 months	845	5th most recent purchase kWh
808	Power consumption of last 9 months	851	Total number of token accepted
730	Query CIU software version

This product is no longer available.

This product is no longer available.

www.alibaba.com

 

[Mobus]

Code	Function	Code	Function
000	Total energy kWh	809	Power consumption of last 10 months
001	Total reverse kWh register	810	Power consumption of last 11 months
002	Voltage	811	Power consumption of last 12 months
004	Current	813	Current power kW
005	Meter address high bit	815	Current tariff number
006	Total purchased kWh	818	Current tariff price
007	Current balance	821	Last credit Date and Time
008	Meter address low bit	822	2nd most recent credit date and time
009	Date (year/month/day)	823	3rd most recent credit date and time
030	Time (hour/minute/second)	824	4th most recent credit date and time
050	Alarm threshold 1	825	5th most recent credit date and time
100	Alarm threshold 2	831	Last power purchase token
101	Load threshold	832	2nd most recent power purchase token
200	Power consumption of last month	833	3rd most recent power purchase token
202	Power consumption of last 2 months	834	4th most recent power purchase token
204	Power consumption of last 3 months	835	5th most recent power purchase token
206	Power consumption of last 4 months	841	Last purchase kWh
208	Power consumption of last 5 months	842	2nd most recent purchase kWh
802	Power consumption of last 6 months	843	3rd most recent purchase kWh
803	Power consumption of last 7 months	844	4th most recent purchase kWh
807	Power consumption of last 8 months	845	5th most recent purchase kWh
808	Power consumption of last 9 months	851	Total number of token accepted
730	Query CIU software version

This product is no longer available.

This product is no longer available.

www.alibaba.com

Very nice. How did you find this knock-off Topscomm?

 

[DA-LION-619]

Very nice. How did you find this knock-off Topscomm?

The Topscomm is the OEM, I assume PCMA is the rebrand.
It’s not easy to get a hardware security module, get approval etc unless you’re doing it on a large scale.

 

[Bundu]

I got hold of a copy of the user manual