
Update: The folks at Energy are working on an SDK! So great news for us wanting to write native applications to interface with the TED!
Back in August I blogged about the TED 1000 and how it includes a serial port which can be hooked up to a PC. Well, the folks over at The Energy Detective finally released the software. During my conversations with them, it was my understanding that they were going to release the serial protocol for the unit as well. Instead, they just released the software that logs the information the TED is monitoring (it does log to HTML or Excel files so one could parse those). Not exactly what I expected but acceptable. Since my units firmware is v6.xx, I will need to upgrade before I can buy the monitoring software for $44.95 — which was also unexpected… I thought my unit would work when the software was released, since I bought it for this purpose. Oh, well.
For those interested the TED Footprints software does the following:
– Dashboard view of real-time usage, displaying all data stored within TED on your PC
– View data in kW, Dollar, or in CO2 format at the push of a button
– Logs Time of Use in kWh, Dollars and Voltage
– Graphs/charts all logged data in kWh, Dollars, or Voltage
– Graphs/charts are printable
– Calendar for viewing is flexible: view day, week, month, year.
– Data is logged in background
– Data is logged in Excel format, as well as .htm format for further user analysis
– Load-Profile major appliances, such as Water Heater, HVAC system, or other heavy loads. Records time-of-use, run-time and cost-to-run specified loads.

View Comments (65)
I too was led to believe since I ordered a new TED 1001, that once the software was available, I would receive the software at some cost, though wouldn't have to send in my unit. Very upsetting I now would have to send the unit in to take advantage of this option.
I too was led to believe since I ordered a new TED 1001, that once the software was available, I would receive the software at some cost, though wouldn't have to send in my unit. Very upsetting I now would have to send the unit in to take advantage of this option.
I too was expecting the protocol to be released.
Disappointing to say the least. I have a couple of applications for the serial data but no Windows machines available.
I too was expecting the protocol to be released.
Disappointing to say the least. I have a couple of applications for the serial data but no Windows machines available.
I wish I would have found this article sooner, I purchased the 1001 last week and thought the product came with the software but to my error it doesn't.
I have a brand new unit version 8 that they want sent back in so the can activate the port!
This is normally done by pressing a couple of keys or in specific order but they say no they must open it up, I call BS.
When I asked about their return policy they said 3 days again I call BS and will not recommend this to anyone as all they are doing is price gouging.
I wish I would have found this article sooner, I purchased the 1001 last week and thought the product came with the software but to my error it doesn't.
I have a brand new unit version 8 that they want sent back in so the can activate the port!
This is normally done by pressing a couple of keys or in specific order but they say no they must open it up, I call BS.
When I asked about their return policy they said 3 days again I call BS and will not recommend this to anyone as all they are doing is price gouging.
You can easily modify the TED to get the raw one second data from either the serial port or USB port without interfering with the opration of the unit.
You can easily modify the TED to get the raw one second data from either the serial port or USB port without interfering with the opration of the unit.
I think we need a user forum so we can discuss stuff like Klaxon's idea. The data gathering service, TEDService.exe, is only 7 kilobytes, so I suspect that it is doing a fairly easy job.
It's obviously feeding the data into a database, based I think on Open Source product called called sqlite3.
The database it builds is called TED.db.
The front-end program that the user interacts with is TEDviewer.exe, which seems to be a big Flash player that also does the database export functions and sets up the amount of each record type, and warns you if the logger isn't getting data from the serial port.
There's lots I don't know. Anyone want to fill in the gaps? I look forward to an SDK -- but what I really want is the spec so I can write a simple logger for a unix box. Trying to keep a windows machine up and running all the time is a real mistake. :)
Regards,
tai (eastpole.ca)
I think we need a user forum so we can discuss stuff like Klaxon's idea. The data gathering service, TEDService.exe, is only 7 kilobytes, so I suspect that it is doing a fairly easy job.
It's obviously feeding the data into a database, based I think on Open Source product called called sqlite3.
The database it builds is called TED.db.
The front-end program that the user interacts with is TEDviewer.exe, which seems to be a big Flash player that also does the database export functions and sets up the amount of each record type, and warns you if the logger isn't getting data from the serial port.
There's lots I don't know. Anyone want to fill in the gaps? I look forward to an SDK -- but what I really want is the spec so I can write a simple logger for a unix box. Trying to keep a windows machine up and running all the time is a real mistake. :)
Regards,
tai (eastpole.ca)