[Daljit]

IS IT TRUE THAT ? :-
When you change supplier, your IHD may stop working because the method of downloading firmware to devices downstream of the Comms hub on Smets2 meters was never defined. A document ref SECMP0007 was published proposing a method for updating devices downstream of the Comms hub. The latest version of this document says IHDs are no longer in scope. Only PPMIDs and HCALCSs are now mentioned (whatever they may be !).
IHDs can be updated in other ways directly via WiFi over the internet or manually but this is impractical in most cases.

[theunknowntech]

There has never been any rule allowing a supplier to lock a customer in forever. That would be massively anti-competitive and is completely banned in the UK. There are a few legitimate reasons why a supplier can temporarily block a switch, but they are always required to notify you about it and provide advice on how to resolve the blocker. For example, if it's debt related then once the debt is paid off that flag gets removed and you're able to switch again.

There's pretty much nothing in the rules that permits a supplier lock-in for anything Smart Meter or IHD related. Having reviewed the documents again with my friend Blastoise186, it's clear to us that the changes are intended to make things easier and fix a few design flaws. No conspiracy theory not vendor lock-in about it is valid at all. If you still think it is, please provide actual evidence to prove it.

[theunknowntech]

Strictly speaking, not quite. Unlike the SMETS1 days when tons of suppliers went in all different directions and we all had a myriad of supplier specific IHDs and variants to deal with (urgh!), this issue was far more likely. However, that practice has faded away with SMETS2 and these days you tend to get the vanilla variants of IHDs across almost all suppliers.

Whether the IHD will get firmware updates or not depends more on other factors though - but your current supplier isn't generally one of them. My friend Blastoise186 knows what some of them are thanks to Chameleon giving him details a while ago, but it was on the basis of keeping it all confidential, so he's not allowed to share it with me or anyone else. A PPMID is short for Prepayment Meter Interface Device and is primarily used to allow Prepayment customers to enter UTRN top up codes by remote control and send them to the meter - most IHDs have this capability built-in these days though.

HCALCS stands for HAN Connected Auxiliary Load Control Switches, which are primarily used in situations where a Time of Use type of tariff or something along those lines is active (such as Economy 7) and there's a secondary load that's set to only be active during certain hours but the electric meter didn't have an internal auxiliary relay with which to handle it.

As for the updates, you'll be surprised how many people have Wi-Fi at home. IHDs are fairly basic anyway and firmware updates aren't always crucial - they won't exactly bring you new features very often - but Wi-Fi is still a more reliable delivery mechanism than the ZigBee HAN for their firmware updates to come through. I actually have a dedicated VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) with a Wi-Fi Network attached to it purely for my IoT devices like my IHDs to get internet access without having any other local network access and it works a treat. Blastoise does the same as well - and he actually taught me how to do it using UniFi.

Either way, your IHD will NOT stop working regardless of firmware updates. If it can't get them, it might just not have a few bugs fixed but that's about it. Other than that, the documents you found are as stated.

[Meta]

This could be an underhand way of locking in users to a particular supplier....

[Landmark]

Originally Posted by Meta

This could be an underhand way of locking in users to a particular supplier....

Are you implying a conspiracy to lock in users or is it merely a teething problem due to technological limitations that will in time be ironed out and overcome?

[Daljit]

Let's get back to my point - when a new supplier takes over can they download their name and tariff details to the IHD or not ? My IHD stopped working as soon as EONnext took over and there are numerous other examples on EONnext and other suppliers forums. In some cases the IHD continues with the old supplier settings and in other cases it just gets cut off.

[theunknowntech]

Not quite right there. What actually happens is that SMETS Commands are issued to the meters to update these details and the IHD pulls them down afterwards - suppliers can't usually interact with the IHD directly. Specifically, it's the Update Supplier Name and Update Tariff Configuration commands that refresh these details.

It does also take time for meters to be transferred, because DCC needs to be involved with the process. While I watch over this forum only, my friend Blastoise186 is extremely active on the OVO Forum, which is also the supplier we're both on. Blastoise would be here himself if he could, but helping out over there is a big task and he can't easily do two forums so he asked me to be here in his place. We talk to each other all the time though and yes, this is a fairly common issue. It can all be resolved over time... Usually...

[Daljit]

Ok we are nearly there - I can confirm my smart meter has EONnext as supplier and hence the tarrifs so that has worked about 3 months ago. But how is the IHD identified by the smart meter on its HAN because as soon as the new supplier details are downloaded, the IHD is kicked off. There must be a parameter relating to the IHD - "parenting" as it's called.

[theunknowntech]

Originally Posted by A famous detective

Elementary my dear Watson, elementary...

The devil is in the detail here. The IHD isn't paired to the meters directly, but to the Communications Hub that lives above the electric meter (or to the side of it in some cases). Everything on the HAN is paired to that hub and all comms for both WAN and HAN go through that. Think of it like your Wi-Fi router at home and you're basically on the right track.

The meters never know about which IHD is connected to the HAN. Otherwise my electric meter would realise there's not one, but TWO Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID on the HAN at the same time. Blastoise calls them the Kecleon Brothers which is a joke based on them being from Chameleon Technology. Except his pair of IHD6 are called Kecleon Green and Kecleon Purple, while mine are called Kecleon Black and Kecleon White. It helps us to tell them all apart. We're aiming to have a whole family of these things too! XD

Having a single point of contact on the HAN makes that kind of chaos much easier to pull off, while also allowing individual devices to be replaced freely without nuking and rebuilding the entire Site.

Now... When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left must be the possible? Yes? :)

[Daljit]

So why does the IHD get de-parented or somehow lose the HAN connection ? How do you get it back on HAN? Is it the IHD that needs a kick?