TED 5000 iPhone App

TED 5000 iPhone App

I've been hearing rumors about a TED 5000 iPhone application for a few weeks now and I was happy to search the iPhone app store today for "TED 5000" and find the app there waiting for me. The app was developed by Brent Halsey and is a very nice way to see what your TED 5000 is doing when you are away from your computer or display unit.  Thankfully it is free!

The application displays the following:

  • Gateway time
  • Current Power
  • Current Cost (Hr)
  • Average Power (Hr)
  • Average Cost (Hr)

The only downside to the application is that unlike the TED display unit, it is not a real-time feed.  The app only refreshes when you tell it to.  The "Gateway Time" on the app is the time that the iPhone app pinged the Gateway to get the data.  If you wanted to see the data every minute, you would have to refresh every minute.  It currently does not display any trends or reports, just a snapshot of your instantaneous household energy consumption.  I'm not sure if future editions of the app will have added functionality, or if this functionality is limited due to technical limitations imposed by the TED 5000 unit.

Since my TED 5000 is hooked into my wireless router and I am not doing anything fancy (like posting my TED 5000 information on a dedicated web-site for all to see) I am only able to use the iPhone app to access my gateway when my iPhone is on my home wireless network.  If I were using 3G or on the internet somewhere else the app would not work.

Setting up the application is very straightforward. Once you download the free application, you just have to enter in your TED 5000 IP address. I  had forgotten how to find my TED's IP address and when I googled the topic, I came across a comment on Mapawatt from Loren that I had overlooked addressing this very own topic:

David, you might call Roman at TED regarding finding your IP address. I just spoke with him and he guided me through it very quickly. However, your situation will be a bit different because of the fact that I have Windows on my Mac which allowed me to find the IP address very easily using the Run command and typing in “cmd” and then “ping ted5000″ which gave me the IP. I was then able to simply type in an address that looks like http://192.xxx.x.xx/Footprints.html and everything works just great.

After entering in your IP address you're all set to go.  If you have problems, make sure your iPhone is connected to your home wireless network by choosing (on the iPhone) Setting -->Wi-Fi--> On-->Choose your network.  As long as your TED gateway is hooked into the same wireless router that the iPhone uses, you should be fine.

For me, it's nice to have this capability on my phone so I dont have to carry around the display unit (which stays in my office) if I am downstairs or in bed and I am curious about how much power my house is consuming.  Eventually I am going to put my TED 5000 on a dedicated page so I can access the data from anywhere, so this is just the start. We all the know the smart-grid will be here eventually, but it sure is nice to see glimpses of it right now!

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Comments

Hi guys, my iPhone app is finally available now at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=336208628&mt=8 . It took a couple tries to get through the app review process. @Brent: Sorry, I didn't notice your reply to my above message until just now. I actually ended up drawing the dial myself with Quartz 2D. I'm not sure yet whether I'll end up using core plot for the history charts yet. It mostly depends on how easy they are to adapt to some of the graphing ideas I'm toying with. At any rate, I would be happy to collaborate with you. Unfortunately work is pretty busy right now so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to give to this for a few weeks. Not sure how easy it would be to merge our code together, but certainly we could learn from each other's experience and ideas.
I just created a Google Code project for another iPhone app to read TED gateway data: http://code.google.com/p/tedometer. This is mostly just a hobby for me to learn iPhone development. I just submitted the application to iTunes Connect so hopefully it will be available within the next two weeks. In the meantime you can check out the app or see the screenshots on the project page. If anyone is interested in helping further the project, let me know.
Nathan- I like what you've done. We are both doing a lot of the same and I'm in this for the learning process as well. I'd like to work with you to contribute, but would need to determine how to continue with the current TED5000 app I've been working on. My latest release just got published today and it has the same google charts api included that you are using to show the dial (only I'm using bar charts for history). Would you be interested in merging our two projects into one? I've also got several emails out to google asking about the api for power meter, but they haven't responded. I see an opportunity here to provide a much better product if we work collaborate. Feel free to reach out to me at brent.halsey@gmail.com.
It doesn't show as an update. I can download it in itunes, but won't install on OS < 3.1.2
I just submitted TED 5000 v1.2 to the App Store. Added some graphing capabilities, allows users to see Daily, Hourly and Minute historical data. Usually takes about 2 weeks for the AppStore to approve, let me know once you see the update and what you think.
Brent, Will the new app allow me to see the data from any wireless network like I can with the new Google PowerMeter?
Chris- you can enable your network to expose your TED to the DMZ. When you do this, you allow anyone to see your TED data over the internet. Of course, they'll need your IP to see it. I suggest locking down your TED from allowing any changes, but allow viewing of the data with no password as the iPhone app doesn't support this yet. Then, just update the configuration page of the iPhone app to include your internet IP address and port of the TED and you'll be set. That is how mine is configured. You can test your setup by attempting to access your footprints software online first. If you need more help setting it up just shoot me an email, brent.halsey@gmail.com
It shouldn't require 3.1.2- if it says that I goofed. It should just say tested or compatible with 3.1.2
Brent, Any reason you made the latest update requiring OS 3.1.2?
Well, this will be a game changer! http://mapawatt.com/2009/10/08/ted-5000-and-google-powermeter-on-igoogle-is-live/

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