ConnectSense Smart Power Cord User manual
A Division of Grid Connect Inc.
Smart Power Cord
And Mini Cord
Users Guide
Revision E - December 2020
Part Number CS-DOC-SC-001
Copyright and Trademark
Copyright ©2020, Grid Connect, Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form for any purpose
other than the purchaser's personal use, without the express written permission of Grid
Connect, Inc. Grid Connect, Inc. has made every effort to provide complete details about
the product in this manual, but makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material,
including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose. In no event shall Grid Connect, Inc. be liable for any incidental,
special, indirect or consequential damages whatsoever included but not limited to lost
profits arising out of errors or omissions in this manual or the information contained
herein.
Grid Connect, Inc. products are not designed, intended, authorized or warranted for use
as components in systems intended for surgical implant into the body, or in other
applications intended to support or sustain life, or in any other application in which the
failure of a Grid Connect, Inc. product could create a situation where personal injury,
death, or severe property or environmental damage may occur. Grid Connect, Inc.
reserves the right to discontinue or make changes to its products at any time without
notice.
Grid Connect, ConnectSense, and the Grid Connect and ConnectSense logos, and
combinations thereof are registered trademarks of Grid Connect, Inc. All other product
names, company names, logos or other designations mentioned herein are trademarks of
their respective owners.
Grid Connect Inc.
1630 W. Diehl Road
Naperville, IL 60563, USA
Phone: 630.245.1445
Technical Support
Phone: 630.245.1445
Fax: 630.245.1717
Web: www.gridconnect.com, www.connectsense.com
A Division of Grid Connect Inc.
Disclaimer and Revisions
The information in this guide may change without notice. The manufacturer assumes no
responsibility for any errors that may appear in this guide.
Date
Rev.
Author
Comments
3/05/2020
A
MBJ
Preliminary Release
3/11/2020
B
GPM
Basic Edits to improve content and
readability
4/7/2020
C
GPM
Added details for switch operation and other
edits
6/22/2020
D
GPM
Added TOC and Figure 2. Added
clarification of LED operation. Edits to
improve content and readability
12/21/20
E
GPM
Added Mini Cord and FCC French
description
1
Table of Contents
1. Quick Start.................................................................................................2
1.1 Overview of the ConnectSense Smart Power Cord........................2
1.2 Overview of the ConnectSense Mini Smart Cord ........................... 4
1.3 Provisioning Requirements.............................................................5
1.4 Summary of the Provisioning Steps................................................5
1.5 How to Create an Account..............................................................6
1.6 Connecting a Power Cord to the Network ......................................9
1.6.1 Add a Smart or Mini Cord ............................................... 10
1.6.2 Reboot and reset the Power Cord .................................. 11
1.6.3 Connect to the Power Cord’s SoftAP.............................. 11
1.6.4 Select a Wi-Fi network.................................................... 13
1.6.5 Verify the Smart Power Cord is Connected .................... 14
2. Graphical Interface..................................................................................15
2.1 Display Modes..............................................................................15
2.1.1 Pump Mode .................................................................... 16
2.1.2 Appliance Mode..............................................................16
2.1.3 Advanced Mode..............................................................17
2.2 Available Graphs.......................................................................... 18
2.3 Power Signature...........................................................................19
2.4 Rules............................................................................................ 20
2.5 Sample Text message.................................................................. 21
2.6 Miscellaneous Settings................................................................. 22
2.7 Power Signature example ............................................................23
2.8 Displaying the variables about your cord...................................... 24
2.9 Sample Label on the Smart Power Cord...................................... 25
2.10 Sample device to plug-in ............................................................ 26
2.11 Smart Power Cord Specifications............................................... 27
2.12 Smart Power Cord Warranty....................................................... 27
3. Compliance..............................................................................................27
3.1 FCC/IC Information - English........................................................ 27
2
3.2 FCC/IC Information - French.........................................................28
1. Quick Start
This section provides an overview of the Smart Power Cord and how to quickly provision it
to the ConnectSense Cloud application.
1.1 Overview of the ConnectSense Smart Power Cord
LEDS
There are 2 LEDs on the Smart Power Cord.
Status LED:
Blue, in normal operation LED used to indicate relay on/off status.
Relay is on Blue LED is on
Wi-Fi LED:
On factory reset Solid red for 1 second, then off
On reboot Solid green for 1 second, then off
In provisioning state Yellow slow (2x) flash
Connecting to Wi-Fi Yellow fast (20x) flash
Failed connect Wi-Fi Yellow solid
Connecting to AWS Green slow (2x) flash
Connection to AWS Green on for 5 seconds, then off
Failure to connect AWS Red slow (2x) flash
When holding the cord with the Push button below the LEDs, the Wi-Fi LED is on
the upper left and the Status LED is on the upper right as shown below.
3
Figure 1
Push Button
The push button on the Smart Power Cord can be used to manually turn on and off
any device that is plugged into the Smart Power Cord. If desired, the button can be
disabled through the configuration screen. Here is the behavior of the push button
Push button
Wi-Fi LED
Holding button for 5 seconds does a
reboot
flash green for 1 second
Holding button for 10 seconds does a
soft (Wi-Fi credentials) reset
flash yellow
Holding button for 15 seconds does a full
factory reset
flash red
Press the push button down for 1 second
to toggle the relay and turn on / off a
device plugged into the Smart Power
Cord.
N/A
Wi-Fi
LED
Status LED
4
The push button is used to provision the Smart Power cord on the ConnectSense
Cloud application. If you hold down the push button for roughly 15 seconds it will reset
the Smart Power Cord to default configuration and put the Wi-Fi interface into SoftAP
mode so that it can be provisioned onto the customer’s network and the
ConnectSense cloud application.
SoftAP
The ConnectSense Smart Power Cord has an internal Wi-Fi radio. The Wi-Fi can be
used in 2 different modes:
1. Client Station mode –to connect to network Access Points (APs)
2. SoftAP mode –allows host computers to connect to it for configuration
For provisioning the Smart Power Cord to the cloud, we use the “SoftAP” or soft
access point. The use of the SoftAP is temporary and is only enabled during the
provisioning process. To Provision the Smart Power Cord to the ConnectSense
Cloud, you need to make a Wi-Fi connection from a host computer to the SoftAP
wireless connection in the Smart Power Cord. Once the Smart Power Cord is
connected to the cloud, the SoftAP is disabled for security.
1.2 Overview of the ConnectSense Mini Smart Cord
The Mini Cord features include over-current protection and a button for local On/Off
control. There is only 1 LED on the Mini Cord. The Mini Cord also allows for remote
monitoring of duty cycles and power usage, including separate voltage and current
signals. The Mini Cord does NOT support the following features:
•provide a power signature
•Rules engine that allows for events and notifications.
Manual ON/OFF
Button with LED
AC Input
AC Output
5
1.3 Provisioning Requirements
To follow this Quick Start guide, you will need the following items to get your unit up and
running quickly.
•To follow along with this document, you will need a ConnectSense Smart Power
Cord (SC) and a test device like a fan or light bulb. (See section 2.10)
•You will also need to have an account on the ConnectSense cloud application.
(See section 1.4)
•This process requires that your local network support 2 features to provision the
Smart Cord to the ConnectSense cloud:
oThe Wi-Fi Access Point AP must broadcast its SSID
oThe DHCP server is active and can assign an IP address to the Smart Cord.
If Static IP addresses are preferred, then the DHCP server must be
configured to assign the static IP address to the MAC address of the Smart
Cord.
1.4 Summary of the Provisioning Steps
Here is a summary of the provisioning procedure. Please refer to figure 2 when reviewing
the steps:
1. Connect the Smart Power Cord to the wall outlet to power the unit. In this example
you are connecting to the 120VAC power, the cord will handle up to 240VAC.
2. Plug a test or customer device that you want to monitor/control into the other end of
the Smart Power Cord.
3. Using a host computer, sign into the ConnectSense Cloud application using a Web
Browser.
https://cord.connectsense.com
4. Hold down the push button for roughly 15 seconds (until the Wi-Fi LED flashes Red) to
reset the Smart Power Cord to default configuration and put the Wi-Fi interface into
SoftAP mode so that it can be provisioned onto the customer’s ConnectSense cloud
application.
5. Connect a Host computer’s Wi-Fi interface to the SoftAP interface of the cord that you
want to provision. The Smart Power Cord presents an SSID of “CS-CORD-XXXXX”
(where XXXXX is the unique serial number for each Smart Power Cord)
6. The Smart Power cord will sense the SoftAP connection and will then discover a list of
local Wi-Fi networks and passes this to the ConnectSense application.
7. From the list of available Wi_fi networks, select the desired Wi-Fi network and provide
the passphrase key. The Smart Power Cord will associate with the AP and make a
secure network connection to AWS.
6
8. The Smart Power Cord is now connected.
WAN Modem
Router
Access Point
Internet
Provisioning Laptop
SoftAP
Client Station
connection
Step 1
To 120Vac
supply
Step 2
Plug to
customer
device
Figure 2
Step 4
Hold down
Pushbutton for
15 secs
Step 3
Sign into
ConnectSense
Cloud
Step 5
Connect Laptop
Wi-Fi to SoftAP
Step 6
SPC will scan
for APs
SSID
Step 7
When prompted select network
SSID to cloud / AWS IoT
1.5 How to Create an Account
This section covers how to create a user account on the ConnectSense Cloud application.
Before you can provision a Smart Power Cord, we must create a user account On the
ConnectSense Cloud application. If you already have an account, jump to the next
section. To start, go to the following web address.
https://cord.connectsense.com
8
Your email will be verified. Click on “Confirm your account” to complete the account
setup.
If it is successful, you will see the following screen.
9
1.6 Connecting a Power Cord to the Network
This section will show you how to Add the Smart Power Cord or the Mini Cord to
ConnectSense Cloud and get them connected. This section assumes that you already
have an account on the ConnectSense Cloud.
The following is the Main screen for the ConnectSense Cloud application. You can add
multiple Smart Power Cords and Mini Cords to the ConnectSense Cloud. As you add
them, they will display on this home screen.
Click on the “+” OR “let’s add a new
device” link to add Smart Power Cords
(first device only)
10
1.6.1 Add a Smart or Mini Cord
To ADD a Smart Power Cord or a Mini Smart Cord to the account, select the “+” in
the top left-hand pane. For the first device you can also click on text “let’s add a
new device” link to add a new device. This will bring up the following window.
Select either the Smart Cord or the Mini Cord depending on what cord you want to
add and provision. This will display one of the following pages depending on the
cord you selected.
11
1.6.2 Reboot and reset the Power Cord
To provision the power cord onto the network you will need to reboot the unit and activate
the Power Cord’s SoftAP network.
For the Smart Power Cord:
To start the process, press and hold the push button (about 15 seconds) until you
see the Wi-Fi LED flash Red.Once the Wi-Fi LED flashes Red, the LED Light will
switch to look yellow and start flashing.
When this happens, Click on the “Next” button on the screen.
For the Mini Cord:
The Mini Cord only has one LED. When not connected, it will flash between blue and
red. To start the process, press and hold the push button (about 15 seconds) until
you see the LED flash Red. (It will flash Red about 3 times). Once the Wi-Fi LED
flashes Red, the Mini Cord is ready to provision.
When this happens, Click on the “Next” button on the screen.
1.6.3 Connect to the Power Cord’s SoftAP
The screen will change and look like this:
12
Note: To do this next step you need to use your host computer’s Wi-Fi interface to scan
and connect to the Power Cord’s SoftAP Wi-Fi interface to configure the WLAN interface.
Now, using your host computer’s network utility scan the Wi-Fi network for the SoftAP on
the Power Cord you want to provision. The Power Cord’s SoftAP will emit one of the
following SSIDs depending on the cord that you are trying to provision:
The Smart Power Cord will be named “CS-CORD-XXXXX” (where XXXXX is the
unique serial number for each Smart Power Cord).
The Mini Cord will be named “CS-MINI-CORD-XXXXXXX (where XXXXX is the unique
serial number for each Mini Cord).
Using the Host Computers Wi-Fi interface, select the desired SSID (Network) of the
Power Cord that you want to connect to.
When the Smart Power Cord gets a connection from your host computer to its SoftAP, the
cord will perform a Wi-Fi scan of the environment to find a suitable Access Point to
connect to. The screen will change to show all of the Access Points that it can see. The
screen you see should look something like this: (your Access Points will look different)
13
1.6.4 Select a Wi-Fi network
Next, you need to select a Wi-Fi network that will allow the Power Cord to make a
connection to the Internet and AWS.
To select the Wi-Fi network that the Smart Power Cord will pair with click the radio button
next to the desired Access point. In this case we have selected the “gridconnect” access
point.
Once you select a network, you will likely need to add the security passphrase to connect
to the Wi-Fi network. Scroll down on the page to enter the security passphrase. It will
look like this
Once you have entered the passphrase, click the Next button
The screen will sequence to the following screens:
14
Depending on the Power Cord, you will one of these screens:
OR
1.6.5 Verify the Smart Power Cord is Connected
On the Smart Power Cord, the Wi-Fi LED should go off indicating that the Cord’s SoftAP
is now disabled and the Cord’s Wi-Fi interface is connected to the desired network. On
the Mini Cord, the LED will no longer flash. The LED color now indicates whether the load
switch is on or off. (Blue indicates ON, Red indicates OFF).
If successful, you should see the screen below. This screen shows the status as “ON”
which means that the cord is now connected to the local Wi-Fi network and the Cloud
application.
15
The following is the home screen which shows both the Smart Power Cord and the Mini
Cord connected.
The Smart Power Cord and the Mini Cord are now connected. The default name of this
cord is “ConnectSense Cord” or “Mini Cord”. It is advisable to edit the name if you are
using multiple Smart Power Cords to make it more meaningful for the application. This
can be done using the Settings tab.
2. Graphical Interface
2.1 Display Modes
The home screen shows all of the power cords that are connected to the application. You
can get more details on any of the power cords by selecting a power cord. You can select
a power cord by clicking anywhere in the desired Power Cord Panel. You can return to
the home screen at any time by clicking on the ConnectSense Logo.
Once you have selected an individual Power Cord, the graphical interface shows more
details. There are three different tabs designed to provide more details related by
function. The three tabs are: Dashboard, Rules and Settings.
The Dashboard views can be changed based on the type of application that is using the
power cord. There are currently 3 different display Modes –Pump, Appliance and
Advanced. Each of these modes will display different information about the device
attached to the cord. The Rules and Settings Tabs show the same information
independent of the display mode.
Below are the different display modes and more information screens.
16
2.1.1 Pump Mode
2.1.2 Appliance Mode
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