VUE Product Improvement suggestions to SW and Hardware

[Yme]

Hello,

Installed a  VUE 3-16 a couple of weeks ago.  Initially had problems with  connection setup due to what acted like low WI-FI signal,  got it working after lots of effort, days later tried calling TS because did not seem correct, but they did not answer, so hung up w/o message.

To my surprise they called back next morning, we discussed observations, they monitored device, did not ask me to do stupid things I had already done, and decided quickly to send a replacement unit and antenna.

Replacement arrived quickly, installed as expected and initial symptoms fixed.  This TS experience is quite exceptional these days, and it has bought my loyalty to Emporia for some future years I expect.

I hope Product Dev has the same drive and ability to respond.  From research, VUE3 is what most people that bought earlier products needed.  Here are some of my observations and suggestions.

1.  Install Documentation and TS info was good, what I needed to validate if my situation was OK was a minimum signal strength for WI-FI, i.e. min -55 dB signal or whatever, because at -35dB it was barely working.  We were 3 feet away with phone when bluetooth syncing, and it would really only work when the phone was touching the WI-FI antenna.  We figured it out, but most EVRYONEs’ product TS manuals/info assume the hardware is good and the User is stupid, while the info you need to partition the problem is usually not there or even not easily found online except maybe in a forum.  Please consider that many of your customers may be quite technically skilled or at least have disciplines to allow some rational and logical problem solving.  PLEASE BE the company to enable them to quickly solve the local problem they need to fix with intelligent and full info for self troubleshooting.  This is a tech product.  Note that your TS callback for my problem was likely the only real solution to turnaround my temporally very poor perspective of Emporia, because I already recognized there was a product quality issue (which happens, no big deal), and then it seemed I was dealing with a overwhelmed and understaffed collective that can’t fix the hardware or SW issues the customers are reporting on forums and Amazon. I am better now that I am in the 60-75% of 5 stars instead of in the 5-10% of 1 stars.  Sorry, that is the world of today, lots of info and option.  Thanks again for getting me the product PROMISED quickly, even it it was TS that got to do it!

2.  I love and hate the info displays.  This is what I would prefer;

a)  “Balance” needs to be retitled.  I understand this may be tricky with solar or other products enabled.

b)  If “I” could EDIT “Balance” (like the editing the installed monitoring circuits), for my panel/sub-panel situation it would be “Sum of unmonitored circuits” or I might list some of the major items on those unmonitored circuit breakers.  You could allow editing, but force a prefix of you choosing to work across more situations.

c)  I WISH under the “Total Usage” on the HOME display line there was a drop down or a double click option that let you see the PHASE to PHASE balance or momentary current of each phase out of the panel.  I really expected this to be there so I could see how well my 2phase panel is balanced and hence the neutral load.  Big miss here, am I missing something or did you?  In my case I could relocate the big clamps to a monitored circuit to temporally watch, but you already have the data, just need the UI to show be both consumptions at same time or superimpose on each other ideally.  I could graph and print the watts usage by second then look at them together.

Being able to graph or select two/three circuits to superimpose over each other could also allow be a solution if enabled on 2/3 of the main phases from the “Graphed Circuit” menu option, and also some of the sub 2 & 3 pole circuits.  This device is about data collection and data understanding exclusively.  The ability to group and display 2/3 circuits without doing it in Excel is really fundamental.

d)  WHY soooooooo looooooonnnnnng to tie 240v (dual pole) display channels together?  VUE2 has been asking for a long time.  The VUE3 PM/SW  Manager needs a kick in the @*$$ for not having this in the initial VUE3 release.  TRY THIS… Use this installed feature that I can’t seem to make work……. Settings/Manage Devices/Select Your Panel/”Customer sort circuits on Home Screen”    IF THIS changed the display to “a reflection of the sort page layout” and NOT DYNAMICLY update based on highest usage, then you can easily group the 2 pole or 3 pole hardware with almost NO SW changes, and would keep the grouped items together.  Easy workaround and I personally find the constantly reorganizing screen a visual nuisance about half the time.

e)  Allow a setting to NOT allow the HOME display jump around due to max value (see “d)” above).  I don’t always what to watch a specific “graphed” circuit page by the second, and shell game of bouncing description does not let me focus on what I need to see.

f)  Why can’t I graph “Balance” data, as it is a collection of circuits like the monitored circuits.  Can’t clear it either.  I still wish to analyze and partition the circuits that are un monitored, and without the ability to graph the data I much open the panel and relocate circuit clamps.

g)  I appreciate the attempt to show voltage, even for the individual circuits.  I wish when you selected the “MAIN” in the “Graphed Circuit” dropdown it showed both (or three) phases to neutral and also Phase to Phase.  You could also display the Phase to Phase at the top line of the HOME page when showing Energy use in Volts.  This display is another example of why the dynamic display page is not a good choice for the user….all lines are showing the same voltage (could add another place or two to voltage display I think if the resolution/noise allows), but the display list keeps jumping around so unless you can visually scan all 16 circuits and understand the display values in the 3 seconds before the next update….so with the low resolution of the voltage value, this page is not a tool, just a cat toy.

Notice that many of the shortcomings are due to the data streams all being individual with NO ability to sort, group or overlay, because the dynamic display prevents a stable UI.  I do appreciate the simplicity of the display to convey lots of data, but I also recognize that the cool auto sort by consumption display has limited use and needs a turn off feature…..SOON.   Add the ability to see true main load balances dynamically in real time and or after the fact comparably w/o an excel export and this product would be a much better tool.  I think the ability to selectively overlay different  circuit graphing would be very useful, but I do understand this may be more difficult them yo want to do for a phone/laptop based application.

thanks

walt

 

 

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