Newbie question for measurement

[M4tRiX92]

Hi all,

I want to contribute some light measurements.
Unfortunately the measurement is not that easy as I thought.

What I have done:

• Docker installed and running
• create folder "powercalc-measure"
• downloaded the env.dist and moved it to the created folder
• edited the env.dist (I will use the hue brdige and a shelly - so I added those ip addresses

Now I want to start the measurement via powershell.
command: "docker version" is ok

command
docker run --rm --name=measure_new --env-file=env.dist -v ${PWD}/export:/app/export -v ${PWD}/.persistent:/app/.persistent -it bramgerritsen/powercalc-measure:latest

Here I got the following crazy output:

What I have done wrong?

I saw that I can set the answers to the questions in the env.dist.
Is there an example for hue lights?

COLOR_MODE=color_temp

GENERATE_MODEL_JSON=true

GZIP=true

MULTIPLE_LIGHTS=false

LIGHT_ENTITY_ID=xx

MEASURE_DEVICE=Shelly Plug S

NUM_LIGHTS=1

LIGHT_MODEL_ID=xx

MODEL_NAME=xx

DUMMY_LOAD=true

POWERMETER_ENTITY_ID=sensor.my_power

RESUME=true

[M4tRiX92]

alright. Powershell ISE was the problem.

With the windows terminal the script is running. Now I have to check why only 0 watt are measured...
" 0 watt was read from the power meter"

[M4tRiX92]

Is the Shelly Plus Plug S supported as measuring device?
I just get 0 watt values and after sometime the measurement stops :(
I tried it with the Hue Resonate 1746430P7

Thanks for any help

[M4tRiX92]

Hi - thanks for your answer.

So at the moment I just use a single Shelly Plus Plug S and have connected one Hue Resonate.

I could not find any example for a dummy load or something like that. I thought the measure process is easier😂

[DellanX]

It's easier to setup, but harder to get results.

There is a few commented out lines of code in the measure scripts configuration file for "nudge"

I added those when I was struggling to get nonzero readings from the measure script. Id try tinkering with those settings if you can't use a group of lights or a dummy load.

Note that some plugs will round down really small power readings to zero, so a dummy load is probably your most accurate fix

[bramstroker]

I already used Shelly Plug S for the measurements I made myself. It will pick up power draws > 0.3W. So probably the light you are measuring is consuming less than that on lower brightness levels.
You can use a dummy load as @DellanX suggested, the measure script provides an option to subtract that dummy load.
You can also try setting MIN_BRIGHTNESS=5 or even some higher value, and see if it picks up correct values. To see at least the shelly plug S is reporting correctly and connection is working.

[M4tRiX92]

Important I do have a Shelly PLUS Plug S. I don't know if this is working as well.
I tried it with different settings.
MIN_BRIGHTNESS=5 and with a Dummy load - but it is still getting canceled :(

2024-08-29 12:30:41,928 [INFO] Measured power: -6.06 2024-08-29 12:30:41,928 [INFO] Changing light to: HsVariation(bri=20, hue=43697, sat=129) 2024-08-29 12:31:09,785 [WARNING] Discarding measurement: 0 watt was read from the power meter 2024-08-29 12:31:09,785 [INFO] Changing light to: HsVariation(bri=20, hue=46428, sat=129) 2024-08-29 12:31:42,818 [WARNING] Discarding measurement: 0 watt was read from the power meter 2024-08-29 12:31:42,819 [INFO] Changing light to: HsVariation(bri=20, hue=49159, sat=129) 2024-08-29 12:32:08,785 [WARNING] Discarding measurement: 0 watt was read from the power meter 2024-08-29 12:32:08,785 [INFO] Changing light to: HsVariation(bri=20, hue=51890, sat=129) 2024-08-29 12:32:42,573 [WARNING] Discarding measurement: 0 watt was read from the power meter 2024-08-29 12:32:42,573 [INFO] Progress: 6%, Estimated time left: 5.1h 2024-08-29 12:32:42,574 [INFO] Changing light to: HsVariation(bri=20, hue=54621, sat=129) 2024-08-29 12:33:07,092 [WARNING] Discarding measurement: 0 watt was read from the power meter 2024-08-29 12:33:07,092 [INFO] Changing light to: HsVariation(bri=20, hue=57352, sat=129) 2024-08-29 12:33:32,592 [WARNING] Discarding measurement: 0 watt was read from the power meter 2024-08-29 12:33:32,592 [ERROR] Aborting measurement session. Received too many 0 readings 2024-08-29 12:33:32,598 [ERROR] Some error occurred during the measurement session 2024-08-29 12:33:32,666 [INFO] Measuring standby power. Waiting for 20 seconds... 2024-08-29 12:34:18,423 [ERROR] Measured 0 watt as standby usage, continuing now, but you probably need to have a look into measuring multiple lights at the same time or using a dummy load. Traceback (most recent call last): File "/app/measure.py", line 329, in <module> main() File "/app/measure.py", line 321, in main measure.start() File "/app/measure.py", line 150, in start extra_json_data=runner_result.model_json_data, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'model_json_data'

[bramstroker]

That's very strange, Shelly Plug S should work just fine. Which powermeter did you configure using the measure tool? shelly or hass? Do you see any other values than 0 when checking your shelly plug S in HA or with the shelly app?

[svobi3007]

I'm also new and have similar problems - struggeling with nudge. I tried different settings in the .env but the measurement always stuck an get canceled. Are there more parameters for the .env file then in the repo example env.dist?

[bramstroker]

Thanks for jumping in, and welcome 😊

Few questions.

• What kind of smart power meter you are using for the measurements?
• What are trying to measure?
• How does the cli output look?

[svobi3007]

PM is a Shelly 1PM Gen3 and I want to measure a Philips Hue Adore Wall. I also added a dummy load = 25W bulb.

MEASURE_DEVICE=Shelly 1PM Gen3
MODEL_ID=929003056801
MODEL_NAME=Hue Adore wall

I tried different settings. This is the latest log:

2025-11-28 18:31:04,661 [INFO] Total number of variations: 1344
2025-11-28 18:31:04,662 [INFO] Starting measurements. Estimated duration: 50.7m
2025-11-28 18:31:04,665 [INFO] Turning on light with maximum brightness
2025-11-28 18:31:08,753 [INFO] Start taking measurements for color mode: color_temp
2025-11-28 18:31:08,754 [INFO] Waiting 10 seconds...
2025-11-28 18:31:18,751 [INFO] Progress: 0%, Estimated time left: 50.7m
2025-11-28 18:31:18,752 [INFO] Changing light to: ColorTempVariation(bri=50, ct=153)
2025-11-28 18:31:30,922 [WARNING] Measurement is stuck, Nudging
2025-11-28 18:31:52,124 [WARNING] Measurement is stuck, Nudging
2025-11-28 18:32:03,349 [INFO] Average measurement: 0.942 W
2025-11-28 18:32:03,350 [INFO] Measured power: 0.94
2025-11-28 18:32:03,350 [INFO] Changing light to: ColorTempVariation(bri=50, ct=163)
2025-11-28 18:32:15,516 [WARNING] Measurement is stuck, Nudging
2025-11-28 18:32:26,645 [INFO] Average measurement: 0.942 W
2025-11-28 18:32:26,645 [INFO] Measured power: 0.94
2025-11-28 18:32:26,645 [INFO] Changing light to: ColorTempVariation(bri=50, ct=173)
2025-11-28 18:32:38,798 [WARNING] Measurement is stuck, Nudging
2025-11-28 18:33:00,005 [WARNING] Measurement is stuck, Nudging
2025-11-28 18:33:21,204 [WARNING] Measurement is stuck, Nudging
2025-11-28 18:33:42,507 [ERROR] Aborting: Power measurement is outdated. Aborting after 3 nudged retries

[bramstroker]

It should work fine with a Shelly 1PM Gen3, that’s a very common device used for Powercalc measurements.

Looking at your log output, it seems the real issue is that the Shelly is not providing fresh power readings. Powercalc repeatedly receives an outdated value, tries to continue, then eventually starts nudging (briefly switching to another setting) to force a new reading. Normally this shouldn’t be necessary, as a Shelly 1PM Gen3 should publish updates roughly every second.

A few things to check:

How are you connecting to the Shelly?
Are you using the direct HTTP polling mode (POWER_METER=shelly)? This is important as it circumvents any latency issues.

Shelly update frequency settings
In the Shelly web UI → Settings → Eco Mode, ensure Eco Mode is disabled, because Eco Mode can drastically reduce the reporting rate or delay measurements.
You can also check the API yourself. Go to: http://{shelly_ip}/status. And watch the meters->timestamp property. It should update every second.

Shelly firmware
Make sure you’re on the latest firmware. Some Gen3 versions had sporadic reporting freezes which were fixed in later releases.

Wi-Fi signal / latency
If Shelly has poor Wi-Fi signal, it may miss sending updates or delay packets. You can check RSSI in the Shelly UI.

Check if readings update live in the Shelly UI
Open the Shelly’s local web page and see if the displayed wattage changes in real-time when you toggle the light manually.
If the UI itself updates slowly, Powercalc will naturally also get stale readings.