Inside a Powerpal

7/09/2024

I have a spare Powerpal sitting around. Powerpal is a simple energy monitoring device you install on your meter box, it works by counting the flashing rate of an LED. Simple and effective.

I thought it'd be cool to see what is inside.

This casing is welded shut and has non-replacable batteries. So opening it is destructive to the casing, but it still slides back together.





The device is powered by 2 double A batteries that have spot welded metal strips on them, and are glued together. These are easy to replace for someone comfortable with a soldering iron. I question why they didn't make them user replacable. My two guesses: they want you to buy more (they're over $100 each) and/or reduce tech support calls when the units batteries are replaced, as it seems to not have any non-volatile memory for user configurations.

The SOC is a nRF52840 with a 64MHz Cortex M4, 1MB flash and 256KB RAM, BLE and a ton of other peripherals that are not used. This seems very powerful for what it is.

I noticed the soldering of the sensor was very poor from the factory, so I fixed it while I was inside.





I'm integrating this into Home Assistant as the data is free to access from any bluetooth device.