# Strange signs comming in

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [6 January 2020 22:48 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989 "2020-01-06T22:48:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mrfox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mrfox](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Mrfox)\
**Post date:** [6 January 2020 22:48 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989/1 "2020-01-06T22:48:42Z")

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Hi,

I am trying to make a flow for reading data from an energy meter to a Grafana dashboard via Influxdb. I have a MBUS-USB converter, obviously connected to the USB port, transfering the signal from the HAN port. My problem is that I am getting in tons of signs that is unreadable, such as:

_ **le a�e a� a� a�$�! 3a�\<�! Ga� �! a� �# 4a� �# Ha� �#,B~~�** _

I also get the following sentece: _ **AIDON\_V0001 `�** _  
This is the name of the energy meter which makes me belive that the hardware is working as it should.

If I change the Input to Binary Buffers (instead of Ascii-strings) in the Serial In-node I get values like this:

[11, 65, 73, 68, 79, 78, 95, 86, 48, 48 …]

I don't belive this is Hexadecimals, it's something else..

I would like the message to look something like this:

{"Date\_Time":"2020-01-06 20:47:13",  
"Act\_Pow\_P\_Q1\_Q4":6673  
"Curr\_L1":7510  
"Volt\_L1":2314  
.......}

So, is there perhaps someone who has any idea how to solve this problem...? Maybe some code in a function-node...?

Best Regards  
Joakim

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [6 January 2020 22:52 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989/2 "2020-01-06T22:52:07Z")

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Looks like the serial speed is wrong.

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**Author:** ![fahrvergnuugen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/fahrvergnuugen/32/818_2.png) [@fahrvergnuugen](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/fahrvergnuugen)\
**Post date:** [7 January 2020 02:15 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989/3 "2020-01-07T02:15:19Z")

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+1 for trying different serial port baud rates. I see the same thing all the time when I have the wrong baud rate set and I try to use the serial monitor in Arduino IDE.

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**Author:** ![michaelblight](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/michaelblight/32/445_2.png) [@michaelblight](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/michaelblight)\
**Post date:** [7 January 2020 02:40 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989/4 "2020-01-07T02:40:56Z")

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Out of interest I Googled and saw there is an existing Node Red add-on [node-red-contrib-ams-decoder](https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-ams-decoder) that might be worth trying rather than reinventing the wheel. The page says it works with Aidon meters, although I have no knowledge of it.

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**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [7 January 2020 07:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989/5 "2020-01-07T07:16:20Z")

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That array is the decimal equivalent of AIDON... which suggests the baud rate is correct. Can you post a bit more of the array please so we can see exactly what comes next?

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**Author:** ![Mrfox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mrfox](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Mrfox)\
**Post date:** [7 January 2020 17:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/strange-signs-comming-in/19989/6 "2020-01-07T17:01:01Z")

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Success!!

Thanks alot for your help! I now receive the data in correct syntax thanks to the Node AMS Decoder Aidion. I was not aware of the existance of such "down to detail" nodes.

Great forum and participants!

Again, Thanks!

All the best,  
Joakim