DTZ541 Power Meter Magnetic Mount

The DTZ541 is a common meter in Germany that provides an infrared transceiver to read information off the reader, e.g., for integration with Home Assistant. There are several IR heads available that can be bought preassembled, often variations of the Volkszähler design (I'm using the Hichi head).

The sensors are generally mounted with a magnet (meters have the counter part integrated). However, the round head was finicky to position correctly and a pull on the cable can cause bad readings.

The DTZ541 has extra nodges next to the IR window. This model is a case for the IR head (tested with the Hichi one) that takes advantage of these nodges for easy and more robust positioning. The additional space can be used to add a cable strap as additional pull relief.

I have custom code to read the meter via ESPHome available in my meters repo.

Print Instructions

This should be an easy print. I have used PETG, but any other material should work just as well.

Assembly Instructions

1- Print and layout parts

2- Place magnet at bottom

3- Insert IR sensor board. It's tight (by design), try to push down evenly. Be careful with the LED and sensor at the bottom of the port that they properly insert into the case. Go slow to avoid damage to the board.

4- Solder the cable onto the board

5- Add cable strap as pull relief (optional, image above already has that)

Now the cable can be routed, e.g., outside the metallic fuse box to a ESP32 board for better wifi reception. I also have a case for a ESP32 board with external antenna. If you have your box usually open you can also use a version with an ESP01 mounted directly on the sensor, for which I also provide a variation of this case.