New stable release of WebSolarLog (version 1.1.0)

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Today we “released” version 1.1.0 of WebSolarLog.

Under the hood this version is the last trunk release (which we think is/was very stable) with 2 small changes in the Live api call.

These change don’t effect the core of WebSolarLog so we though that we could add them.
Howto update;
  • Login to your admin
  • Go to Update
  • Here you will see the new version 1.1.0
  • Click the radio button of this release
  • Click update
  • Wait a few minutes and your WebSolarLog is on the new stable version.

You also could download the full release on SourceForge;

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/websolarlog/mT7LyCPHEZs

Howto configure Devices and Communication items

WebSolarLog uses Devices and Communication items to contact and communicate with the connected devices.

First you need to creat a communication item in Admin::Communication.
Here you give the item a name and fillout the URI.

Here are some examples for the URI:
Weather device:
http://openweathermap.org/data/2.5/find?units=metrics&cnt=1&mode=json 
This is the url to the OpenWeatherMap API

Inverter device example:
/home/pi/aurora-1.8.3/aurora -l5 -M5 /dev/ttyUSB0
This is the path to the location where Aurora is installed including the timeout, max-runtime parameters and the path to the USB-RS485 converter.

Another example for SBFSpot;
/path/to/SBFspot/bin/Release/./SBFspot
For specific parameter and info/help check the manual of the scripts/program you use.

In all cases WebSolarLog adds the nessesary parameters to the uri.

After that you need to save the item and create a Device in Admin::Devices.

Here you choose which device you want to use and configure it to use the previouse created Communication Item.

Now you could test the config in Admin::Communication, select the Communication item and which device to use and hit “Start Test”.

Log your Delta Solivia Inverter

WebSolarLog is a Webbased Solar logger and compatible with almost every Delta Solivia inverter.

We tested the logger with the following Delta Solivia inverters:

  • Delta Solivia 2.5
  • Delta Solivia 3.3
  • Delta Solivia 5.0

Based on our test results, we can say that WebSolarLog probably work on all Delta Solivia inverters.

If your solar inverter is not in the list above, and you have succesfully tested your Delta Solivia inverter with WebSolarLog, we would appreciate a comment. We then add your Delta Solivia type to the list with tested devices.

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/

Fix a corrupt WSL database

Fix a corrupt WSL database

In this article we describe how to fix a corrupt WebSolarLog SQLite database.
This guide is only for SQLite databases, please see your Admin::Diagnostics to see on which database type your WebSolarLog is running.
1.

First WE NEED TO MAKE a BACKUP of the database

Go to the WebSolarLog/database directory on your server/host

Stop WSL;
WebSolarLog/scripts/wsl.sh stop
Creat backup of wsl.sdb;
cp wsl.sdb wsl_backup.sdb

Move the original database;
mv wsl.sdb wsl_original.sdb

2.

Lets do it!

Assuming that you are still in the WebSolarLog/database/ directory, run the following commands;
sqlite3 wsl_backup.db

We first run the following integrity command to make sure the database needs some repairs. On the SQLite prompt you run:
pragma integrity_check;

If the result is OK, the database is not corrupted and needs no further actions.

you can quit SQLite by :
.quit

restore the old database;
mv wsl_original.sdb wsl.sdb

If you have error messages you could proceed to Next Steps.

3.

Export Data to plaintext file

To export the WebSolarLog data to an plaintext sql file, run the following commands:

echo .dump | sqlite3 wsl_backup.sdb > wsl_plaintext.sql

Now we have a plaintext file with readable SQL data/commands. You could read the file;
nano wsl_plaintext.sql
4.

Create a new WSL database

Now we have a plaintext file with the data, we need to create a new database

To create a new WSL database, just run the following command:

cat wsl_plaintext.sql | sqlite3 wsl.sdb

This command creates a new WSL database with the original data from the corrupt database.

5.

We are Ready!

If there are no errors, then we could start WSL;

WebSolarLog/scripts/wsl.sh start

For further support, please visite our support group;
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/websolarlog

Data importer for 123solar

Very often we get the question;
I want to use WebSolarLog, but how could i migrate my data?

Based on user input we already introduced the data-importer for 123aurora and now we also made a importer for 123solar.

The data migration tools can be found in the utils folder of WebSolarLog;
/utils/importer.php (for 123aurora)
/utils/importerV2.php (for 123solar)

We also have plans to create a importer for SMAspot, we have no release date for this importer.

Log your Kostal Piko Solar Inverter

WebSolarLog is a PV logger and compatible with almost every Kostal Piko inverter that has an Ethernet connection.

We tested the logger with the following Kostal inverters:

  • Kostal Piko 3.0 (1 phase)
  • Kostal Piko 4.2 (3 phase)
  • Kostal Piko 5.5 (3 phase)
  • Kostal Piko 7.0 (3 phase)
  • Kostal Piko 8.3 (3 phase)
  • Kostal Piko 10.1 (3 phase)

Based on our test results, we can say that WebSolarLog probably work on all Kostal inverters with an Ethernet connection.

If your solar inverter is not in the list above, and you have succesfully tested your Kostal inverter with WebSolarLog, we would appreciate a comment. We then add your Kostal type to the list with tested devices.

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/

Raspbian + WSL image 2013-05-2013

Today I have created a new image off raspbian with WSL added.

What is changed?

  • The pi home folder contains a symlink to the nginx folder
  • Updated websolarlog to the latest trunk (build 928)
  • Raspbian almost to the latest version (please do an apt-get update to get the altest)
  • Removed lots off unused files (around 600mb of files)
  • Installed an init script so WSL start after restarting the rpi

Please give any comments in de the google forums.

(Want to upgrade the old image? Information on the second page.)

After installation of the image, please run the following commands;

  1. sudo chown www-data:www-data /usr/share/nginx/www/websolarlog/
  2. sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/share/nginx/www/websolarlog/
Rasberry Pi WebSolarLog Trunk 20130531 (304.0 MiB, 3452 downloads)

md5-Checksum:
2acd4a9740072566913a70415ebac1bc

Weather Forecast: after rain comes sunshine

Recently we added support for the free “OpenWeatherMap – free weather data and forecast API” to WebSolarLog.

With the data from OWM we can do a lot of cool stuff;

  • Display the current weather conditions
  • Display the weather forecast for X days
  • Solar calculations based on the “real(time)” outside temperature
  • Push your local weather condition to PVoutput
  • Maybe a kWh forecast based on cloud conditions
  • and many many more

How to configure WebSolarLog for OWM:

  1. Go to the Admin
  2. Go to the General tab
  3. Fill the Lat and Long field
  4. Save the General settings
  5. Go to the Inverters tab
  6. Click the button “new inverter” i know it is odd, we do some magic and change the “inverter” into a weather station 😉 )
  7. Give the “inverter” a name, example; “Weather Station”
  8. Change Device Api into “Open Weather Map”
  9. Change Device type info “Weather”
  10. Save the inverter
  11. We are done with the configuration of the Weather station.

From now WebSolarLog will retrieve every 5 minutes the realtime weather conditions for your location based on the location you gave in Admin::General

At the moment WebSolarLog doesn’t show the weather data, but this will change in de near feature.

Announcement: WebSolarLog troubles in combination with SMAspot

The last days we heard from users that they have troubles with Websolarlog in combination with SMAspot.We investigated a few of these issues and our conclusion is;
WebSolarLog is not compatible with other versions then SMAspot 2.0.4We strongly advice all WebSolarLog users with SMAspot to only use “SMAspot 2.0.4” until we have solved this issue.

At the moment we work, with the SMAspot developers, on a SMAspot version which is fully compatible with WebSolarLog for now and the future.

We apologize for this issue and hope to solve it soon.