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Post by Jason on Aug 4, 2021 4:00:46 GMT -8
Good morning all,
Blynk has finally released their long-awaited platform upgrade. As part of the upgrade, they have moved away from the energy model and adopted a simple monthly/annual subscription model. The free tier in their model doesn't include all widgets like super charts and device tabs. As a result, anyone using the SwitchDoc Labs Blynk app is pretty much forced to purchase the Plus plan at $60 USD per year. Long term, the new Blynk cost is much higher than the old energy model.
As a result, I'd like to solicit feedback from the community here to see what types of alternatives are available. Is anyone using, or planning to use, any alternative platforms? If so, what are they? Do they have mobile options?
Thanks,
Jason
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Post by SDL on Aug 6, 2021 10:30:08 GMT -8
Jason, et.al.,
We are completely supportive of moving away from Blynk on the Apps. They have made it pretty useless for the "pay once" mode and moved to the subscription model.
We are dropping Blynk support in V028 of SkyWeather and really need to choose something else. Our requirements are "one time reasonable purchase or fee", android and iOS support (app, not browser). Having a browser based interface too is a plus.
BP
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n7qnm
Junior Member
Posts: 80 
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Post by n7qnm on Sept 5, 2021 11:56:41 GMT -8
Just now reading this - for geeks among us, what about weewx? Granted, it won't for everyone; but, I'll actually be using MQTT to feed a copy of weewx for my system. My eventual intention is to replace my Accurite 5-n-1 as my "main" weather source.
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Post by SDL on Sept 5, 2021 16:54:59 GMT -8
I don't see that they have an App solution. The rest looks pretty good.
BP
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n7qnm
Junior Member
Posts: 80
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Post by n7qnm on Sept 14, 2021 12:32:41 GMT -8
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Post by SDL on Sept 15, 2021 12:03:14 GMT -8
Hmm. I like! I will investigate more. Not as cool as the Blynk app, but still usable.
BP
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n7qnm
Junior Member
Posts: 80
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Post by n7qnm on Sept 17, 2021 11:57:30 GMT -8
I like it :-) - but, then I also know my way around Python and databases pretty well.
My system (http://www.n7qnm.net/weewx/index.html) is currently fed by an Accurite 5-n-1 and "home grown" sunlight and air quality sensors. I'm using RTL-433 for the Accurite and REST for the Sunlight and AQI sensors.
My goal is to set up a separate instance of weewx for the SkyWeather2 and then eventually retire (or move) the Accurite (without the sun and AQI sensors). Not sure at this point if I'll grab the MQTT data or try to write weewx "ingest" code for the SkyWeather2
I'm a "data" guy, and so the "flat" data model in weewx (and in SkyWeather, no insult intended) makes me "twitch" a little bit. I may just start a personal project to "normalize" the weewx model so that it can handle multiple stations and different sensors.
One of my eventual goals is to get accurate enough insolation, evapotranspiration and soil moisture data to be able to directly control my irrigation system to apply "just enough" water.
I'll keep you posted!
Clay
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Post by festeraeb on Dec 16, 2021 7:40:58 GMT -8
a friend of mine uses this IoT service, it is opensource and free, However, there would need to be app development and I am not sure what kind of server access there might be. I havent programmed in a long time and I am just learning Python and Lua. I would imagine many of us could do a p2p type data sharing so it isnt all housed in one spot and could be a community cloud type system. It would all depend what kind of hobbyists/coders are in the group. openremote.io/ |
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Post by festeraeb on Dec 16, 2021 15:07:37 GMT -8
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Post by SDL on Dec 16, 2021 15:37:01 GMT -8
Festered,
There is merit to the Google sheet idea. We will be addressing this issue in the next 90 days.
BP
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n7qnm
Junior Member
Posts: 80
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Post by n7qnm on Dec 17, 2021 21:00:32 GMT -8
Adafruit IO (io.adafruit.com) also looks promising - I have that on my "to look at" list -if I do I'll post something here.
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Post by Jason on Dec 18, 2021 6:12:49 GMT -8
This has been my focus for the last month or so. Somewhere between an alpha and beta version and needs some more layout work as it has not been optimized for small screens. In the near term, I plan to tune the user interface to my liking. Longer term, I may take the layout and rebuild as a progressive web app using a JavaScript framework so I can get notifications and install it as an app on my phone. The app is running inside gunicorn and reads data cached in a Redis server. The Redis server is refreshed periodically from NodeRED and Airflow. NodeRED gets forecast information from OpenWeatherMap every fifteen minutes and caches the data. NodeRED also exposes a secure API that receives HTTP POST requests from local NodeRED that sends telemetry data from SkyWeather2 and WeatherRack2. The telemetry sent is stored in a PostgreSQL database. A daily Airflow job prunes off data older than 31 days. Another Airflow job caches history and aggregations such rain accumulation in the Redis server every minute. One of the Dash callbacks reads the cache every minute and stores the data in memory on the Dash server. The caching callback is the input to the callbacks that refresh the data within the various pages. I would be most appreciative if folks visited and provided feedback on the Dash app! Thanks, Jason
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Post by SDL on Dec 19, 2021 17:33:09 GMT -8
Jason,
Post your link!
BP
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Post by Jason on Dec 20, 2021 9:20:08 GMT -8
The address is www.climatestationmallory.com. After spending the weekend messing around with a more mobile-friendly layout, i'm left to conclude Dash is not real mobile-friendly lol. Jason |
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Post by Jason on Dec 21, 2021 5:15:49 GMT -8
In particular, the various components such as dash_daq.Gauge and dash_core_components.Graph don't seem to resize well on smaller screen. I'm considering the idea that maybe I can simply hide the graphs on smaller screens.
Thanks,
Jason
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