New homepage and building blocks website

Organisation
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21

Yep I think it would be a good idea to have a the link int the SolarPV guide too.

Simon

22

Can the Home icon be added back?

It was one click to get to the “latest” topics by clicking the Home. Now it’s a few clicks or scrolling to the top and then clicking Community.

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Thank you! Jon

PS - I really like the new changes. The Archived was a good idea to get to the old forum!

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23

Hi @Jon , I’ve put it back. Thanks for the feedback.

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24

I have read through the Electricity Monitoring section of Learn again, reviewing the content, fixing broken links and adding ‘status’ notes to some of the older content in the other software section. I have also tried to improve the structure and ordering with numbering and ‘advanced’ labels in the navigation. Im generally happy now with all sections and I think its a large improvement over building blocks. I think the main questions / development points I still have are:

  • Is CT Sensor installation better suited for the guide?

  • I have updated the page on RFM12/69, I think it could still be better put together as a more comprehensive guide but perhaps sufficient for now

  • The RTD sensing page in the temperature sensing section is perhaps a little bit away from the standard OEM approach and the design and guide does probably need some more thorough work around calibration, lookup tables etc that I never worked more on as I switched to DS18B20 temperature sensors. It may be better to drop this section if there is agreement that its usefulness is limited. Perhaps a page for a personal github notebook.

  • In the Emoncms internals section: Architecture provides a good overview of how the basic framework of emoncms is built providing a build from scratch tutorial which fits well with learns intention. Global variables and Developing a new module are perhaps better suited to emoncms documentation rather than Learn but there is overlap here that may make it better just to have this section all in one place. The Input processing has been written as more a Learn type first principles guide.

  • In the Other Software section: I think there is useful content here on android app development that may provide a useful starting point for someone – they are perhaps a bit out of date now, I’m not familiar with how the latest android and iOS apps have been built to evaluate.

All together we have removed the following pages that are currently in building blocks:

http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/buildingblocks

  • Setting up the arduino environment - to be replace with platform IO guide.
  • Working with Nucleo STM32103 under Linux, development (more suitable for a development notes location).
  • Power in different countries (links to Wikipedia)
  • Arduino sketch - current only (link replaced to EmonLib repo)
  • Arduino sketch – voltage and current (link replaced to EmonLib repo)
  • Appliance inference – labs moved to https://github.com/emoncms/development/tree/master/experimental/appliance_inference
  • Extracting data from SMA SunnyBoy PV Inverters (Bluetooth) – needs updating
  • Water monitoring example – needs updating a lot of older content on emontx v2 and nanode
  • RFM12B part 1 and RFM69CW replaced with single RFM12/69 overview.
  • XBEE (very old)
  • ASK RF link (very old)
  • Dev: Arduino Master/slave simple serial networking (very old)
  • Raspberry Pi WIFI (old replaced with emonSD WIFI)
  • Displays 7segment, Nokia 3310 (very old)
  • Storage: USB Pen drive data-logging, SD Card logging (very old)
  • Relay (stub)
  • Tutorial - programming a Nanode using Arduino board (old/nanode)
25

Trystan hi,

I took a look at the front page again today and it’s looking great. Congratulations on a great job.

The reason I was there was to track down emonESP for the STM32 discussion but I had difficulty finding it. I could find the community discussions about the firmware etc. but couldn’t find how to set one up. Could you add this somewhere?

Also when I clicked on energy use I landed in the guide and then couldn’t get back to the main page. Shouldn’t there be a home button on the lower pages like there is on the community page. And also should there be a search?

Simon

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26

Most of the emonesp info is on GitHub

27

Yeah, found it there Paul but thought it might be something that should be more upfront. At least a link to it. Maybe where Trystan has been revising the comms as this is an option to rfm and serial, so should be mentioned there.

Simon

28

Do you mean EmonESP for ESP8266? The STM32 is a separate platform, that EmonESP does not support.

EmonESP is intentionally not upfront since it’s still in development and not ‘officially’ released. We don’t sell any units with EmonESP pre-installed yet. Feel free to have a play, it works well it’s just not ready yet. Much more documentation and user guide will be added before we launch a unit with EmonESP software onboard.

29

Glyn, it was obviously late when you read my post - I said ‘emonESP for the STM32 discusssion’. Obviously the emonESP has nothing to do with an STM32 platform.

emonESP is like the serial connection, it is an alternative to the rfm comms solution between the pi and emonTX/TH nodes. So it should be in the guides and learning section ‘as is’. It might not be ‘ready’ for you guys to make money out of but as you say in your reply, ‘it works well’, so should be included in the guides. The 2 solar diversion solutions work well but aren’t part of the commercial enterprise but they are in the guides and learning sections because they are valuable resources.

30

Apologies, I was not aware of the STM32 discussion.

Yup, I agree it would be good to get it into the learn section. IHowever the emonESP is still under active development and not at all finalised. It’s not about making money; it’s more a support issue. The EmonESP code may well change significantly in the near future as we develop the platform, we haven’t got the resources to support it or document it extensively in its current beta state.

31

Neither is Martin’s solar diversion code… Let people see what’s there. The emonESP in it’s current incarnation is a great bit of community development and should be highlighted even if it may change.

Simon

32

Can you explain?

33

If I go here → Home | OpenEnergyMonitor

and then the link at the bottom of the page to PV diversion, both the versions of the diversion schemes are there and are not supported except through the community. So I don’t get the idea that because the emonESP code isn’t developed enough to be made into a product it shouldn’t be alongside the other methods of connecting emonTX/THs to Pi’s i.e. alongside the info on rfm and serial. As Glyn says in his post it works pretty well as it is, so some people may find it useful and it rounds out the section on comms.

TBH I don’t really care either way except that things that are useful should be easy to find. emonESP isn’t currently, so I thought I’d give you guys a heads up that you while you are making the improvements to the site, this might be one you would want to fix.

Simon

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34

I detect a theme in your reply that I find a little disturbing. For the record, neither I (particularly as I contributed the documentation about the types of PV diversion, fully documented Martin Roberts’ diverter, contributed part of Robim Emley’s diverter, and a lot of Building Blocks) nor any of the other moderators are in the pay of OEM, nor do we control what is published here.

In the particular case of Martin Roberts’ diverter, it was developed and published long before ESP made an appearance, and I doubt that Martin wants to rehash his design now. So I’m still not sure why you lumped it in with a comment about not being able to find anything about ESP.

If you want to modify Martin’s or any other code to work another way or with a different interface to the outside world, feel free to do so and while you’re at it, document it and publish it.

35

Robert, not sure where you’re getting the hump from but apologies if I’ve said anything that might offend. Given as you say, you are a moderator and don’t control what’s published on the new front page and learn.openenergy, maybe it would be better to let Glyn decide if they want to put the emonESP in the comms section.

I know very well that Martin’s code was published before the ESP - and I’m sure no one would want to rehash the design to fit on an ESP alone as it won’t hack it. The emonESP is to quote from GtiHub ‘ESP8266 WIFI serial to emoncms link’. It only does the comms. Takes in the serial output from an emonTX or emonTH and sends it by WiFi to emoncms.

My comment about Martin’s code was as an example of community developments that have been published on the new learn and resources pages and was in response to Glyn’s suggestion that it was still under development therefore shouldn’t be published even though it did work pretty well.

Finally I have modified Martin’s code and have on several occasions made my changes (to handle more temperature sensors) available to folks discussing the code on the old forum.

Simon

36

I understand your point @Bramco about highlighting potentially useful content. EmonESP is one such development that has perhaps now reached a level that for the advanced user is useful to know about. We need to think about the best location for it and how to best add it in and then write the suitable documentation…

I also note your point about linking to the SolarPV diversion from the SolarPV guide, a note perhaps of the form "You may also be interested in PV Diversion see Learn: PV Diversion "

I feel there also needs to be a place to link things that are still in development. A list of ongoing OpenEnergyMonitor development projects - where no requirements are made of documentation quality, support etc

37

We have updated http://openenergymonitor.org to point to the new home page today and I’ve implemented the redirect map on the old building blocks so that URL’s map through to the correct locations in Learn.

Im logging failed redirects so that we can fix any that I’ve missed.

38

That would be a great idea, or maybe even if you could include things like emonESP (and maybe it might be better to rename it to avoid the sort of confusion above) but have some way of indicating that they are still in development, e.g. an * or some other symbol.

I mentioned putting the emonTX link in with rfm and serial because I seem to remember seeing a section on this on the new site. I’ve not been through all of the pages of course and may be wrong but something along the lines of… Anyone having issues with rfm connections could try the serial connection or emonESP…

Anyway, great work and very nice design - it’s a credit to whoever has done all the hard work.

Simon

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39

Talking to @glyn.hudson suggested that a sticky thread on the top of the labs forum listing all active developments could work providing a page that was much like the intention of this old labs page: Home | OpenEnergyMonitor

40

Here’s the new home page now live :smiley: at https://openenergymonitor.org :tada:

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As @TrystanLea mentioned above the building block links are being re-directed to learn, e.g:

https://openenergymonitor.org/emon/buildingblocks/ct-sensors-introduction

now re-directs to

https://learn.openenergymonitor.org/electricity-monitoring/ac-power-theory/introduction

A note alerting the user has is added to the top of the page if it’s visited via a re-direct:

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Please us know if you spot any errors