Hi
We have our monitoring system more or less up and running.
We are modelling gas consumption against environment to establish the most efficient way of controlling under floor heating in several different buildings on a heat main.
This is going to be important for us so one of my immediate concerns is data security. Can the data be backed up either from emoncms.org or a local emoncms running on a Pi? On a similar note can you access the actual numbers in the data base? Our most important number is gas consumption which we are logging as the time any particular demand solenoid is on. Sometimes the numbers are clearer than a graph. i.e. we are hoping to compare average gas consumption for a week along with the average outside temperature for the same week. We will then change the control strategy and compare the results.
Regards
Ian
Re: Can you back up data?
Personally if the value of the data is that high to you, I would not rely on a free service provided by emoncms.org.
I would want to have control of my own destiny and would be running my own instance of emoncms that I can ensure has a robust backup plan.
I would then google "backing up mysql database" and look to having a regular backup in place via a cron script.
Make sure you export the backup to a different disk, other wise it isn't a very good backup. So on the RaspberryPI you would need to either attach a usb disk or backup to a network attached disk.
Running your own emoncms will also allow you access to the raw data in the database, you could do this via the command line (again google is your friend - "command line mysql") or by installing a webfront end e.g. http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php
Given you are using emoncms for gas perhaps you could look to add some more information to the gas monitoring page
http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/379 which is rather lacking in information.
Re: Can you back up data?
Many thanks.
I am working towards setting up on a RaspberryPI. I have installed phpmyadmin as you suggested. The install went well. I am now trying to use it. It appears I am using the wrong user name. I assumed pi as the user name and I am sure I am using the correct password but it will not let me in.
When I get it all running I hope I can copy the database files to our Windows network server where we have an automatic backup routine that creates duplicate backups on hard drives and DVD's
With regard to a write up I am happy to do that when I have finished the set up if you think it will be of benefit to anybody. However I am not monitoring a gas meter. Initially I monitored the temperature of the under floor heating feed pipes to establish when the heating was on but found that the difference in temperature between on and off was too small to be a reliable indicator. I have just fitted some tiny relays on the 240v solenoids to switch inputs on the emontx to signal heating is on.
I must say that the design of the emontx is first class with availability of extra inputs on the P headers.
Re: Can you back up data?
Update.
Just remembered the config user name was root. I am now in.
Re: Can you back up data?
emoncms has got a function to sync data between emoncms accounts on different servers for backup: http://openenergymonitor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/data-portability-version-1-complete.html.
Currently we don't backup emoncms.org, for important applications we recommend you run your own emoncms sever and implement your own backups.