dataMine manual - last update 8 May 2013

Plugins & Plugin Development Unmaintained
1

Last manual update 8 May 2013

I’ve updated the dataMine “manual” to reflect the current version (actually, it reflects some of the changes that will be in the next version).

[url=http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_datamine/raw-attachment/wiki/WikiStart/dataMine%20Overview.pdf]http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_datamine/raw-attachment/wiki/WikiStart/dataMine%20Overview.pdf[/url]

As always, comments appreciated…

Cheers
Chris

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Would be nice to have this sort of doco for the rest of the system! You may want to add the following into Table 2: Default USB configuration:

“Vera 3 /dev/sda1 /dev/ttyUSB0 Using external Z-Wave dongle”

Early Australian Vera units often used an external Z-Wave dongle. These dongles suit the different frequency band that’s allocated to Z-Wave devices in AU. As a consequence of the different band allocated by the Government, we have access to about a twentieth of the available Z-Wave devices seen in other countries and we pay about double for those ones we can purchase in Australia. Plus we end up with less one USB slot!! Revolution is the only answer.

3

Thanks @a-lurker.

Can I just clarify what you mean. If you have to put in an external dongle, I assume that takes up one of the USB ports, and therefore only one is available - does the dongle have to go in a particular socket or can it move (hence why you’ve given me mount points for both sockets). If it’s restricted to a single socket, then it’s probably less confusing to simply put the mount point for the remaining socket.

Cheers
Chris

4

Hi Chris

No the dongle can go in either socket:

http://docs5.mios.com/doc.php?language=1&manual=1&platform=3Pro&page=changing_zwave_port

So I would suggest the info could be expanded to:

“Vera 3 /dev/sda1 /dev/ttyUSB0 Using an external Z-Wave dongle in the bottom socket”
“Vera 3 /dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/sda1 Using an external Z-Wave dongle in the top socket”

Note that I have never tried this second option, only the first, so I am just assuming that the second option works the way I have described.

5

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the manual, well done! You should make this post stick on top as it will answer most questions. It really made me understand how to put the settings.

I changed energyWholeHouseMin value and now I get a graph showing both negative and positive values, I really like this as I have solar-panels. Could you for future release show more colors in the whole-house gauge as in the attached example?

Mark

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Hi Mark,
Good stuff - glad you’ve got it working. Yes, this post probably should be sticky - not sure I can do that, but I’ll drop Florin a message and see what’s up…

I’ll take a look at increasing the colours - it’s relatively easy to do, but I just need to make sure that it also works ok for those of us unlucky enough to have PV :wink:

Cheers
Chris

7

Chris,

Thanks a lot for the plugin and the docs! It’s definitly the best plugin for Vera!

One small noteon the USB ports: at my Vera3, the upper port is /dev/sda.

Keep on the great work!

8

Hi @cnm,
Thanks for your kind comments.

I’ve since learnt that the physical ports (upper or lower socket) are not directly related to the locations (/dev/sda etc). They change “occasionally” - I’m not really sure why, but it’s not constant. The mounting system is being changed to use the USB identifier which is the recommended mount system under Linux.

I’ve updated the manual - I just need to upload it…

Cheers
Chris

9

I’m not much of an expert at Vera but this plugin looks really handy.

I’m confused between the install description at: Datamine Graphing and Logging Plugin and the Datamine Overview.pdf.
The web says to do all sorts of file copying to get the files in the right place. That’s above my comfort level but I could probably struggle thru it if its still required.
But the pdf says to just install the plugin?
I assume the PDF is more up to date?

I plugged a spare USB stick into the 2nd slot of my Vera2 (1st slot is for loggin by Vera) but no “GUI” comes up to configure it.
The PDF says “You should then run the GUI and you will” on page 2. But what GUI should I run?

After installing the plugin, Vera comes up with a device that does not at all match Figure 2 of the PDF.

I have a device similar to figure 3 but the mountlocation and mounttype are blank and there are 0 channels.

What do I do now?

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[quote=“DrZWave, post:9, topic:173771”]I’m confused between the install description at: Datamine Graphing and Logging Plugin and the Datamine Overview.pdf.
The web says to do all sorts of file copying to get the files in the right place. That’s above my comfort level but I could probably struggle thru it if its still required.
But the pdf says to just install the plugin?
I assume the PDF is more up to date?[/quote]
Yes, the stuff on the web is for the old version (UI4) that is still used by some. It does say this right at the top of the page. For UI5, the PDF is the source to use.

[quote=“DrZWave, post:9, topic:173771”]I plugged a spare USB stick into the 2nd slot of my Vera2 (1st slot is for loggin by Vera) but no “GUI” comes up to configure it.
The PDF says “You should then run the GUI and you will” on page 2. But what GUI should I run?[/quote]
The dataMine GUI can be found by clicking the “dataMine graphing page” link from the plugin. You should click this to get to the GUI, and this should also bring up the other windows you’re missing (eg Fig 2).

Cheers
Chris

11

Thanks Chris!
That’s all I needed was a little clue on getting started.
I am now capturing nice looking graphs for all my devices!
Easy to use once I got it going.
Thanks!

12

Hi and thanks for a greate plugin!

I’m using dataMine with the Vera USB logging and have a separate USB stick for dataMine. (Have a powered USB hub with 2 USB sticks + RFXtrx433 connected).
Everything is working fine.

Now I would like to power down my VERAlite to perform a antenna modification.
I have searched everyware to find information about how I should power off the VERAlite safely to avoid corruption of the USB drive.
I already corrupted one USB stick when I detached my VERAlite to paired with some z-wave device in battery mode so to avoid doing it again please let me know how to safely power down VERAlite in these different usecases.

Maby this information could be included in a future version of the documentation to avoid problems.

Best regards,

Tomas

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Chris,

Do you keep a change log anywhere? I’d be interested to keep up with the changes from version to version.

Having selected the “Auto-Update” toggle, I’m now up to version 0.98. Just wondering what the nature of the changes from version to version might apply when debugging other things. I’d like to keep up on your latest versions - as it’s a great app as others have also said - so a change log might be helpful.

Thanks for your great work!
-Mike

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I was not patient enought to wait for an answere to my question “how I should power off the VERAlite safely to avoid corruption of the USB drive”.
So I succesfully corrupted my datamine USB drive again and had to reformat it.

Is there realy no one out there that knows how to do this with the VERAlite??

Regards,
Tomas

15

Disabled my VERA USB logging yesterday since VERA got confused again and formated my datamine USB drive. Lets hope this is a solution to my problem.

16

Is there any limit on how many GB the USB stick used with datamine can be, and do it have be formated as FAT32? Can I i.e use a brand new one out of the box?

And for the record, what a great plugin. It takes Vera to another level :wink:

17

As long as the Linux system on the Vera can handle the stick, I presume you are OK.
I use a SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16 GB, and I used it right out of the box. I presume it is formatted FAT32 from the factory.

18

Chris,

if I change the device name of a device in Vera, in datamine it seems not to change accordingly. Is this something possible? can that be in the manual?