Just some stuff I want to share with you
Since the 3D printer now has found its final place, it is time to look at the printing process itself.
The first topic to look at is how to get the file that needs to be printed to the printer. The printer does not have a network interface, but it does have a USB connector. To print a file there are 2 options: connect the printer to a computer and directly control the printer. Or copy the print file to a SD card and move the card to the printer and select the file in the menu on the printer. So far, I mainly used the SD card to print, but that process becomes a bit tedious over time and I can’t imagine that the card will have long lifetime.
The second topic is: how to keep an eye on what the printer is doing? The bigger the thing you want to print, the more time it takes. For example: the spool holder used in the enclosure took just over 7 hours to print. During that time, you want to monitor the process and be able to stop it when something goes wrong. But you don’t want to constantly sit in the room keeping an eye on the printer.
Time to look at how to remotely control the printer.
Read full articleSince my last post, I have printed a lot of stuff on my 3D printer and learned a lot about the printer itself and the printing process. The printer was left on the table where I put it together and that was a smart move during the first weeks. Minor adjustments were required to the printer itself and it was helpful to be able to get to all the parts easily. But then it was time to find the spot where it should live from now on.
Read full articleFinally, I succeeded convincing myself that this was a good idea. It was time for another hobby. In my daily job I only work in a digital/virtual world. And although I love ICT in the end it is not possible to “touch” the result; it’s all bits and bytes on computers and best-case you will see a result on your smartphone, tablet or computer screen. I needed to get physical again.
Read full articleA few weeks back I released the Domoticz SolarEdge_ModbusTCP plugin and in the previous post I promised to share my experience of creating that plugin.
Before we dive in, let me share my starting points: I had never written a plugin for Domoticz and I had never used (either to run or develop something in) Python. I have developed software using object-oriented languages like C++, C# and Java.
Read full articleBack in August 2018 we got 20 solarpanels installed on our carport. The vendor (SolarEdge) of the inverter provides an app and a monitoring website where we can see how the installation is performing.
We were already using Domoticz to monitor our power and gas usage. Domoticz comes with an option to extract data from the SolarEdge monitoring platform and present it. All the energy data available in one dashboard; a great way to see what is going on.
Great right? Well, yeah. It’s working perfectly, so no complaints. But there’s this nagging thingie… To get to the performance data of our panels, we are required to use the monitoring platform of the vendor. And it’s also clear that SolarEdge receives more information from the inverter than they share back to us via their API.
So, why not collect this data directly from the inverter?
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