All,
I've been away from the site for the last month or two and now trying to catch up. I need to update my emonTX firmware with the latest Wh code (easy), and I need to upgrade my version of emoncms.
I'm also planning on changing to the Raspberry Pi + hard drive system (instead of gateway), so I can start controlling things using packetgen and scheduler.
As far as I can tell, the procedure I need to follow for emoncms is here;
http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/4354
However, as I have essentially zero knowledge of PHP, web development, linux (I could go on), I need everything spelling out for me! [I am intending to start learning some of this stuff, but finding the time is tricky and where to start!]
So, I have some questions;
1. The page above says to install emoncms on the Pi using this guide: http://emoncms.org/site/docs/installlinux
However, this guide says that "For installation guide on installing emoncms on a raspberrypi see raspberrypi installation guides." Presumably this would be referring to: http://emoncms.org/site/docs/raspberrypihdd ?
Which procedure should I be following here? Note that I have a windows PC, not linux. However I assume the commands to install emoncms using the linux method are done through SHH into the Pi?
2. Next the guide says to install the add-in modules (including scheduler), and provides the code (which I assume i enter into the Pi SSH), which clones the files from github presumably onto the Pi's hard drive?
3. This is probably a very stupid question, but why are all the Github scripts written in PHP? I have started learning some basic python for the Pi, but it appears this isn't used for scripts being run on it. PHP is server-side web development code (so makes sense for emoncms), but how does this relate to the Raspberry Pi which is running Raspbian? I am doing a fair amount of googleage to get my head around this, but some pointers would be really helpful! I keep seeing references to raspbian, debian etc, but I have no idea how they relate.
I feel like I need a map of how all of this ties together so I would know what I need to learn.
So far I have just about got by on OEM without needing to understand any of this stuff but it does seem increasingly that this is a pre-requisite to developing your own OEM system. There must be others in the same shoes as me? What do people think?
Chris
Re: emoncms 8, scheduler, raspbian, debian, I'm lost!
Hello Chris, as these developments (especially scheduler) are quite new, there's still documentation to update.
The first think to note is that both the install on a harddrive documentation (the full build notes rather than the image which is needs updating) http://emoncms.org/site/docs/raspberrypihddbuild is mostly the same as the install linux documentation http://emoncms.org/site/docs/installlinux. The raspberrypihddbuild page has additional steps to enable using a harddrive and also additional security steps.
To carry out these installations from a windows computer you can use a tool called putty to ssh into your raspberrypi and then its all the same it doesnt matter that your connecting from a windows pc.
"Next the guide says to install the add-in modules (including scheduler), and provides the code (which I assume i enter into the Pi SSH), which clones the files from github presumably onto the Pi's hard drive?" - yes thats it
Rasbian that runs on the raspberrypi is a 'flavour' of debian linux. By installing the various dependencies on the raspberrypi such as the apache2 webserver, php, mysql and so on we are turning the raspberrypi into a fully fledged webserver. Whats running on the raspberrypi is exactly the same as what's running on the server that power's emoncms.org, the only difference is that the emoncms.org server has much more computing power.
Re: emoncms 8, scheduler, raspbian, debian, I'm lost!
Trystan,
Thanks a lot for this, really helpful!
I'll give it a go and hopefully will be up and running soon.