Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

Roderick

After our array went on line a couple weeks ago, I found myself going out to the electric meter with a clipboard every day, sometimes more than once a day, to track our electric generation and usage.  Over the weekend, I threw together a Palm (PDA) application to gather this data.  I intend to release it as freeware (and open source, it's really trivial) in case someone else can use it.  Maybe someone here is interested, and can give me feedback? I'm still tweaking it.

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/roderick/pvlog/pvlog.htm

Frankly, given the small fraction of the population that has Grid-Tied Arrays, intersected with the small fraction that use Palm PDAs, it would not shock me that the number of interested people is equal to 1 (myself)...

All the Best,
  Roderick.

mike95490

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

If it works with the Treo 600 (Palm OS, 160x160 lo res screen) I'm VERY interested.

Will it take spreadsheet input from logging programs? (GT-VIEW for Xantanx)


UPDATE:
It does run, and no crashes on Treo 600. I'll try to enter some data when I have a chance this weekend.

Roderick

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

It should work on the Treo 600, but obviously, I haven't tested it on there.

The idea is that the Palm program will output a file of tab-separated values to a PC, where Excel or some other spreadsheet can consume it. I'd imagine you could merge in your inverter data at that point, but that's beyond the scope of the program. All I wanted to do was have a handy notepad to record my readings manually.

If I could just pry the IR protocol out of PG&E, this program could be great - just walk up to the digital utility meter, point the Palm at it, and one click to capture everything, just like a meter reader.

System2

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

thats awesome, good for you! i wish i could program, i was looking for a way to extract data from my pentametric battery meter that has a serial interface (and windows software), but i wanted it for linux and they have no support for linux.

supposedly my grid connected inverter has adataport and supposedly one day (solectria) they will finish the software.. i suppose i should check on that agian.. cool, wish i had xantrex just so i could try your software

mike95490

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

Well.
I guess I need a doc reader for my PDA. The files are not in straight .txt format, I can read them with a hex editor, but not with a .txt reader I guess a .doc reader will have a matching PC version, so I can copy the file and import it to a spreadsheet?

Any suggested freeware doc reader for PDA?

System2

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

ive used mobipocket reader on my pocketpc for years to read books. i am pretty sure they have a palm version and its free

Roderick

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

If you look here

http://sourceforge.net/projects/palmtextsync/

you will find the program that I use to automatically transfer DOC files to .txt files on my PC. It take some configuring, but once it's set up, it's very convenient. You will find a folder on your PC that (biidirectionally) mirrors all your DOC files.

mike95490

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

Roderick wrote:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/palmtextsync/
It take some configuring, but once it's set up, it's very convenient. You will find a folder on your PC that (biidirectionally) mirrors all your DOC files.

I'll say, it's not very intuitive and the manual isn't much better. But it looks like it will be easier than copy & paste to memo pad
Thanks
UPdate - got it working, and it's pretty nifty.
thanks again.

System2

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

who the heck is mongomery burns

sourceforge is a treasure trove!!

mike95490

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

mattl wrote:

who the heck is mongomery burns

best explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Burns

Wealthy plutrocrat, AKA Charles Montgomery Burns. Owns Springfield Nuclear Power, and in an effort to increase revenues, created a giant sunshade for the entire town, so more folks would have to turn on lights, and consume His electricity.

Blinky, the fish in my avatar, is a three-eyed fish caught by Bart Simpson. Mr. Burns defends the fish saying that it's the next step in evolution, rather than having been mutated by toxic waste pouring out of the sewers and into the river from the nuclear plant.

System2

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

oh cool, thanks for info. that doesn't have any parallels currently does it? :roll:

niel

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

wow matt, i'm amazed you never heard of or at least watched the simpsons to see monty. i don't watch it much as that station doesn't always come in well(no cable), but even only the few occasions i've watched i know of him. you are a rare one matt. hmmm. maybe another pv or 2 will allow you to power a tv. :roll: just kidding. :-D

System2

Re: Palm program for tracking Time-of-Use

ironically we just ordered a cable upgrade YESERDAY! (mostly for kids and nature channels and movies). no, i dont watch much tv almpost out of principal. alot of the stuff disgusts me morally.i rent a LOT of movies. i checked out simpsons once in the 90s. not my cup of tea.