Thank you for the clear answer! It is great to hear that also other types of data including temp and hum are supported.
1&2: If I understood correctly, all communications between your system and the user take place with the ST cloud and it does not cause any extra strain to users system. But what about the “still active?” check, does it cause something like that? I mean if your system asks this relatively rarely, it probably won’t cause any trouble. But (correct me if I’m wrong) if it asks it e.g. every minute, it already causes more traffic also in the users internal network, as I suppose the cloud needs to ask the hub and the hub needs to contact the sensor. Normally the temp sensors only send data once every 5 mins or so.
3: I was assuming that you are not in the business of gathering and selling data, thanks for confirming it. It is just that these kinds of things are very pertinent themes nowadays and it is good to be transparent aboute them. Also, I believe GDPR applies here as you are able to store email and probably also IP address. And the latest, if there are any payments involved, the identity of your customers will be revealed to you. In that sense I would make a friendly request to have some more information of your privacy policy and company or person (with whom are your users exchanging information?) to be included on your site.
On the more general level a question about ST token and access to all devices. Already some sensor data can be perceived as sensitive, by revealing e.g. when someone is at home and when not. But what about much more sensitive devices, such as cameras or microphones? Are their recordings also “data” that this token “all devices” gives access to?
And please do not misunderstand me for asking these. I DO believe that you don’t have any malicious intent. It is just that if people are to use these services beyond the “developers”, your average Joe needs to know and understand what they give their permission for.
Edit: added words “to be included on your site” as it was not a request to discuss it in this thread.
All API calls go back to the ST cloud. It’s not possible for ConstantGraph to load your hub in any way.
Your questions are all very important and something I have been meaning to address more fully. To that end, I have now added a usage policy to the web site available here: Constant Graph. As stated in the policy there is no processing of audio or video data by ConstantGraph.
Please do ask for any further clarifications, as I do want to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the service.
Thank you again for your rapid and clear responses! Wow, I’m very impressed that you also managed to make and publish such a nice policy text so quickly. There you provide a lot of important information that definitely makes it easier for potential users to try your service. Very nice indeed!
The only shortcoming still is the lack of company/personal name, but don’t worry, I understand that you are still in the development/piloting phase and have been probably focusing on the technical things. Whenever you are ready for that, it makes it more comfortable for customers to know with whom they work with. But as said, there is still time for that.
This is really great. It’s a super project. I have one query. Is it possible to graph actual values instead of hourly averages? I have one lux sensor that is a bit insensitive and only updates when the value changes which is not that frequent. The hourly average is then not such an accurate representation because of limited data points.
Hi @ro76 thanks for the great feedback. It is possible to graph actual values…
There is a menu in the top right of the Graph Time Series Data page and the second item (with 3 sliders on the icon) enables the advanced menu option.
When you have selected the advanced menu options, you get extra buttons at the bottom of the screen to control the aggregation period and graph types etc. Click on the blue button and change the Aggregation Period to None (Raw Data).
If you are on the lowest subscription that will give you 1 minute accuracy. On the highest subscription that will give you 1 second accuracy.
Thanks for that! All sorted now. I have an automation with a heated airer for drying laundry that uses a temp and humidity sensor to switch off the power when the laundry is dry. I now have nice graphs of time, temp and humidity. I just now need a power meter on the socket to complete.
i decided to give this a go, in the hope the subscription won’t be too expensive in the near future.
One feature i’d like is to be able to differentiate between providing kwh and consuming kwh. I also have solar panels that are being reported as being consumed kwh.
@goosetapo when you say “differentiate between providing kwh and consuming kwh”, what did you have in mind? Do you have an example of what you would like to see? Do you have separate devices for measuring the consumption and generation? Or do you just see the consumption go negative if you generate excess power?
Smartthings reports generated power as consumed power. Because most devices do. That means i need a option in constangraph to select if its a device that generates power.
@goosetapo if I’ve understood correctly, you would like to plot a graph with the “positive” amount of energy consumed along with the “negative” amount of energy generated whilst both devices give you positive readings?
Could you send me an email with the address you used to sign up to ConstantGraph on (to contact@constantgraph.com) and share the device or channel numbers of the relevant devices? I have an idea of how to do this but want to check it will work in your case. Thanks!
For anyone who is looking to report a negative (generated) watts reading rather than a positive (consumed) watts reading try creating a custom data type on the Data > Types menu:
Give it a name (e.g. Solar Watts) and select units of Power (Watts); add a multiplier of -1.0 and an offset of 0.0.
Next go to the Channel Configuration menu and select the channel you want to change and set the Data type to the new Solar Watts type
Make sure you de-select the Allow API configuration updates (otherwise the data type will be reset next time the device is checked for updates).
Going forward, all values on the channel will be negative. To delete the old positive values, enable the input filter, set the maximum to 0 and click on Apply input filter to existing data.
Perhaps there’s a way to already do this, and I just haven’t figured it out - otherwise consider this a (minor) feature request… when working on a “new” graph it would be nice to have a way to reset the chart (deleting any of its channels). Currently it seems like I have to delete each of the existing channels and then start fresh adding one’s I want to see.
Also, and I correct in thinking that “dashboards” are the intended method to save graphs for future access/edits? I’m thinking the graphs tabs are kind of a working space, and anything I want to save for easy access later I need to put in a dashboard.
Hi @georgeh . Fair point about having to delete each of the channels individually. Let me have a think about how best to do it. You are correct about the dashboards concept. You can create your own dashboards but the built-in ones are mainly there to be able to find all of your saved graphs.
Channel Config has moved to the Data menu (where it makes more sense)
I’ve had a number of suggestions for improvements - here are the ones I’m considering (unless someone has a better idea)
a Data Table for current (instant) device values (e.g. compare current temperature with temperature set point for a device)
ability to select which data types to import when first connecting to SmartThings - this is not quite the ability to select individual devices, as discussed above, but hopefully a step in the right direction.
an embeddable page that can show a graph from another application (e.g. SharpTools).
ConstantGraph channel restrictions.
I have set up constantgraph and linked it to my ST account.
ConstantGraph finds 203 channels for harvesting Data (up to 3 channels per device - eg battery, humidity and temperature).
At the moment I’ve built a dashboard using only 7 temp sensors and 1 power plug but Constantgraph is giving periodic messages that I’m using too much data.
How do I stop it harvesting data from channels I dont want.
I tried deleting the channels but they re-appear.
