After collecting some photovoltaic data using PikoPy and a some readings from the residential meter it was time to put everything together. The data is collected by a couple of scripts triggered by a cronjob every five minutes.
$ crontab -l */5 * * * * python /home/solarpi/kostal_piko.py */5 * * * * python /home/solarpi/collect_meter.py */15 * * * * python /home/solarpi/collect_weather.py The results are then written into a SQLite database.
The first step of my plan, building a Raspberry Pi based photovoltaic monitoring solution, is finished. I created a python package that works with the Kostal Piko 5.5 inverter (and theoretically should work with other Kostal inverters as well) and offers a clean interface for accessing the data:
import pikopy #create a new piko instance p = Piko('host', 'username', 'password') #get current power print p.get_current_power() #get voltage from string 1 print p.
