Databases and Viewing Data

SolarThing supports multiple ways to export and upload data along with multiple ways to view that data. This page can help you choose which database to use and setup as you configure SolarThing.

Databases

CouchDB

Using CouchDB allows for the most features. Used by SolarThing Android. Required for the automation and pvoutput programs and for SolarThing Server.

InfluxDB

People use InfluxDB if they want to get data into Grafana and design their own queries against their data.

Viewing Data

SolarThing Server

All SolarThing Server configurations require CouchDB to be setup.

GraphQL and Grafana

With a CouchDB database, SolarThing’s Server program can be set up to serve data to Grafana. This is used alongside https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/retrodaredevil-wildgraphql-datasource/

SolarThing Web

SolarThing Server comes with a simple web interface ready to use out of the box. Just navigate to the IP and port where it is being hosted and

InfluxDB and Grafana

If you are using an InfluxDB database, you may configure Grafana yourself to query data from InfluxDB. Just know that SolarThing’s maintainers are not well versed in InfluxDB, so do not expect much support.

PVOutput

With a CouchDB database, SolarThing’s pvoutput program can be set up to upload data to PVOutput at regular intervals.

SolarThing Android

The Android application is available on the Google Play Store and uses the CouchDB database directly.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.retrodaredevil.solarthing.android

SolarThing Automation

The SolarThing automation program can do many things. It can send Slack messages to alert you of potential problems. It can upload data to Solcast.

This program can be configured using SolarThing’s Action Language. Many features of the automation program are advanced and usually undocumented. This is not for beginners.