In October of 2015 I released my Electricity OWL Intuition-E Monitor program, and have done a few updates since. However I no longer use the program myself, and won't be maintaining the code so I have decided to end of life the program. I will allow it to be downloaded until the end of January 2017, but after that I will remove it from the site.
There have been a steady number of downloads, and I may consider releasing the code on GitHub if anybody thinks it's of interest.
Instead of using that program I now run Domoticz with a RFXTRX unit and that records the daily electricity usage, and can trigger events if needed. Hopefully I'll find a moment soon to write up some thoughts on that system.
But in the meantime, it's time to say goodbye to my monitor program. đ˘
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I've updated my Electricity OWL Inuition-E Monitor to version 1.4.
I say "I", but I was contacted by a chap by the name of Nick Wallbridge who had also been looking in to the Electricity OWL. As it turned out Nick is a developer in his own right and had some great ideas about what to add to the monitor program. So I gave him access to the code and he has very kindly added some alerts to the existing IFTTT maker capabilities of the program. I really appreciate the time and intellectual contribution that Nick gave to me to add these extra capabilities.
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Read more: Electricity OWL Intuition-E Monitor updated to 1.4
A few weeks ago I introduced my Electricity OWL Intuition-E Monitor program, and it looks like I'm getting a few downloads, but interestingly no feedback yet.
I've now updated the program to v1.1 which has the following enhancements:-
v1.1
- adds the ability to save an image of the energy usage chart via the click of a button
- adds the ability to save an image of the energy usage chart at the end of the day before reset
- adds a energy usage summary report that is saved at the end of the day
The update can be downloaded from here.
Please let me know what you think and suggest enhancements. I'm currently contemplating turning it in to a Windows 10 universal app so I can add it to the Windows Store, but then it won't run on Windows 7 or 8 - is this a problem.
Use the contact form on this site or use twitter (@quiggles) to let me know your thoughts.
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Like most households with teenagers I seem to spend half my life going round the house turning off lights and various consumer devices when my kids have abandoned a room... So I decided to get an electricity monitor so that at any moment in time I can see the stress on our electricity monitor without the bother of actually watching the meter dial spin it's way of it's axis!
I decided to get the OWL Intuition-E monitor as you could see the current electricity usage on an iPhone & Android app, on the web and if you were so inclined they have an API available. On the web site you can get an overview of your daily electricity usage with a report that looks like this sample. Also from the website you can download historical usage date in CSV format so you can analyse it in your preferred spreadsheet software.
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Microsoft have just released Project Siena, which looks like Microsoft's first big push to encourage app development for Windows 8 and RT.
Siena is targeted at âbusiness experts, business analysts, consultants and other app imagineersâ, to create apps that work âwell with corporate and web data and media content: SharePoint lists, Excel and Azure tables, RSS feeds and the gamut of RESTful servicesâ.
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For those that have started dabbling with Visual Studio 2012, you may be interested to learn that there is already an update available for this IDE.
Available from http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads#d-visual-studio-2012-update.
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If you ever fancied learning how to program, why not take a look over at Channel 9Â where there is a series of "how to" videos dedicated to doing just this.
Most of the videos are by Bob Tabor from LearnVisualStudio.net which generally is a paid for resource, but Microsoft have obviously seen the value and quality of his training and have obviously sponsored him to create content for the Channel 9 website.
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Microsoft have finally released Microsoft server 2012 essentials, the spiritual heir to Windows Home Server, (WHS), according to http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/10/09/essentials-released-to-manufacturers.aspx.
I will be heading over to TechNet shortly to download my copy to evaluate on my HP N40L mini server.
Although this is the direct replacement for WHS, it is likely that most WHS 2011 users won't move across, simply because of the associated cost of a server operating system. Previous versions of WHS, were hugely discounted because of the intended home market. However, this product is primarily intended for small and medium-sized businesses, although it does have most of the functionality of the previous WHS product, but unfortunately not the costâŚThere is little doubt it will succeed in its intended market, but whether the average home user will upgrade remains to be seen.
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