Flukso Server Blocking requestes to PV OUTPUT

michi's picture

Same problem here. No more data on PVOutput :(

This is not good. Any chance of getting this working again ASAP?

Michi.

michi's picture

Hmmm... I just noticed that the Wunderground weather station I'm using to upload temperature data from stopped working at the exact same time.

This suggests that the problem is at the PVOutput end, because these are independent data streams from different sources. It seems unlikely that both Wunderground and Flukso would block PVOutput at the exact same time.

Michi.

Anula Heights's picture

I am having the same problem. The owner of PVOutput.org has reported

The flukso api returning authentication (HTTP Error 403 Forbidden) errors which stops further downloads. Seems to be blocking the PVOutput server, as there's no problems from the local machine. http://whrl.pl/Rdt6zA

I suppose I will have to update PVoutput manually until it is sorted out.

Derek...

hansvk's picture

Same problem here. Upload to PVOutput stopped after 23.55 yesterday.

icarus75's picture

I noticed a spike in server traffic starting from 22h CET yesterday. The server logs showed 96.126.116.166 generating a lot of calls to the Flukso API. Apparently, this was the pvoutput.org client. I don't mind pvoutput.org accessing the API, but please limit the rate to one call per hour per sensor.

P.S. 96.126.116.166 should now be able to access the Flukso api again.

databeestje's picture

That's unfortunate, the reason I am using a Flukso is the integration with the PVoutput website. That was my selling point for buying a Flukso over a lot of other units.

Refreshing that data just once per hour per sensor is not what I am looking forward to. The PVoutput website has nice graphs, and I use it for consumption too, which gives me very helpful data on the amount of energy imported and exported so I can check if my digital kWh meter from the utilities company is valid.

The PVoutput site also has teams, and I am listed in the the tweakers.net team which makes it easy for comparison on solar generation with others. It's quite a different beast from the Flukso dash.

Not sure what the beef exactly is but I'm sure that with some cooperation between PVoutput and Flukso is of benefit to a larger community and a selling point for Flukso.

Call me naive, but I see a benefit to both parties there. Maybe a seperate API for relatively large import/export is a better solution to provide accurate up-to-date data with less overhead on both parties?

If the one call per hour requirement is going through it will be a reason for me to stop using the Flukso and move to a netduino. With that limitation I can not recommend this to others on the tweakers.net forum as well (as I have been doing for the last 5/6 months).

"Unfortunate"

michi's picture

I'd be very disappointed if the update interval stays reduced to one hour. PVOutput does a brilliant job not only at graphing the data, but also analysing it in various ways. It would be a shame to have to wait for a full hour before I can see what happened.

Rather than rate-limiting PVOutput, why don't you guys get together and see whether (a) the load generated by PVOutput is really a problem and, (b) if it is, whether you can adapt the API to be more efficient.

That could result in a win-win rather than disappointed customers.

Michi.

termeerh's picture

I can see my data coming in at pvoutput.org every 5 minutes this is a useful interval.
Is there a simple way to get a five minute average to pvoutput.org instead of the actual value?
An average results in a better power estimation.

michi's picture

As far as I know, PVOutput reports the average of the previous five minutes anyway, not the instantaneous value. (Someone correct me please if this is wrong.)

Michi.

michi's picture

It would be really useful to have an option in the Flukso itself to upload to PVOutput directly. With the recent change in the scraping frequency from PVOutput, a few gaps have appeared in my consumption data (anything between 5 minutes and 20 minutes long). I have quite a few of these over the past few days.

If the Flukso could be configured to upload to PVOutput directly, that would reduce the load on Flukso's server, and data could be uploaded at 5 minute intervals.

How about the two of you get together and nut something out? It would make the Flukso more attractive, and add yet another selling point.

Michi.

bazzle's picture

Great "idea"

icarus75's picture

For the record: The load spike on 13/02 was not due to PVoutput hitting the Flukso API. They've been accessing the API with a 5min polling rate for over a year now. No changes in the polling rate are required.

bazzle's picture

Thanks for the update.
Hopefully we will continue to see this association continue :)

michi's picture

From the update frequency I now see on PVOutput, it looks like PVOutput has changed to scraping every 15 minutes?

Michi.