Anyone up for a challenge? I would like to pick your brain!

Third party integrations
1

Hello!

I currently am fumbling my way around HASSIO and I love the platform and I love the community. I know there are a ton of WAY MORE talented people that I am in this community and I would like to ask for some help. I am not asking anyone to spend tons of time on this for free, but if you are looking for a challenge and offer some sort of better solution I would be willing to make it worth your while!

I currently raise poultry and own 2 large barns. There are computers that run the ventilation, feeding, watering, etc. Currently I have hardware setup that is sold by the same company as the computers to access all my data remotely. This is connected to the internet and it allows me to either view my current data at Rotem NetWeb or by using the Rotem NetWeb app for Android or iOS. As this is great and all, I would like to do more with my data - such as use it to make better decisions. By wanting to do this, I would like to start polling this data and entering it in to a database so I can start using it to compare things.

My current setup which seems to be very inefficient and expensive works like this. I can currently set my Rotem Commbox to upload a .xml or .json file to a FTP server at any desired interval. I am currently using the feature and uploading a .xml file to a FTP server I have at Host Gator which cost me $11.99/month. I am then using Integromat (approx $30/mo for every 15 min polling) to watch for new FTP files on this server and perform an action when one comes in. The action consists of taking the file and parsing it, it takes that data and sends it via webhook to EMONCMS.ORG (approx $5/mo). I use EMONCMS as my data and visualization platform, from there I am reading the current values with HASSIO so I have and nice and easy platform to see all the current data I want to see in one spot.

As this seems crazy to me to have so many steps, I decided to reach out to the community to see if anyone is interested in helping me simplify this setup. I spoke with Rotem and they do not offer an API. I feel the data could possibly be scrapped of their remote web viewing platform with some potential tools or it may be possible to reverse engineer the MOBILE APP or WEB APP to see if there was any ways a person could make the calls directly. Again, I do not expect anyone to want to do this for free so that is why I would like to make it worth your while. If you want to talk about it or are just up for a challenge please feel free to reach out to me!

Thanks,
Jake

2

I might be interested. Where do you live ?
The web scaping thing is nice (i’ve done it in the past), but do know that it is very fragile …

I am very proficient in python scripting

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You can upload a file to a FTP server at Host Gator. Then Integromat downloads it, parses it and uploads the parsed data to emoncms. Then you read the data into HA ?

Why not host a FTP-server yourself, parse it yourself and feed the data in HA ? Three steps less :slight_smile:

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4

If you run Home Assistant (previously known as Hassio), there is a FTP-addon in the community store.

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Not sure how to parse it myself. I tried creating a FTP server in Hassio but not sure how to make it accessible to outside world for Rotem to upload to it.

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I am in central Minnesota! Where are you at?

7

I might be interested. Where do you live ?
The web scaping thing is nice (i’ve done it in the past), but do know that it is very fragile …

I am very proficient in python scripting

Kristof did not disappoint! He was very professional, he asked all the right questions, and built me a script that has been working and running flawlessly. He uploaded everything to GitLab when he was done! Very reasonably priced, Thanks so much!

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Thanks for the review Jake! Nice to hear everything is working according to your expectations.

1 Like