The channel will be dropped! It’s in since the beginning as advanced channel for me to analyze problems. Unfortunately it isn’t useful. You can get all data via items or rule actions from the binding itsself.
JSON Parser lovers can use http binding to get the same data as published at the raw channel.
Is there anything missing in the binding for you which can only be covered by the raw channel?
Not 100% sure. I simply use the raw data for visualization purposes in grafana. May be I’m lacking a piece of information but by means of the infinity plugin I can very easy visualize the forecast data up to 7 days ahead in a webview frame without the need to use rule actions or to fill a lot of data in my influx database. This keeps my solcast rule thanks to your binding very simple. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I agree this works well for simple visualization only not for more sophisiticated forecast scenarios. But for the moment that is all I need and so it would be a pity for me if you drop the raw data, since this would require to request them a second time from solcast. Am I the only one using raw data or are there others around in the community?
It’s very intresting to see how channels and connected items are used. For me as binding developer the raw channel was forseen as debug information and you used it to visualize data. Fully ok but yeah, I wasn’t aware!
Let’s check and please don’t understand me wrong, below statements are just my personal experiences / opinions!
Just note raw channel is present for each plane but not for site. I’ve personally 2 planes so for me it is of minor initerest and I want to see the combined forecast. Also note if you’re using the inmemory persitence service without database storage it looks pretty well!
I also take care to keep my influxdb tidy. Just from my personal experience: I store a lot values in influxdb: weather forecast, solar forecast, heat pump, climate control, temperatures inside and outside, PV values per second, wallbox, white goods, …. and after 5 years I’ve 1.5 GB storage. On my sd card this can continue till I die.
This is why I like openhab. It is very flexible and there are always several options available to reach your goal. Even for your binding I found another solution: You seem to store the forecast data on userdata/openhab/solarforecast.json. In js it is a simple task to read the file and store the forecast in an item. Admittedly a little bit special but it works.
let data = require('/var/lib/openhab/jsondb/solarforecast.json');
items.testItem3.postUpdate(data['solarforecast:sc-plane:homeSite:home-forecast']['value']);
And for rule developping from time to time I find it helpful to have a look into the raw data structure and print it to the log.
I use one plane only, but to calculate the total of two planes is a simple transformation in Grafana too 
. Thanks for the hint with the ‘inmemory persistance’, I wasn’t aware of that.
So, it would be great if you keep the channel, but if I’m the only one using it … Let me know, when you have found a decision.
Hi everyone,
I’m using the SolarForecast Binding in openHAB to integrate solar production forecasts. I noticed that the api seems to require a minimum system size of 1 kW.
However, my system is a small balcony PV system with 800 W.
My questions:
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
It’s a thing of the solarforecast service, not a binding thing.
Why don’t you simply use 1kW and multiply by 0.8 ?
I use this solution right now already…I know it’s from the API…I just ask for another solution
Where did you get that from?
I checked forecast.solar API docs but there’s no minimum defined and also binding readme nor code is requiring at least 1 kW.
Correct configuration is to set inverterKwp config property to 0,8 (comma) or in text config 0.8 (dot) and the forecast is cropped.
So you can configure a balcony power plant forecast as allowed in Germany with the inverter restricted to 800W while planes can have up to 2kWp.
PS:
Surprisingly my test failed with the official binding but this Marketplace version fixed this issue now!
