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Forward to Influxdb from RPICT

We will introduce you to the forwarding tool for Influxdb 'lcl-gateway'.

Prerequisites

  • Influxdb is already installed and a database has been created.
  • RPICT unit has been tested with the cat or lcl-run commands first.
  • RPICT is using the default output format number 3.

Installation

Get the lcl-gateway tool and install it this way.

wget https://github.com/lechacal/lcl-gateway.py/releases/download/v2.1.0/lcl-gateway_2.1.0_armhf.deb  
sudo dpkg -i lcl-gateway_2.1.0_armhf.deb`

Configuration

You can now edit the configuration file

sudo nano /etc/lcl-gateway.conf

The file looks like this

[system]
port=/dev/ttyAMA0
baud=38400

[emoncms]
enabled = False
hostname = emoncms.org
apikey = --apikey-from-emoncms-goes-here--
node = 20

[influxdb]
enabled = True
version = 1
measurement = rpict3t1

# Parameters for version 1 below
db = home
url = http://192.168.1.65:8086/write

# Parameters for version 2 below
#url = http://192.168.1.169:8086/api/v2/write
token = NbMVAzr35B0uZehxgd_lPgVpqjDGM2-r2UF15Qd3F4D0uv-VKtVsWslH4-7vVDH1r95A-imvdqPALt1m9bW6rA==
org = lcl
bucket = home

[localsave]
enabled = False
directory = /tmp/

There are 2 versions of Influxdb. You should indicate which version is used in the version parameter.

For version 1 you must indicate the db and url parameters.

For version 2 you must indicate the url (uncomment it by removing the leading #) and also token org and bucket. token is the API token that can be obtained from the Influxdb interface. org and bucket are set when you first setup the Influxdb database.

Start lcl-gateway

Foreground execution

If you prefer running the program by hand to assess debugging information use the command below:

/usr/local/bin/lcl-gateway.py -d

Background execution

To run the gateway in the background we first need to configure the service configuration.

Open the file

nano /lib/systemd/system/lcl-gateway.service

You will find a line showing User=pi modify pi in this line with the user being used.

You can launch the gateway in the background using

sudo systemctl start lcl-gateway

To make the gateway start automatically at boot time enter:

sudo systemctl enable lcl-gateway