One of the most frequently requested features for NEST Home has been the storage, analysis and export of Nest information. Of course all of the data is held in sqlLogger if you have that installed but for a lot of people the information is difficult to extract, export or report on unless you've got some background in SQL.
It's always been a limitation of NEST that Google only provides a maximum of 10 days of historical data back to users. To use the data you have to enter it manually into a spreadsheet and then perform your analysis there. If you forget to extract the information on time you'll end up with gaps in your information.
Finally I've added some data management features to NEST Home (all versions). These allow you to generate reports on devices directly to the indigo log, text file or export the information to a CSV file for use in most spreadsheets for follow up analysis. It allows you export all data or a date range for reporting or export using two options added to the NEST Home Menu Commands.
- You can download the latest version (2.0.30) for NEST Home from this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p5kpp910skwzamv/NEST%20Home.zip?dl=0
You can download the latest version (2.0.30) for NEST Home 2 from this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1bj115yox5gnyzs/NEST%20Home%202.zip?dl=0
You can download the latest version (2.0.30) for NEST Home 3 from this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6k93jn739k1fav/NEST%20Home%203.zip?dl=0
You can install these updates in the usual way.
What's new in version 2.0.30?
Two new fields have been added to the configuration screen 'Should NEST Home archive data changes?:' and Text File Directory.
- Configuration fields
- Screen Shot 2015-12-06 at 14.35.35.png (105.27 KiB) Viewed 815 times
You may have already filled in the Text File Directory if you've been using the other NEST Mapping Reports. If so you don't need to change this field. This is where all of your reports and CVS files will be saved for you. If you haven't completed this field yet it's VERY important that you enter a path to a folder you have access to. Check the spelling of the path name, the case and finally don't add a '/' on the end.
You should also ensure that the Should NEST Home archive data changes? box is checked. For some reason you'll find it more reliable if you uncheck and recheck the box before saving! I'll investigate why later.
Once you've updated the fields I recommend that you Save and then Reload the plugin to get data management working straight away. When you do this you'll get a message in the indigo log telling you that ** Data Management Online **
Now you'll be able to use the reporting and export options. Note that nothing will be reported at this stage because none of the NEST States have changed but soon you'll gain a rich resource of NEST information.
Export to CSV
If you select the Export NEST data to CSV for analysis option from the NEST Home Menu you'll be presented with the following dialog:
- Export to CSV
- Screen Shot 2015-12-06 at 14.44.57.png (110.25 KiB) Viewed 815 times
The first option (Export all data) will get NEST Home to generate reports based on the whole dataset rather than a range. This could take a significant amount of time as your database gets larger and isn't recommended.
The next options allow you to define a date range for the export. The dates are inclusive and must be completed (dd/mm/yy - I'm a Brit so I've kept this format sorry
) If you want to have a single day, say 4th December, you would enter 04/12/15 for the start date and 04/12/15 as the end date.Once you've selected your range you can then select the datasets you'd like to export to CSV. Experiment with them to see what's the most useful for you. CSV files can be read in a text editor or imported into most spreadsheets for your analysis.
The filenames will be similar to NEST Report (04-12-15 : 04-12-15) Ambient Temperature.csv
If you look at the indigo log it will tell you exactly where the files are stored and their names
Report to log or file
If you select the Report NEST data to CSV for analysis option from the NEST Home Menu you'll be presented with the following dialog:
- Report dialog
- Screen Shot 2015-12-06 at 14.55.11.png (122.2 KiB) Viewed 815 times
The first option (Report all data to file) will get NEST Home to generate reports to text files rather than outputting to the indigo log. It's recommended that text file is the option you select. If left unchecked reports will be displayed in the indigo log
The next option (Report all data to log) will get NEST Home to generate reports on the whole dataset rather than a range. Clearly this could take sometime if there is a lot of data.
The next options allow you to define a date range for the export. The dates are inclusive and must be completed. If you want to have a single day, say 4th December, you would enter 04/12/15 for the start date and 04/12/15 as the end date.
Once you've selected your range you can then select the datasets you'd like to report on. Experiment with them to see what's the most useful for you. There's some basic analysis (hours heating, cooling or off for example) that are generated as part of the files.
The filenames will be similar to NEST Report (04-12-15 : 04-12-15) Ambient Temperature.txt
If you look at the indigo log it will tell you exactly where the files are stored and their names
This functionality is currently classed as Beta and I'm going to add more features in the coming days. However, it would be useful for me to get any reports of issues, bugs or changes so I can improve the software.
BTW - There's going to be an unexpected plugin release for an unusual device in the next day or so. I'll let you know when it's ready for you to play with
Best regards and thanks for your support as usual!
Mike