Tips on setting up Emporia Vue and how to use iFrame Tiles to show Grafana Panels in your Hubitat Dashboard

nielsen411 · March 4, 2021, 7:03pm

Audience: Habitat users trying to get the most out of their Emporia Vue purchase. Users that want to display a Panel from Grafana on their Hubitat Dashboard.

Caveats: I’m a hack… I’m happy to help but always in a learning mode.. so, I won’t be able to answer every question (aka not an expert on anything below) but I’m happy to contribute to Hubitat and its community.

Project:

Install Emporia Vue Energy Monitor for my home (How the Gen 2 Vue Energy Monitor Works).
Set up vuegraf
Display vuegraf panels in Hubitat Dashboard
Send Data to Hubitat (not ready for Prime time…. I have it working but I want to get this integrated into vuegraf - haven't asked yet as an option and clean up the code a little.) If you are interested in this please PM me.

What you need:

Emporia Vue Energy Monitor
Raspberry pi (or some other compute device capable of running Grafana, Influx, and Python 3 code
vuegraf by JJason Ertel and contributors (GitHub - jertel/vuegraf: Populate metrics from your Emporia Vue energy monitoring devices into an InfluxDB)
iFrame Device by @mbarone (GitHub - michaelbarone/hubitat)
My hack (not ready for prime time.. PM me if you want code/drivers/tips… As a hack, I could use the help)

Credits:

Emporia for their impressive product at a great price point
Jason Ertel (GitHub - jertel/vuegraf: Populate metrics from your Emporia Vue energy monitoring devices into an InfluxDB) for his work to get Vue data into grafana
Everyone who contributed to (GitHub - magico13/PyEmVue: Python Library for the Emporia Vue Energy Monitor) that allows connections to Emporia API
@mbarone for his tips/code for iFrame in a tile and how to access Grafana

NOTE: This is not a supported product from Emporia. They could/may stop access at any time.

Step 1: Installation of Energy Monitor

WARNING: If you don’t understand electricity and/or how it’s delivered to your home, I strongly suggest you hire an electrician to install the Energy Monitor. This is not trivial task and could lead to injury, death, a fire… please be safe.

Here are pictures of my install:

Main Breaker Panel with current sensors

Emporia device in separate box (no way this would fit in my panel - something to assess/plan before purchase)

Once installed (per the instructions) you should have something like the following in your iOS or Android Emporia App

Step 2: Install vuegraph on your compute device. I used a raspberrypi 3.

Instructions are found here —> GitHub - jertel/vuegraf: Populate metrics from your Emporia Vue energy monitoring devices into an InfluxDB

Notes: I did not use the container install… however, agree that’s preferred if you are comfortable with containers. The standard install worked fine although I did run into issues with python3 not playing nice with python2 libraries. Lots of info on how to fix library PATHs but it can be a hassle.

Log into Grafana and upload your Grafana Dashboard. If you’re using the single Vue device (aka one Vue Energy Monitor), make sure you start with the dashboard-single-panel.json

you should see something like this…

Step 3: Display vuegraf panels in Hubitat Dashboard

First steps first we need to allow iframe and unauthenticated connections to Grafana.

Make the following changes in grafana.ini (/etc/grafana/grafana.ini)

#This allows iframe calls

[security] <— this section

allow_embedding = true

#This allows viewer access without authentication

[auth.anonymous] <— this section

enabled = true

org_name = Main Org.

org_role = Viewer

Install iFrame.groovy device driver in hubitat —> iFrame.groovy

Follow instructions provided in comments section of driver.

Once the device has been created set the URL as follows:

For a whole panel —> click the down arrow at the top of the panel and select share. Select Link tab and copy the URL. Past that URL info the device in hubitat created from the iFrame.groovy device driver.

For just the Graph on the Panel —> click the down arrow at the top of the panel and select share. Select Embed tab and copy the URL, starting at http://, ending at panelId=X (additionally remove the “from=xxxxxxx and to=xxxxxx” parameters from the URL. Past that URL info the device in hubitat created from the iFrame.groovy device driver.

Add the device to a Dashboard… it should look like this once it’s sized properly. You can add whatever you want with other tiles.

Step 4: Send Data to Hubitat

I will update as soon as I feel comfortable. PM me if you have a Vue and want to give it a try before I release the drivers and Python Code needed. Note: you’ll need everything above to make the push to hubitat work (at least the way I’ve hacked it together).

That’s it… good luck and I will be adding the push to Hubitat as time permits.

Cheers,

Paul

harold.min · July 24, 2021, 4:04pm

Great write up! I'm interested in knowing how you're utilizing the child devices in Hubitat. Is it for dashboard purposes or do you base automations off of them? I actually went the other way and pipe the non-Emporia power meter readings (Zigbee outlets, etc) into InfluxDB so that they could be analyzed together.

I couldn't think of any automation opportunities, but that doesn't mean there aren't any!

nielsen411 · July 26, 2021, 5:43pm

I have so many devices (160+) it's just keeps things manageable plus allows for easy delete/update when there is a change. I haven't had any issues with automatons using the child devices. Glad you found it useful.

legit · April 3, 2022, 10:56pm

Thanks for sharing your Emporia Vue with flexible transformer setup. Do you have a link to the enclosure you used for housing the Vue?

nielsen411 · April 4, 2022, 1:31pm

Here you go —> https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-8-in-x-4-in-PVC-Junction-Box-E989N-CAR/100404099

Best of luck with your install.

imthekuni · April 14, 2022, 4:09am

great write up! I have installed everything and my Grafana dashboard is up and running. I also made a virtual device for the iFrame. Do I need additional drivers or code to get the actual plots to show in the dashboard iFrame?

nielsen411 · April 14, 2022, 9:28pm

Once you get the iframe virtual device created, open it up in habitat (Devices). Under preferences set to your iFrame Url value to something like this (without quotes.. the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is your grafana ip address) --> "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3000/d-solo/EFFTQFZgk/energy-usage?orgId=1&refresh=5s&var-account=Home&panelId=2"

The URL above is from my Grafana instance. You will need to copy the link from your Grafana instance as described in the end of my original post.

To get it to show up on your dashboard add the iFrame device to a dashboard, then change the "Pick a Template" to Attribute, and then set the "Attribute" to iFrame.

I hope that makes sense.

mjruotolo · May 9, 2022, 1:39am

I just installed the Vue 2 in my house. May look at setting this up. In habitat.
I already have a influx db running in docker. Can I used that or do I need to spin up another one?

nielsen411 · May 10, 2022, 8:31pm

Should work with Docker Version.

BrianP · June 28, 2022, 3:07pm

This was helpful, but I have the following problem:

I can see the plot on my dashboard in Firefox, but when I try to view from Fully Kiosk Browser, it doesn't work:

Firefox:

I saw something about using a Grafana image renderer plugin, but it required more horsepower than my RPi 4 can manage.

Any suggestions to getting this data onto my dashboard? Maybe I'll need to store the data on the Hubitat rather than in InfluxDB on my RPi.

nielsen411 · June 30, 2022, 6:12pm

I was actually working on a new Phython Engine/App/Driver that avoids the use of influxDB and Grafana - It will just send power readings every few seconds to hubitat - then we can use hubigraph or other Apps to show/track... I guess I need to get back on that...

kevin · June 30, 2022, 6:49pm

Where did you get your flexible red current transformers from - it appears Emporia are no longer selling them… was there a known problem or safety issue with them? Only listed from China/eBay now.

BrianP · June 30, 2022, 9:56pm

Yeah I'm thinking I might need to pull the readings from my Raspberry Pi and store them on the Hubitat. Otherwise I might find another graphing server for the Pi.

nielsen411 · June 30, 2022, 10:04pm

I bought them as part of the of my kit --> Emporia Vue Home Energy Monitor with individual appliance meters – Emporia Energy

It says "out of stock"... hmm I would contact support (if you haven't already) it is excellent. If you've already contacted them, is that where you heard about the safety issue?

nielsen411 · June 30, 2022, 10:08pm

The new thing I'm building just uses the Raspberry Pi to pull the data from Emporia and pushes it to Hubitat..... Super basic, but should be super stable... Given that, I will share when I'm done.

kevin · July 2, 2022, 10:00am

I hadn't heard anything re safety, support say it's a pure supply/logistics issue and not any product concern. They will come back into stock over time. China lockdown I guess.

colton.house · September 16, 2022, 6:16pm

Did you make any progress on this? I am getting the system soon and can test the code.

nielsen411 · September 16, 2022, 6:33pm

I've made progress. I'll try to focus on getting it done next week. Sorry for the delay.... life is just busy. Thanks for the interest.

WMarcolin · October 13, 2022, 9:41pm

Hi @nielsen411 !!

This post was fantastic, after more than two months of trying, today I finally managed to display a graph of Granfana in the HE dashboard, THANK YOU!

However, I am still facing a problem, and I would like to get some help.

When I open the HE dashboard in a browser on a computer on the local network, the graphic is presented without any problem, but if I use the APP on the phone, the same dashboard presents an empty tile, with no graphic.

I imagine that extrapolating the situation, if I am outside the local network, the problem will repeat itself.

Any solution for this situation?

Thanks.

eelton · February 12, 2023, 1:23am

Old thread, but I'm trying to get this to work...

Yes, this happens outside the local network. The odd thing is that, when connecting from outside the local network, in the device page the image displays correctly under Current States-->iFrame. But in a dashboard, it doesn't display.

Does any one know of a solution? Thanks.

EDIT:
I'll answer my own question, partially: The issue for dashboards not displaying the Grafana iFrame is due to browsers blocking non-secure content. If that's changed in the site info for the Hubitat dashboard in the browser, it displays properly.

I don't see a way to change that in the mobile Hubitat app.

Here is what I ended up with in my dashboard, which now displays correctly remotely. I found this post very helpful in getting the iFrame to display properly.