Outback Skybox API: on github

[zack]

I wanted to access my Outback Skybox from a simple python API. I saw a few other people, here and elsewhere, were interested in the same, so finally got around to getting a project going on github. Right now, it can query most of the metrics from the skybox, for example get the current loads, pv production, inverter status etc. It can also pull the alerts and notifications.

The internal REST api for the skybox was very quick and easy to reverse engineer by spending a few moments in google chrome dev tools. I've tried to spend more time documenting the project, so that it can be easily used and expanded in case others are interested.
The project with documentation is available at github: https://github.com/zackramjan/outback_skybox_api Feel free to post bugs and pull requests.

I'm open to ideas for the future. Right now, the queries to the skybox are read-only in nature, ie we don't change the way the skybox is operating, but I may be interested in controlling the skybox programatically. My reason for this project was to control various things around the house based upon PV production, so for example, if we are are doing poor on pv in the mid-day, increase the air conditioner thermostat. Or control my tesla's charging via the tesla API based upon skybox pv production.

 

[Surferdudemi]

Have you considered using an ESP32 to query the data and interface with HomeAssistant via WiFi? I haven't tried running Python on an ESP32 - not even sure it would fit, though there's microPython out there.

 

[zack]

I'm not familiar with the ESP32, although if it can run python and has the 'requests' and 'json' modules, it shouldn't be any different than running it on another type of system. At my house, I have a 2-drive qnap device that allows you to run python on it, so I have my stuff logging data and running there. All I'm currently doing in my case is pulling the data from the skybox every 10 seconds and then immediately sending it up to a free cloud account of influxDB. Once it's in influxDB (see skyboxInflux.py on how to upload), you can easily make some very rich dashboards that run on the free influx account and no coding is required, just drag and drop.

Heres what I've made so far, I wanted something more informative that the default interface on the skybox

 

[SpongeboB Sinewave]

Zack, that is a really nice interface !

I also like how you overlayed the text with the graphs. It seems to work fine

boB

 

[Surferdudemi]

That's an amazing interface.
ESP32 is a micro controller with WiFi and Bluetooth. It will only run microPython, which is a subset of the Python language. I doubt it will have those libraries / modules. Didn't realize a QNAP could do that. I've got a 4-drive system that might work though.

 

[zack]

You're in great shape since the QNAP is basically a full-featured linux server and can do a lot more than what they market it as. I tend to run my stuff in docker containers using QNAP's "Container Station".

@SpongeboB Sinewave thanks. I can't take too much design credit since this was all built-in visualizations from influxDB and it was super easy to drag and drop the panels to create the dashboard. Basically, choose a metric, choose a chart-type, and bam, you have a nice live graphic