THINGSPEAK
Test 8: ThingSpeak
Objective: To have a better understanding on how the website ThingSpeak works and how it can be advantage for the SEMS
According to its developers, ThingSpeak is an open source Internet of Things (IoT) application and API to store and retrieve data from things using the HTTP protocol over the Internet or via a Local Area Network. ThingSpeak enables the creation of sensor logging applications, location tracking applications, and a social network of things with status updates.
ThingSpeak provides instant visualizations of data posted by your devices to ThingSpeak.
What is IoT?
Internet of Things (IoT) describes an emerging trend where a large number of embedded devices (things) are connected to the Internet. These connected devices communicate with people and other things and often provide sensor data to cloud storage and cloud computing resources where the data is processed and analyzed to gain important insights. Cheap cloud computing power and increased device connectivity is enabling this trend.
IoT solutions are built for many vertical applications such as environmental monitoring and control, health monitoring, vehicle fleet monitoring, industrial monitoring and control, and home automation.
ThingSpeak Key Features
ThingSpeak allows you to aggregate, visualize and analyze live data streams in the cloud. Some of the key capabilities of ThingSpeak include the ability to:
Easily configure devices to send data to ThingSpeak using popular IoT protocols.
Visualize your sensor data in real-time.
Aggregate data on-demand from third-party sources.
Use the power of MATLAB to make sense of your IoT data.
Run your IoT analytics automatically based on schedules or events.
Prototype and build IoT systems without setting up servers or developing web software.
Automatically act on your data and communicate using third-party services like Twilio or Twitter
​
For the SEMS, two codes are required; one for the temperature and humidity sensor (DHT22) and the second code for the INA219 current sensor.
The codes are the following;
​
​
​
After running the codes, we go to the ThingSpeak website, where an account was created to be able to own a channel. In this channel, an API key is given, which allows the user to send data to the website, plot it and save it.
The following images are examples of the data being plotted after the codes were ran.
Data sent to the website is plotted in real-time.
Another great feature of ThingSpeak is the ability to download all the sent data as an CSV file. We tested it and it works.
There are limits to the use of the website, but our project will not exceed those limits.
According to their website, the annual cap is 3 million messages; about 8200 messages per day. ThingSpeak stores messages in channels. A message is defined as a write of up to 8 fields of data to a ThingSpeak channel. For example, a channel representing a weather station could include the following 8 fields of data: temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, battery level, and light level. Each message cannot exceed 3000 bytes.
Our channel only has 5 fields and our uploading time will be about every 30 minutes, therefore the limit will not be reached and it makes ThingSpeak a great tool for the SEMS.
​
Source: ThingSpeak