adafruit – Internet of Things

Collect and Visualize Agricultural Data using The Things Network and ThingSpeak

Hans Scharler — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 19:19:13 +0000

Long-range wireless communication technology enables the transfer of sensor data over a long distance while using low-power radios for connectivity. This technology can be leveraged to connect sensors covering a large geographic area and give you insights into what is happening. With agricultural applications it is important to measure the soil moisture and efficiently irrigate. A big challenge for agricultural applications is robust connectivity in remote locations. By using a combination of The Things Network and ThingSpeak insightful applications can be built. The Things Network is a protocol and infrastructure that provides a link to cloud applications using LoRaWAN^® technology. If you are already a The Things Network user, check out the documentation about the ThingSpeak integration at The Things Network. ThingSpeak is an IoT analytics platform service that allows you to aggregate, visualize, and analyze live data streams in the cloud using MATLAB^®. You can send data to ThingSpeak from devices via The Things Network, create instant visualization of live data, and send alerts.

The ThingSpeak team has created a new example that shows you how to leverage The Things Network and build an agricultural data application using ThingSpeak. The sensors send data to The Things Network, which is then forwarded to ThingSpeak for collection, analysis, and visualization. Here’s what the project view on ThingSpeak looks like.

To build a soil moisture sensor device for The Things Network, you need use an Adafruit Feather M0 RFM95 LoRa Radio (900MHz), an Adafruit Ultimate GPS FeatherWing, a SparkFun Soil Moisture Sensor, and a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor. Once you have the device put together and programmed, you can use this device to measure soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and its location.

Check out the full Collect Agricultural Data over The Things Network example at the MathWorks Documentation site.

ThingSpeak Used to Track Luggage for Travel Internet of Things Applications

Hans Scharler — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 23:01:41 +0000

Chris Forsberg created an example Internet of Things project to track luggage using ThingSpeak, an Adafruit GSM Module, and an Arduino. He built a simple system to send data to ThingSpeak, such as latitude, longitude, and status data. ThingSpeak exposes a data channel API for any system like this to being able to store data and then process the data.

The idea is that it is frustrating waiting for luggage at the airport and wondering where it is and why it is not on the baggage carousel. With this project, you can track luggage from start to finish. The advantages are not only for the traveler, the airlines could track luggage as well and get quality statistics for each airport. And, the base system has many applications outside of travel such as the Automotive Industry.

Chris explains the project really well on his blog and with a YouTube video.

Solar-powered Temperature Logger with Electric Imp and ThingSpeak

Hans Scharler — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 18:31:28 +0000

[Marcus Olsson] from Slickstreamer created a solar-powered temperature logger using the Electric Imp Wi-Fi module to push data up to ThingSpeak to store and visualize the data collected by his sensors. Marcus provides a parts list and a how-to on his blog. The temperature sensor, solar panel, and solar charger are all readily available parts from Adafruit.

Looking over the code for the Electric Imp, it looks pretty easy to cross-clouds from the Imp to ThingSpeak. Check out the source code on GitHub and full details on Slickstreamer.

[via Slickstreamer]

DIY Weather Station with Arduino, Processing, and ThingSpeak

Hans Scharler — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:58:48 +0000

[lars] created a weather station from scratch using sensors and bits from SparkFun and Adafruit. Lars wanted to log weather data and access it from remotely. He built the weather station using humidity, temperature, pressure, and light sensors collecting data from his apartment in Ithaca, NY. Originally, Lars was collecting data with his own web application created with PHP and MySQL. He has since started publishing his data to ThingSpeak where others can view the data and potentially build applications.

Behind the scenes, Lars uses the Arduino microcontroller to collect data from the sensors and uses Processing to publish data to his ThingSpeak Channel.

From Lars’ project site:

The goal of this project is to log some weather data and be able to access it from anywhere. There is some sensor data (temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and ambient light) and some computed data (dew point). You can see the weather condition in my apartment in Ithaca, NY at my ThingSpeak Channel 346. You can also look at the Google Chart of my own MySQL solution, which I no longer maintain.

Check out a detailed breakdown of the Weather Station project and more awesome projects on Lars’ project site, called “make.larsi.org“.

Instructables Make it Tweet Contest

Hans Scharler — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:34:10 +0000

[willnue] of NUEwire created a project for the “Make it Tweet Contest” over on Instructables.com sponsored by Adafruit. The contest is simple: make something tweet. If you use our ThingTweet app, sending a Tweet could not be easier. And, if you have an Arduino setup as a device on your ThingSpeak account, ThingTweet generates the Arduino sketch for you automatically. Here is the tutorial to help you get started with ThingTweet and Arduino: Update Twitter with ThingTweet and Arduino + Ethernet Shield.

willnue added the ability to tweet to his GE Wireless Control Center Alarm system. He added an Arduino with Ethernet Shield and uses the ThingTweet app to connect the alarm to Twitter. Check out his detailed Instructables to learn more, build your own social thing, and enter the contest.

wilnue says,

This project will add tweeting capabilities to the GE 45142 Choice-Alert Wireless Control Center Alarm system. The alarm system allows you to connect up to 16 different sensors across 4 zones and with the addition of the Arduino powered AlarmingTweet you can enable it to keep you informed of its status anytime anywhere.

Good luck with the contest!