Installation

The Arduino IDE needs to have the ThingSpeak library installed in order for your devices to know how to send data to ThingSpeak. In the Arduino IDE, choose Sketch, Include Library, and Manage Libraries. Search for “thingspeak” and click Install.

Device Support

The ThingSpeak Communication Library supports many devices. Using the library makes the experience the same for each board type. When you learn one way to work with ThingSpeak, you will be to work with other devices in the same way.

• Arduino or compatible using a WiFi Shield
• Arduino or compatible using a WiFi Shield 101
• Arduino or compatible using an Ethernet Shield
• Arduino or compatible using a MKR ETH Shield
• Arduino MKR1000 (use the WiFi101 library version 0.13.0 or older. WiFi101 library versions 0.14.0 and newer have a bug that stops this ThingSpeak library from working properly)
• Arduino MKR1010
• Arduino VIDOR 4000
• Arduino GSM 14000
• Arduino Yún (Rev1 and Rev2)
• ESP8266 (tested with SparkFun ESP8266 Thing – Dev Board and NodeMCU 1.0 module)
• ESP32 (tested with SparkFun ESP32 Thing)

Each supported device includes three ThingSpeak examples.

• ReadField: Reading from a public channel and a private channel on ThingSpeak
• WriteSingleField: Writing a sensor value to a single field on ThingSpeak
• WriteMultipleFields: Writing sensor values to multiple fields and status in one transaction with ThingSpeak

Request Status Codes

To get the best compatibility with ThingSpeak IoT services, we recommend using the ThingSpeak library. The library has extra features that help you troubleshoot and get visibility into any issues with requests to ThingSpeak. I find it useful to store the last status code from ThingSpeak. I can use this code to understand if the request succeeded or failed. Here’s an example of how to use the “getLastReadStatus” method.

 // Read in field 1 of the private channel which is a counter  
 long fieldValue = ThingSpeak.readLongField(myChannelNumber, myFieldNumber, myThingSpeakReadAPIKey);  

  // Check the status of the read operation to see if it was successful
 statusCode = ThingSpeak.getLastReadStatus();
 if(statusCode == 200) {
   Serial.println("Field Value: " + String(fieldValue));
 }
 else {
   Serial.println("Problem reading channel. HTTP error code " + String(statusCode)); 
 }

The code behind the ThingSpeak library is available on GitHub. Discover other MathWorks Open Source and Community Projects on The MathWorks GitHub page.

You only need a few things to build a light and temperature sensor that writes data to ThingSpeak:

• Arduino Zero or Uno Board
• Arduino Wifi Sheild 101
• Photocell
• Temperature Sensor (This example uses a TMP36)
• 10K Ohm Resistor

Once you have the circuit built, you create a ThingSpeak channel, connect the Arduino WiFi 1010 to your Wi-Fi network, and install the source code from the tutorial on the Arduino.

Data is now being sent to your ThingSpeak Channel. Go to your channel to see two charts of the light and temperature data. To take the project a step further, go to ThingSpeak Apps and use MATLAB to analyze and visualize and trigger actions from the data.

[via Arduino.cc]

Arduino IDE Installation

In the Arduino IDE, choose Sketch/Include Library/Manage Libraries. Click the ThingSpeak Library from the list, and click the Install button.

Particle / Spark IDE Installation

In the Particle/ Spark Web IDE, click the libraries tab, find ThingSpeak, and choose “Include in App”.

Compatible Hardware

• Arduino or compatible using an Ethernet or Wi-Fi shield (we have tested with Uno and Mega)
• Arduino Yun running OpenWRT-Yun Release 1.5.3 (November 13th, 2014) or later.
• Particle Core or Photon (Formally Spark)

ThingSpeak Examples

The library includes several examples to help you get started.

• CheerLights: Reads the latest CheerLights color on ThingSpeak, and sets an RGB LED.
• ReadLastTemperature: Reads the latest temperature from the public MathWorks weather station in Natick, MA on ThingSpeak.
• ReadPrivateChannel: Reads the latest voltage value from a private channel on ThingSpeak.
• ReadWeatherStation: Reads the latest weather data from the public MathWorks weather station in Natick, MA on ThingSpeak.
• WriteMultipleVoltages: Reads analog voltages from pins 0-7 and writes them to the 8 fields of a channel on ThingSpeak.
• WriteVoltage: Reads an analog voltage from pin 0, converts to a voltage, and writes it to a channel on ThingSpeak.

Complete open source code and examples for the ThingSpeak Library are available on GitHub. Discover other MathWorks Open Source and Community Projects on GitHub.

“We switched to SSD drives for all of our database servers,” said Lee Lawlor, Lead Engineer of ThingSpeak. “All of the upgrades are live and available to the entire ThingSpeak Community!”

The improvements decreased response time dramatically and improved large data set retrieval by ten times.

First, create a new Channel, and fill out the field names as follows: Field 1 = “CPU Usage (%)”, Field2 = “Memory Usage (%)”, Field 3 = “Disk Usage (%)”.

Next, add the open-source server statistics script to your server, which can be found at: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iobridge/thingspeak/master/lib/server_stats.sh

Inside the script there’s an API Key variable, which should be replaced with your specific Channel’s API Key (leave the single quotes, and only replace the X’s): api_key='XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'

For the script to work properly, install the “bc” package via: sudo apt-get install bc

Then make the script executable: chmod +x server_stats.sh

Finally, edit your crontab file: crontab -e

Make the script execute every minute by adding this line to your crontab (make sure you use the proper path to the script): * * * * * /path/to/server_stats.sh

The script will then automatically POST server stats to the Channel specified by the API Key every minute.

You can see some of the ThingSpeak server statistics here:

• https://thingspeak.com/channels/12370
• https://thingspeak.com/channels/12371

We keep hearing about how many Billions and Billions of things there will be connected. Just think about how much data that they will create! Yep, it’s Big Data, or even, Bigger Data. ThingSpeak is the only open data platform specifically designed for the Internet of Things available ‘in the cloud’ or on your own network to capture and distribute data from things.

A new homepage for ThingSpeak

When we look out into the Cosmos, we see Billions and Billions of stars and keep a fond memory of Carl Sagan in our hearts. As we connect this planet, we can’t but think of the scale and the magnitude that IoT will bring. Using this inspiration, we launched the new ThingSpeak.com!

Carl Sagan said, “We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean, we are ready at last to set sail for the stars.” We believe the same about the Internet of Things! Let’s get going!

Electric Imp is a connectivity platform for connecting Wi-Fi devices to cloud services, much like RealTime.io and Iota Wi-Fi modules and Spark.io. Some Electric Imp module’s come in an SD card form factor and adds Wi-Fi connectivity to what’s connected to the Electric Imp module. Access to the Electric Module happens via the Electric Imp cloud. While connectivity is simplified with the Electric Imp system, you will need a data service like ThingSpeak to complete the Internet of Things experience. Once data from Electric Imp devices are in ThingSpeak, you can easily build applications and interactivity with other devices and platforms.

We put together a quick start tutorial for the Electric Imp and ThingSpeak, so you can quickly and easily get the Electric Imp talking to ThingSpeak. The tutorial uses parts from SparkFun – the Electric Imp Wi-Fi SD module, breakout board, and USB cable / power supply.

Get started now…  Check out the official Electric Imp and ThingSpeak Tutorial and source code on GitHub.

All of the source code to connect Electric Imp to ThingSpeak and the 3D printer design files are available on Marcus’ blog ‘slickstreamer‘.

[slickstreamer / Dangerous Prototypes]

The Top 10 Internet of Things Countries*

1. United States
2. France
3. Poland
4. United Kingdom
5. Germany
6. Netherlands
7. Australia
8. Canada
9. Italy
10. Brazil 

*According to ThingSpeak Usage Stats

We have developed a new ThingSpeak App and it is available now to all ThingSpeak Users.

The new TalkBack App allows devices to check ThingSpeak for commands to execute. TalkBack is perfect for battery-powered devices that need to sleep most of the time and wake up to see if there is anything to do and then go back to sleep, like a door lock for example. The lock is mostly going to be asleep to save battery power, but it can wake up periodically and check TalkBack or be woken up by a button press to see if it should be opened or not.

Devices powered by ThingSpeak and now with TalkBack will be able to both push sensor data to the ThingSpeak Cloud and check TalkBack if any commands are available all in one request. To get started, we have the complete TalkBack API Documentation and an Arduino Yún Tutorial available now.

Atmel-powered Arduino Yún Tutorial

With the release of TalkBack, we created a tutorial for the Arduino Yún. The “Yún” is a special combination of easy-to-program Arduino with an additional processor, an Atheros AR9331, running Linux and the OpenWrt wireless stack. Programming the Arduino via USB is identical to the Arduino Leonardo. Once the Arduino Yún is connected to Wi-Fi, the Arduino has full access to ThingSpeak Cloud Services and the TalkBack App and API. Check out the Controlling the Arduino Yún with TalkBack tutorial for a step-by-step way of controlling the Arduino Yún via TalkBack and the ThingSpeak Cloud.

TalkBack is available now to all ThingSpeak Users and to new users by Sign Up for Free at ThingSpeak.com! Please feel free to share with us and the ThingSpeak Community with the awesome ways you use TalkBack with your ThingSpeak Projects!

Question: How do I find ‘public’ ThingSpeak Channels?

In order to help developers find open data inside of ThingSpeak Channels, we created a new API for searching the public ThingSpeak Channels.

Here are the Public ThingSpeak Channels. We order the channels by activity and completeness. Channels may be tagged and this helps find data that you might find interesting for your application. We also have API commands that you can pass to the ThingSpeak Channel API to return the public ThingSpeak Channels in either JSON or XML format.

Here are some easy examples:

• http://api.thingspeak.com/channels/public.json – Returns the Public ThingSpeak Channels in JSON format
• http://api.thingspeak.com/channels/public.xml – – Returns the Public ThingSpeak Channels in XML format
• http://api.thingspeak.com/channels/public.json?tag=temperature – Returns the Public ThingSpeak Channels in JSON format that match the tag, “temperature”

For support and questions, please use the ThingSpeak Forum.

The OHS is an amazing experience. You get to meet all the Open Source Hardware heroes that are pushing this movement forward. This year there are many talks and panels covering all aspects of the open source hardware movement. Our part in all this is to push open platforms to connect all that open hardware. ThingSpeak is growing very quickly supporting the open hardware and software for advancement of the Open Source Internet of Things.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available!

We want to send a special thanks to powermik, oiotoshi, sekjal, and akinsgre for contributing new code and reporting bugs.

All of the latest code is available on GitHub, so start building your own Internet of Things today!

Duke says,

“A demo of how to use ThingSpeak (an IOT web site) with a Gadgeteer Gas Sensor Device. Data from the sensors are displayed in real time on ThingSpeak and using some of ThingSpeak’s cool features the Gas Sensor device can send out Tweets for Alert and Alarm conditions.”

Another awesome part of this project is that it uses .NET Micro Framework library, μPLibrary 1.8, created by [paolopat]. This library makes it really easy to tap into ThingSpeak web services by embedded devices. It’s great to see different parts of the project coming together from multiple ThingSpeak users. We appreciate the creative combinations and the efforts that you are putting into your projects. Thanks!

For more information, check out the live sensor readings on the project’s ThingSpeak Channel and download the complete source code at Codeshare.

[via >TinyCLR Forums]

The OHS was a blast last year. We got to meet all the Open Source Hardware heroes that are pushing this movement forward. Our part in all this is to push open platforms to connect all that open hardware. ThingSpeak is growing very quickly as you see projects pop-up every day. We will be releasing our two-year numbers and the latest stats just before the Open Hardware Summit. Just a hint about what you will hear… we doubled in size over the last 6 months!

Sponsorship opportunities are still available!

For more information, check out our tutorial and visit GitHub for the full source code. Thanks Daniel!

[via RubyGems.org]

Download the free Application Note, “Interfacing Flyport to ThingSpeak”, and the Source Code to get your Flyport connected to web services via ThingSpeak.

Topics on the agenda:

• Switch over to Ruby on Rails 3.1
• ThingSpeak v2.0
• Active ThingSpeak Projects
• Adding modularity and tests to the GitHub repository
• …btw, we’re hiring!

Background on ThingSpeak:

ThingSpeak is an open source web application and API to manage devices, to create device interactions, and to store data. Users can use the hosted version of ThingSpeak or setup instances on their own servers by getting the source code from GitHub. The technology behind ThingSpeak is Ruby 1.9.2, Rails 3.0, EventMachine, Phusion Passenger, Nginx, and Memcached to form a highly scalable infrastructure for the emerging Internet of Things and its data model requirements.

You use ThingSpeak to Send and Receive “data” via simple HTTP requests, much like going to a web page and filling out a form. Data can be from
anything — Blood Sugar Levels measured by a glucose meter, Server Usage and Uptime reported by servers, or Location Info from a mobile phone. Once the data is in ThingSpeak, you can build applications that retrieve the data, use the data for process decision-making, and reporting.

[via Pittsburgh Ruby Users Group]

We have created a new ThingSpeak Sketch for Arduino 1.0 that you can use for the Arduino and Ethernet Shield or the Arduino Ethernet all-in-one. All you have to do is add your ThingSpeak Write API Key to the sketch, upload to the Arduino, and connect to your network. The sketch includes automatic network configuration with DHCP, domain name resolution using DNS, a watchdog / reset function to keep the Arduino online, and a function to update ThingSpeak Channels. The new sketch has been running without hiccup in our lab for few weeks. We hope that you get the same reliability. Go ahead and copy, transform, and combine…

View Arduino 1.0 –> ThingSpeak Sketch on GitHub

Here’s what ThingSpeak is in Brazilian Portuguese: ThingSpeak é um projeto de Internet Aberta das Coisas feito pela ioBridge!

Thank you much, Paulo or should we say, “Muito obrigado, Paulo?”

Over the past few months of getting ThingSpeak to full speed, we have been inspired by the outpouring of projects and interaction with the open hardware community. So far, we announced integration with openPICUS which allows developers to create a completely open source wireless solution for the Internet of Things. There are many more announcements coming soon…

Come join us at the Open Hardware Summit!

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Check out OpenHardwareSummit.org for more information.

[via Twitter]

ioBridge Demo Night

Friday, August 19 @ 7pm

HackPittsburgh Workshop [Google Map]

1936 5th Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

From the openPICUS announcement:

A wide range of sensors can interfaced to FlyPort, it has more than 20 remappable I/O pins and with a few rows of code your sensors goes online to the ThingSpeak servers. In this way you avoid the server side work, database management and graphics and you have real time data visualization as well as trends and so on.

Here’s a video from openPICUS that explains how to get started with FlyPort + ThingSpeak.

[via openPICUS Blog]

Support for ThingSpeak is available on the ThingSpeak Community site which features a Blog, Forum, Documentation, and Tutorials. The documentation is the same for the open source release of the ThingSpeak API as the hosted web service on ThingSpeak.com.

What is ThingSpeak?

ThingSpeak is an open source “Internet of Things” application and API to store and retrieve data from “things” using HTTP over the Internet or via a Local Area Network. With ThingSpeak, you can create sensor logging applications, location tracking applications, and a social network of things with status updates.

In addition to storing and retrieving numeric and alphanumeric data, the ThingSpeak API allows for numeric data processing such as timescaling, averaging, median, summing, and rounding. Each ThingSpeak Channel supports data entries of up to 8 data fields, latitude, longitude, elevation, and status. The channel feeds support JSON, XML, and CSV formats for integration into applications.

The ThingSpeak application on GitHub also features time zone management, read/write API key management and JavaScript-based charts from Highslide Software / Torstein Hønsi.