If you have used ThingSpeak MQTT in the past, I wanted to mention one big change to how you access the service. The new MQTT service is available at the hostname: mqtt3.thingspeak.com.

If you decide that MQTT is right for your IoT project, you can start by adding a new device to your ThingSpeak account. This will set up the MQTT credentials needed for the device to connect to ThingSpeak. MQTT works well for low-power devices and low-latency applications.

ThingSpeak’s new MQTT support includes:

• Improved access control
• More concurrent subscriptions
• Device management
• Streamlined topic patterns to make coding easier

We’ve updated our documentation to include several new MQTT examples with code for the new interface. We have added a new example to secure the transmission of data between devices and ThingSpeak.

• Publish and Subscribe to a ThingSpeak Channel Using Secure MQTT
• Publish and Subscribe to a Channel Using Desktop MQTT Client
• Publish to a ThingSpeak Channel Using a Particle Device Client via MQTT

We also added support for tags within the ThingSpeak User API. Just pass the same tag into the API call to ThingSpeak, and you will receive a list of channels that match. This is really useful for integrating ThingSpeak into enterprise systems and for automating channel creation by deployed devices.

All of the tag-related features are available today to all ThingSpeak users!

Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox

Signal Processing Toolbox

When you are logged into ThingSpeak using your MathWorks Account, you can use functions from the following toolboxes if you are licensed to use them:

MATLAB Central is “a place where you can get answers.” We have over 100,000 community members and MathWorks employees all sharing projects and files, experience, and answering questions. And, ThingSpeak is showing up on MATLAB Answers and File Exchange. This is great news for the ThingSpeak Community. If you already have a MathWorks user account and use it on ThingSpeak, you already have access to MATLAB Central. All you have to do is sign in. If you are new to MathWorks, you can sign up for a free user account to gain access to MATLAB Central and other features of ThingSpeak.

Check out Ned Gulley’s post, “Going Way Back with MATLAB Central” to learn about how the MATLAB community has formed over the years.

Cheers to MATLAB Central hitting the 15th year mark! We are happy to be a part of the story.

The Top 10 Internet of Things Countries*

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

*According to ThingSpeak Usage Stats

The Internet of Things typically involves a discussion of smart devices and the cloud, with much less attention paid to the data collection, pre-processing of acquired data, and development of real-time analytics algorithms. A successful data analytics strategy involves embedded sensor analytics, historical data analysis, and online analytics. In this hands-on session, each participant will work with devices and try out the various types of analytics in action.

IoT Evolution West 2016

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
900 Convention Center Blvd
New Orleans, LA

IOTD-02: Prototyping IoT Analytics: Hands on with ThingSpeak and MATLAB
Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at 2PM
Forum 15

The project also shows you how to use MATLAB to get very detailed visualizations and data analysis of the data collected by the weather station. Some of the examples include histograms of temperature, humidity, and pressure, curve fitting, daily comparisons, and 3D plots of temperature.

Visit Hackster.io for the complete tutorial to build your own weather station, connect it to the internet with the Particle Photon, collect your data with ThingSpeak, and do data analysis with MATLAB.

[via Hackster.io]

Even if you do not have devices and sensors sending data to ThingSpeak, you can still use ThingView to see public channels. For example, if you want to see the charts created by sensors in my house, just add Channel ID 9 to ThingView. You see charts of light levels and temperature generated by my house.

Check out ThingView on Google Play!

By following our tutorial, you will be able to use ThingSpeak to send messages to your team’s Slack channel. This will also allow devices like an Arduino to use Slack since ThingSpeak will take care of authentication and HTTPS.

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]

We write the temperature and humidity values from the weather station to a ThingSpeak channel. At some point in the project, we started to wonder about dew point calculations. We wrote some MATLAB code that combined the temperature and humidity to calculate dew point. I did this using the ThingSpeak app, “MATLAB Analysis”. You can try this out with ThingSpeak now by signing in, selecting Apps, MATLAB Analysis, New, selecting “Calculate Dew point”, and clicking “Create”. This happens to be one of our built-in examples using our weather station’s public data.

It is great that it was easy to calculate dew point with MATLAB, but I want to see this analyzed data over time just like any other sensor data. The solution is a powerful combination of MATLAB Analysis and TimeControl. We use MATLAB Analysis to do the analysis and write the data to a ThingSpeak channel. Then, we use the TimeControl app to repeat the analysis every 5 minutes.

To setup MATLAB Analysis on a schedule, sign into ThingSpeak, select Apps, TimeControl, and New TimeControl.

My MATLAB code now runs every 5 minutes doing analysis and writing data to my ThingSpeak channel. The TimeControl settings can be tailored to your needs such as executing MATLAB code once a day or only on weekends. This combination of MATLAB Analysis + TimeControl allows you to create continuous analysis of your project data.

To try this out for yourself, we have a public channel of weather station data that we have collected in Natick, MA at our headquarters. You can use that data and do your own MATLAB Analysis and writing the results back to your own channel. Also, Check out the ThingSpeak Documentation where we have a complete tutorial for you to help get started with ThingSpeak and MATLAB.

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.

CheerLights uses ThingSpeak to collect the latest color. We get the color value by following “CheerLights” on Twitter using the TweetControl app. When someone Tweets using “CheerLights” and a color name, the TweetControl app writes the color to the CheerLights Channel on ThingSpeak. Other developers wanting to join the CheerLights project read in the latest color value using the ThingSpeak Channel API and then set their light color to the same one.

With some MATLAB Analysis and Visualizations, I know that currently red is the most popular color on CheerLights! I have recently taken advantage of the MATLAB integration with ThingSpeak. Under Apps -> MATLAB Analysis, we have an example that will show you how to analyze the public CheerLights Channel on ThingSpeak to determine the most requested color. The MATLAB Analysis example is called, “Analyze text for the most common color”.

Example MATLAB Visualization Code

lights = thingSpeakRead(1417,'OutputFormat','table','NumDays',30);
hist(categorical(lights.LastCheerLightsCommand))
set(gca,'XTickLabelRotation',45)

People all over the world have joined CheerLights by making all kinds of light displays, apps, and browser plugins. I recently created a CheerLights display for my parents using a LIFX Wi-Fi Light Bulb. If you want to control all of the lights, just send a Tweet using Twitter that mentions @CheerLights and a color.

“@CheerLights Let’s go Blue!”

Check out CheerLights.com for more detail and for ideas on how to join the project. We are all connected!

Hackaday.com wrote an article about Vegard’s soldering iron connected to the Internet of Things. Here’s what they had to say:

The data pushes out to the ThingSpeak server which handles pushing data out to the bigger network, and data representation (like the cool Google gauge…). The best part: [Vegard] gets a phone notification when he accidentally leaves his soldering iron on. How perfect is that?

That looks a lot like our desks… wires, microcontrollers, pliers, cutters, Wi-Fi modules, and soldering irons. And now, the soldering iron is on the Internet of Things.

[via Vegard Paulsen / Hackaday.com]

[via GitHub]

Greg built the project out of necessity to help his plants suffering from “localized drought”. Let’s hope his plants get proper watering and that other ThingSpeak users can quickly and easily build this project. Thanks for sharing!

[via Instructables]

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.

For more information check out the FastLED and Arduino tutorial and the Arduino Sketch on GitHub.

As more and more users create TweetControls, the service started slowing down. We have enhanced how the service works and now you get instant TweetControls!

In an Instragram video sending a Tweet and changing the CheerLights color, you will see that there is little delay between sending the Tweet and executing the control command to change the colors on his Christmas tree.

Learn more about TweetControl on ThingSpeak Docs.

About Phusion Passenger

Phusion Passenger is a web server and application server for Ruby, Python, Node.js and Meteor web apps. It makes web app deployments a lot simpler and less complex, by managing your apps’ processes and resources for you.

What makes it so fast and reliable is its C++ core, its zero-copy architecture, its watchdog system and its hybrid evented, multi-threaded and multi-process design.

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!

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.

[via Facebook]

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

Since the project release, there has been much activity. A part from CheerLights being discussed on blogs like MAKE and Lifehacker, the community has created some interesting bits of tech that extend the project further than lights. So if you don’t have a way to connect your lights together with CheerLights, you can connect your mobile phone, browser, and web sites together by subscribing to the CheerLights feed. Right now you can check the latest CheerLights color with an Android App created by @ChrisLeitner. Another really neat thing is a browser plugin for Chrome designed by Josh Crumley. So, in the top corner of your web browser you can see the latest color in an unassuming way. It’s a little reminder that we are connected.

To join CheerLights, all you have to do is build something that subscribed to the CheerLights ThingSpeak Channel or access the data using JSON and XML. You can also use the apps, browser plugins, or web widgets to see the colors. Visit the CheerLights website hosted on Tumblr for details on making a controller with Arduino, ioBridge, or Digi’s ConnectPort.

To control CheerLights, just send a Tweet to @CheerLights and mention a color.

Just think when you send this Tweet that you are updating 1000’s of lights, apps, browsers, and widgets all at the same time.

Spread some cheer…

[via MAKE / Lifehacker / CBC / ioBridge Projects]

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]

Just imagine what we can learn from all of our things? Maybe we can save resources as an article by Brian McCann suggests. He also mentions connecting things to ThingSpeak as the Web of Things is being built from the ground up! Our community of developers and users are growing by leaps and bounds and we will continue to contribute to the advancement of the Internet of Things!

Brian says,

The Internet of Things refers to uniquely identifiable objects having an Internet presence. We’re not just talking about your computer, laptop, cellphone or even your TV here – we’re talking about everything. This includes your light switches, your fridge, even your toilet. With an Internet presence, all of your devices can start talking to each other and reacting to each other.

[via The Daily Gleaner]

The mashup community ProgrammableWeb indexed the ThingSpeak API and the ThingSpeak Chart API. We entered the category of “Other”. Just imagine what web developers will create now that they have the Internet of Things at their fingertips.

[via ProgrammableWeb]