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IoTa + Photon

The BIG ONE: Combining IoTa + Photon Recipes

Now that you have a basic understanding on how you can write and create simple interactions on the Photon, let's put all of the technological portions we have learnt together. This is why it's called the BIG ONE – the moment where you finally get to blend all these different technological frameworks together!

This is probably the most daunting part of the technological aspects of this studio, so take your time to understand this (and post your questions on #slack).

Since each group will also have their own unique use cases, there cannot be every possible example written here in this resource. However it is hoped that this page will give the foundation needed to then build on more complex layers of data, sensors and actuators.

With that said, here's a very common sequence that summarises your development scenario:

This page provides a general ‘overview recipe’ on how to do this.

Video

Here's a tutorial video of me talking through the details of an IoTa + Photon setup (fullscreen playback recommended). The example here uses the Feature Lighting dataset, and also relies on a modified servo circuit + Photon code.

1. Setting up the dataset

We now have a flow that is producing a steady stream of numbers (lamp wattage) from the Feature Lighting dataset:

Let's use the wattage of the lights, captured in this data stream, to drive the position of a servo arm:

At this point, you should understand that this lamp_rating_w property will change as each light entry is iterated through. Knowing this changing value, we can then send it out to a Photon.

In order to send ‘instructions’ to a Photon directly from within iota.mdit.space, we can use the ParticleFunc node. Drag one from the palette, and configure it following the instructions given via the Info panel:

Cloud URL / Particle Token: This can be found in your account's build.particle.io page, under the Settings panel
Device ID / Name: Also found in your account's build.particle.io page, under the Devices panel
Cloud Function: A case-sensitive name we will use throughout from iota.mdit.space to our Photon code

2. Mapping the Dataset

With the ParticleFunc node configured, take a look at the rest of this example flow:

We already know that this flow is ‘downstream’ of our Feature Lighting dataset (have a look at the Link nodes that provide a ‘wireless’ connection in the interface).

The ‘Range’ node scales the incoming lamp wattage to a range that suits a servo's minimum / maximum angle. In other words, the lowest wattage (3W) is mapped to 0º, while the highest wattage (500W) is mapped to 180º.

The ‘and gate’ provides an easy way to control the data flow manually, while the Function node contains code that formats the payload into a string expected by the Photon.

What is the string expected by our Photon? The Photon code I have written is designed to accept the following format:

[command],[argument1],[argument2]

So, in the case of controlling a servo, that would become:

[servoCommand],[servoID],[servoAngle]

and to be very explicit, here's an example of the servo command you send as a string in IoTa:

0,0,75

…which tells the sole servo connected to the Photon to turn its arm to 75º.

What we have done essentially is to grab the raw data feed, ‘clean’ it to a re-scaled range of numbers, and sent it out at regular intervals to our Photon.

We are now ready for the final part – modifying the Photon code to accept these instructions.

3. Photon circuit & code

If you haven't already, you should study the Servo Expression recipe to understand how to physically set up the circuit. Here's a simplified version of the same servo circuit:

We will now modify the code in such a way that the Photon is able to ‘listen’ in to incoming values (see the Code section below).

The most critical addition is the introduction of:

11

Particle.function("updateServo", updateServo);

and the updateServo function (see Code below), which contains quite a bit of code to parse the incoming string from iota.mdit.space into instructions for the circuit.

If you followed all the steps above, you should now see your servo arm move at one second intervals whenever the data changes. As you can tell from the data, the light wattage sometimes does not deviate much between different sets of lights, so you will not experience the servo arm moving every single second.

Feeling adventurous? Try a different data set that have a much large variance in numerical output, and see if you can get your servo to move more actively!

Libraries Used

(learn how to import them in the Build IDE):

Code

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// set up a servo for use
Servo myservo;

#define SERVO_PIN   D0

// code in this setup function runs just once, when Photon is powered up or reset
void setup() {
    Serial.begin(9600);             // Open a connection via the Serial port – useful for debugging
    myservo.attach(SERVO_PIN);

    Particle.function("updateServo", updateServo);

    delay(5000);                    // Common practice to allow board to 'settle' after connecting online
}


// code in this loop function runs forever, until you cut power!
void loop() {
    // nothing to do here, since this example simply waits for new data input from sensored.mdit.space
}


// declare the MODES that your project needs
// in this basic example let's use just one mode
typedef enum {
        PGMSTATE_SERVOGO
} pgmEnum;

// declare a variable that will 'remember' the mode the program is in
volatile pgmEnum pgmState = PGMSTATE_SERVOGO;


////////////// Particle Cloud Functions
int updateServo(String command) {       // listens to incoming instructions from sensored.mdit.space
        uint8_t res = -1;
        char * params = new char[command.length() + 1];

        strcpy(params, command.c_str());
        char * param1 = strtok(params, ",");    // 'mode'

        if(param1 != NULL) {
                pgmState = (pgmEnum)atoi(param1);

                // continue with parsing of pgmState
                switch(pgmState) {
                    case PGMSTATE_SERVOGO: {                // update servo arm position
                        char * pServoPin = strtok(NULL, ",");           // param2, servo pin
                        char * pAngle = strtok(NULL, ",");              // param3, servo angle

                        if(pServoPin != NULL && pAngle != NULL) {

                                int s = atoi(pServoPin);

                                // a simple way to ensure we are telling servo connected to D0
                                // we can build on this to add more servos to the code if necessary
                                // and checking against this value here
                                if(s==0) {  
                                    // always ensure incoming value is 0-180
                                    int a = constrain(atoi(pAngle), 0, 180);
                                    myservo.write(a);

                                    Serial.printlnf("%i:%i", s, a);
                                }

                                res = 1;
                        } else {
                                res = -1;
                        }

                        break;
                    }
                }
        }
        else {   // invalid command args
        }

        return res;
}