Feel free to tear it up !

Nothing you can do can damage MRL.  In fact you can't "check-in" until I give you access too.  So dont worry about that. 

When your ready to share your new service to the world, I'll help you "check it in" by giving rights to do so.  We will code-review it together...  very excited for your contributions..

Glad you've made it so far !

Thanks !

Great !

Step 1.

Make a new post - describe  your current sensors, micro-controllers & experience or links to ThingSpeak API

Step 2 - we'll start adding code to ThingSpeak.java

This looks like the main API - http://community.thingspeak.com/documentation/api/

Looking through it quickly - it seems pretty straight-forward - simple HTTP GET requests to do updates to a channel which is already defined.

This - http://community.thingspeak.com/tutorials/arduino/using-an-arduino-ethe…  looks like a straight Arduino -> ThingSpeak if you have ethernet shield, but we won't need one since the computer is connected via USB & is running MRL.

Seems like they have other functionality too since I last visited them - TweetSpeak and other apps.. probably worth investigating at some point - but will go with basic functionality first 

Created a new public channel on ThingSpeak - 

https://www.thingspeak.com/channels/4050

Now I'll do some experiments to get data in - then we can figure out how we want data from the Arduino to post ...

Are you with me ?  Are we flying yet ?

I created a  faux Arduino pin post URL - > http://api.thingspeak.com/update?key=AO4DMKQZY4RLWNNU&field1=pin&field2…

It returned with a "1"  - so I think that is good - don't see the data in the chart though...

Now I'll try to figure how to display it in their chart..

Some observations :

I "think" field1 field2 etc is thingspeaks requirement .. which is a little constrained in that the user doesnt get to choose the field names.. but whatever.. we can work with it..

More info :

I've done some testing with URLs and can see the results on the test channel - https://www.thingspeak.com/channels/4050

I found out the API only allows updates every 15 seconds - so, thinking about the Strategic Klingon Battle Computer - um.. we don't want something hanging for 15 seconds until it can do an update.  

There is a return code - which is the numerical amount of data you've put in which comes back on an update.  This comes back as 0 when you update it too quickly..

We want to generalize the data going through our ThinkSpeak Service, so service besides Arduino can use it.

I've started the following method in ThingSpeak.java  Service

public Integer update(Object[] data) {

String result = "0";

try {

for (int i = 0; i < data.length; ++i)

{

Object o = data[i];

String url = String.format("%s?key=%s&field1=%s", updateURL, writeKey, o.toString());

HTTPRequest request = new HTTPRequest(url);

result = request.getString();

log.info(String.format("ThingSpeak returned %s",result));

}

} catch (IOException e) {

Service.logException(e);

}

 

return Integer.parseInt(result);

}

Cute they give you iframe code - so you can quickly embbed the chart in a different web page.. gonna have to hook up and Arduino and get the thing posting...

WoooHoo Arduino -> MRL -> ThingSpeak Service -> ThingSpeak - not a single line of code :)

Step 1 - Load an Arduino & and ThingSpeak Service.

Step 2. - I hate this part (programming gaphically) - could be done in Python more cleanly.. but you can program message routes via the gui tab -
press the out of the Arduino - select pinPublish -> Pin  then the input of the ThingSpeak service update (Pin)
 

Turn on tracing - 

Step 3 - switch to the Arduino oscope page select a line trace it...

So now all data coming from the Arduino goes to the Thingspeak .. GAH - the some issues

1. It's my account DOH

2. Its too much data - hopefully they wont get mad - I think there probably used to this kind of abuse...
3. Theres no GUI fields for taking in specific info the read & write keys

The ThingSpeak Service - http://myrobotlab.org/service/ThingSpeak

You can copy paste the Python example in the Python tab - You'll need to tweak a few values.. e.g. depending on your Arduino type, serial connection, and ThingSpeak write key...

But it should work for you out of the box....

I've checked in the code - there could be a lot of stuff added, gui additions and other thing about ThingSpeak I don't even understand yet...

Make sure you seat belt is buckled..