Zeke Holloman

@zeke-holloman communications – peer2peer – is a deep subject.

Many years ago I wrote the code for a comms stack to use the 9bit UART to poll an array of processors. In the end it was 2people for 18months to get it working reliably.  So its not trivial, but i had a fantastic time with…[Read more]

@zeke-holloman  hey congrats,!!! Thanks for the posting and analysis, I could also build from that.

Wow… the power of open source that you can dive in and tweak it, so you can make it work. Go @zeke-holloman   !!!

Just an FYI, what I do to facilitate easy maintenance, and easy future merges, I rename my customizations to a “unique name sp…[Read more]

@zeke-holloman I agree with @srgdamiano,  Mathworks have gone down the path of making it difficult to test a small number of devices against thingspeak, since it was added to ModularSensors publishers.

A bit of shame since I’ve had some simple devices working reliably against it since 2013.

Also unfortunately, “the real world” is that testing…[Read more]

@zeke-holloman  great glad to hear it.

Which modem did you buy and where did you get it?. I thought they were in short supply,  and I’ve been keeping my eye open for them.

I’ve been using the Digi LTE XB3-C-A2-UT-001, which needs the the latest XCTU modem board to upgrade as its is a complex process.

@zeke-holloman  I’ve been out the office. Just to summarize our offline investigation – I got a good POST using your thingspeak settings. It seem to me that its your modem data plan that isn’t connecting in some way. Maybe there is a better error indication from DigiXBeeCellularTransparent, but its an evolving area to make it easy.

@zeke-holloman do you want to send me the thingspeak details on my email neilh20@wLLw.net and I’ll try them in my setting.  I have a historical thingspeak account which has exceeded its free quota, so I can’t create more devices.

The hologram account should work with the Xbee LTE ( I have an XB3-CA2-UT-001) if setup, and I started with…[Read more]

@zeke-holloman

Everything I was talking about is MQTT with Thingspeak.  I tested it on my Thingspeak connection I created. It was just allowing the micro-python code in the Xbee to handle all the network and MQTT items vice using the AT commands from the MayFly to the Xbee as it looks like is happening in the enviroDIY libraries.

@zeke-holloman,  I figured out that the other day I hadn’t changed the apn to the source I was using.

So with your code, my apn and thingspeak API, using tera-term 4.105 with TimeStamp and the following changes I got a good response from  thingspeak
<div>
<div>#include <ModularSensors.h> //pre 0.30.0 was &…[Read more]

Hello @rick-vogel – sounds fascinating & fun to use python in the Xbee.  Though for ModularSensors there are layers of software that allow the physical modem to be abstracted so it could be possible to use another LTE when it becomes available (0.30.0 seems to have hooks for a new LTE modem SIM7080G) – through TinyGSM. As a Class package that @srgd…[Read more]

@neilh20 and @zeke-holloman

Gonna let you all work through this on the mayfly code using the xbee transparent mode. If at some point you would like to use the micro-python option in the xbee I can provide some code to just use simple serial.println() on the mayfly to send payload to the xbee and it will handle all the MQTT stuff in the background.

hello @zeke-holloman. Just looking through it, and yes thats my assumption at the moment is that its the cellular side that is not connecting.
There are 2 parts 1) getting internet & time 2) thingspeak.
1) If the cell phone connects for NIST time, then it can connect with the internet, and the cell modem account setting is good.

2) if thingspeak…[Read more]

@zeke-holloman – I have no idea why my previous post came out so badly, and it won’t allow me to edit it!!. My usual way of recovering strange posts.

It should be interesting to see what you get with your cell modem.

Using your sketch, which references the latest ModularSensors

Using ModularSensors Library version 0.30.0
TinyGSM Library version…[Read more]

@zeke-holloman   interesting, seems like it should work.

When I have strange issues, I delete the .pio/…   and force it to  do a refresh with all the remote libs.  I see you are using the DecagonCTD which recently changed to hydros21, but seems like it should work.

I’ve taken your platformio.ini and program  and adding my thingspeak keys,…

[Read more]

@zeke-holloman

a correction on part, when I looked through the thingspeak API, both the historical and the MQTT method use the POST to deliver it to thingspeak, however they have a slightly different API.

Initially when looking at your posting I assumed you had removed the keys as it was public, however looking at your your trace it is saying…[Read more]

@zeke-holloman

I’m not sure if this pertains to your project or not, but when I was looking through the ThingSpeak documentation and going through my test account it had a place to add a MQTT device that would be posting. It issued the device credentials: username, client ID and password…?? Sorry if I’m just causing more confusion, but trying…[Read more]

Hi @zeke-holloman – looks like the ThingSpeak keys and channel need to be added.

Add them to (the following are examples)
const char* thingSpeakMQTTKey =
“Z0G6QX4IXEHKG0PK”; // Your MQTT API Key from Account > MyProfile.
const char* thingSpeakChannelID =
“5940”; // The numeric channel id for your channel eg
const char* thingSpeakChannelKey…[Read more]