Published June 13, 2016 © GPL3+

Easiest Raspberry Pi IoT Device Ever!

Easily make a Raspberry Pi device controlled from a smart phone over the Internet! Send and receive data!

BeginnerFull instructions provided1 hour1,550

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

Ultrasonic Sensor - HC-SR04 (Generic)

Software apps and online services

Das Coisas Taurus Platform

Raspberry Pi Raspbian

Story

Welcome back folks! This is another Hackster.io project of mine! And today I'm gonna show you guys, my hourly build with Raspberry Pi and www.TaurusSystem.com powered Internet Of Things device.

Before getting started, all you need is an AlfaTech account for managing your device remotely! Visit www.TaurusSystem.com for getting started.

Registering an account on AlfaTech!

Fill up everything except Serial number

You can fill up all the sections provided except the SERIAL one. SERIAL is basically a unique key assigned to different projects.

NOTE: One account can have multiple projects, each project requires a unique SERIAL!

SERIAL is provided by the administrators of this platform, so for getting one, you need to shoot a mail at alfatech@inatel.br, requesting a SERIAL for your project and they'll reply ASAP! Or you can send a personal message to @Leoribg on Hackster.io. They are really helpful, believe me.

For more info, visit here! When you have your SERIAL and account running, you could see something like this:

Logging into your dashboard!

This is the HOME page, with details of your project! I blurred my SERIAL for privacy reason!

You can always create new projects!

Now you can enter your dashboard to manage Sensors, Digital Actuators, Analog Actuators, etc.

Your dashboard will look something like this :) Enjoy!

Making HTTP requests to the server!

Now 50% of the project is done. Let's complete another 50! This complete IoT platform works with a series of URLs which makes HTTP requests to the platform!

Let's get these URLs known:

http://www.taurussystem.com/ws/webresources/Add?key=SERIAL&&component=xxyy&&value=0

In the above URL, replace SERIAL with your key. Let's understand component=xxyy.

xx is the component name:

xx=10 for digital actuator

xx=20 for sensor

xx=30 for analog actuator

yy is the component number:

yy=01 is for the first object created, 02 will be for the second and so on.

For example, first sensor object will be 01, second digital actuator object will be 02, that's it.

Easy, huh? value=0 is the initial value, and should remain the same while creating a new component. For this tutorial, open up a new tab in your browser and enter the following link:

http://www.taurussystem.com/ws/webresources/Add?key=SERIAL&&component=2001&&value=0

Replace SERIAL with your serial number and press enter, and a new sensor component created with this message!

{'code':200,'message':success}

Your new sensor component! Hurray :)

Now for updating sensor, you need the following URL: www.TaurusSystem.com/ws/webresources/Sensor/set?key=SERIAL&&sensor=2001&&value=x

Replace SERIAL with your serial number. value=x is the sensor value, so if you replace x with 10 and visit your dashboard, you could see sensor value updated to 10! If you see above picture, you can find LAST VALUE & CURRENT VALUE, they are basically the sensor value, and it's also beautifully plotted on a graph. So for a test, open a new tab and enter the following: www.TaurusSystem.com/ws/webresources/Sensor/set?key=SERIAL&&sensor=2001&&value=10

Press enter and you could see the following message on screen:

{'code': 200,'message':sensor successfully updated}

You could see the sensor data updated in your dashboard!

But we need this to work on our Raspberry Pi! Python to the rescue!

Setting up the Raspberry Pi!

Download the usoniciotstream.py & usoniciot.py from the attached file, and put them in the same folder!

This is the hardware setup with Raspberry Pi

Red wires are +5V. Black wires are GND. Green wire is ECHO. Blue wire is TRIG. Resistor is of 1K. Easy? Yeah! That's it, done with the Hardware!

Time to code, and get some coffee!

Open up the usoniciot.py you have downloaded previously, and do the following edit:

import requests
from usoniciotstream import reading
while True:
key = 'SERIAL'
sensvalue = reading(0)
x = int(sensvalue)
url = "http://www.taurussystem.com/ws/webresources/Sensor/set?key=%s&&sensor=2001&&value=%s" % (key, x)
print url
r = requests.head(url)
print r

Replace key = 'SERIAL' with your serial number and done. Run the python file and great to go! Run the file with following command:

$ sudo python usoniciot.py

That's it! Now visit www.TaurusSystem.com and login into your dashboard, you can see the sensor data being updated.

Done! Enjoy!

Enjoy tinkering with your Raspberry Pi

If you really find this helpful, do follow at Twitter @RiSiOfficial for more similar projects.

Thanks for Reading! And thanks to AlfaTech!

Code

#!/usr/bin/python

# remember to change the GPIO values below to match your sensors
# GPIO output = the pin that's connected to "Trig" on the sensor
# GPIO input = the pin that's connected to "Echo" on the sensor

def reading(sensor):
	import time
	import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
	
	# Disable any warning message such as GPIO pins in use
	GPIO.setwarnings(False)
	
	# use the values of the GPIO pins, and not the actual pin number
	# so if you connect to GPIO 25 which is on pin number 22, the 
	# reference in this code is 25, which is the number of the GPIO 
	# port and not the number of the physical pin
	GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
	
	if sensor == 0:
		
		# point the software to the GPIO pins the sensor is using
		# change these values to the pins you are using
		# GPIO output = the pin that's connected to "Trig" on the sensor
		# GPIO input = the pin that's connected to "Echo" on the sensor
		GPIO.setup(17,GPIO.OUT)
		GPIO.setup(27,GPIO.IN)
		GPIO.output(17, GPIO.LOW)
		
		# found that the sensor can crash if there isn't a delay here
		# no idea why. If you have odd crashing issues, increase delay
		time.sleep(0.3)
		
		# sensor manual says a pulse ength of 10Us will trigger the 
		# sensor to transmit 8 cycles of ultrasonic burst at 40kHz and 
		# wait for the reflected ultrasonic burst to be received
		
		# to get a pulse length of 10Us we need to start the pulse, then
		# wait for 10 microseconds, then stop the pulse. This will 
		# result in the pulse length being 10Us.
		
		# start the pulse on the GPIO pin 
		# change this value to the pin you are using
		# GPIO output = the pin that's connected to "Trig" on the sensor
		GPIO.output(17, True)
		
		# wait 10 micro seconds (this is 0.00001 seconds) so the pulse
		# length is 10Us as the sensor expects
		time.sleep(0.00001)
		
		# stop the pulse after the time above has passed
		# change this value to the pin you are using
		# GPIO output = the pin that's connected to "Trig" on the sensor
		GPIO.output(17, False)

		# listen to the input pin. 0 means nothing is happening. Once a
		# signal is received the value will be 1 so the while loop
		# stops and has the last recorded time the signal was 0
		# change this value to the pin you are using
		# GPIO input = the pin that's connected to "Echo" on the sensor
		while GPIO.input(27) == 0:
		  signaloff = time.time()
		
		# listen to the input pin. Once a signal is received, record the
		# time the signal came through
		# change this value to the pin you are using
		# GPIO input = the pin that's connected to "Echo" on the sensor
		while GPIO.input(27) == 1:
		  signalon = time.time()
		
		# work out the difference in the two recorded times above to 
		# calculate the distance of an object in front of the sensor
		timepassed = signalon - signaloff
		
		# we now have our distance but it's not in a useful unit of
		# measurement. So now we convert this distance into centimetres
		distance = timepassed * 17000
		
		# return the distance of an object in front of the sensor in cm
		return distance
		
		# we're no longer using the GPIO, so tell software we're done
		GPIO.cleanup()

	else:
		print "Incorrect usonic() function varible."

print reading(0)

Credits

Rishabh Sinha

2 projects • 13 followers

Electronic Hobbyist.

Easiest Raspberry Pi IoT Device Ever!

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Registering an account on AlfaTech!

Logging into your dashboard!

Making HTTP requests to the server!

Setting up the Raspberry Pi!

Time to code, and get some coffee!

Done! Enjoy!

Schematics

Raspberry Pi Hardware setup

Code

usoniciot.py

usoniciotstream.py

Credits

Rishabh Sinha

Comments

Embed the widget on your own site

Easiest Raspberry Pi IoT Device Ever!

Easiest Raspberry Pi IoT Device Ever!

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Registering an account on AlfaTech!

Logging into your dashboard!

Making HTTP requests to the server!

Setting up the Raspberry Pi!

Time to code, and get some coffee!

Done! Enjoy!

Schematics

Raspberry Pi Hardware setup

Code

usoniciot.py

usoniciotstream.py

Credits

Rishabh Sinha

Comments

Related channels and tags