thing-it-device-atlas-scientific

thing-it-device-atlas-scientific

[thing-it-node] Device Plugin for Atlas Scientific metering products (e.g. pH meter).

This allows you to

• monitor pH or flow metering,
• define complex scenes, storyboards and timer controlled execution

by means of thing-it-node and thing-it.com, e.g. to set up Aquaponics solution.

Installation

Hardware Setup

Connect your Atlas Scientific metering product to the GPIOs of your Single-Board Computer e.g. the pH probe to your Raspberry Pi Zero as follows

or for details like in the wireframe below

note that the I2C data wires need a 10k pullup resistor.

Atlas Scientific has plenty of documentation for the setup of the different probes.

Installation of NodeJS and [thing-it-node]

First, install nodejs on your computer (e.g. your PC or your Raspberry Pi).

Then install [thing-it-node] via

npm install -g thing-it-node

Initialization and Start of [thing-it-node]

The [thing-it-device-atlas-scientific] Plugin is installed with [thing-it-node], hence there is no need to install it separately.

The Plugin supports Autodiscovery for connected I2C devices, hence you only have to create a directory in which you intend to run the configuration, e.g.

mkdir ~/atlas-scientific-test
cd ~/atlas-scientific-test

and invoke

tin init

and then start [thing-it-node] via

tin run

Note, that at this point Autodiscovery would only discover distinct products such as pHMeter or temperature sensor. It will not be able to distinguish between two pHMeters.

If you don't want to use Autodiscovery, you may use configurations like the sample configuration.

Mobile UI

Install the thing-it Mobile App from the Apple Appstore or Google Play and set it up to connect to [thing-it-node] locally as described here or just connect your browser under http://localhost:3001 to check how the Mobile UI would look like.

The following screenshot shows the Node Page of the sample configuration, which just defines 3 pH Meters:

(with the above values for fish ponds, you probably regret not to have defined a [thing-it-node] event processor to send alerts, activate the pump or the like ...)

You can also run the calibration sequence from the thing-it Mobile App:

Open the Device Page, click Calibrate High, enter the actual pH value (after waiting a few seconds for the value to stabilize) and then repeat the procedure for Calibrate Middle and Calibrate Low.

Where to go from here ...

Obviously, you may set up more complex configuration, e.g. an aquaponics solution with

• water temperature sensors,
• water level sensors,
• switches for pumps, feeders, shades and fans,
• cameras to watch the fish ponds remotely etc.

Or, you want to distribute a set of sensors and correlate their historical data with wheather data and other things on thing-it.com.

You may also be interested in

• Configuring additional Devices, Groups, Services, Event Processing, Storyboards and Jobs via your [thing-it] Mobile App.
• Use thing-it.com to safely connect your Node Box from everywhere, manage complex configurations, store and analyze historical data and offer your configurations to others on the [thing-it] Mesh Market.
• Explore other Device Plugins like Texas Instruments Sensor Tag, Plugwise Smart Switches and many more. For a full set of Device Plugins search for thing-it-device on npm.
• Or write your own Plugins.