AVNET's iotconnect.io cloud platform is an online service that you can use to send data to, and then show it on a dashboard*. In this blog series I'm learning how to talk to it with Node-RED. In this post: the dashboard (live link).

In the previous part of the series, I've done all the steps to exchange data between a thing and the iotconnect.io cloud.

And how to do that with Node-RED.

In this post, I will step away from Node-RED for a moment, and focus on working with the data online.

I'll create a dashboard to show the telemetry data (temperature) from my device, and build an email alert.

All of that is done in the IotConnect portal.

Make a Dashboard

In the portal (I do not put a link here, because you need to consult previous posts to get to this point), click on the New Dashboard link

Create a new one, and edit it:

Give it a name and save.

Click Edit Property, and make it the default board

Show the most recent Temperature

Let's start with a simple tile to show the temperature.

Drag a single tile on the canvas. Click the ... to enter the properties form.

Set name, select device and attribute. It will list all available devices, and the attributes of the associated template.

Apply and save the dashboard. It is a Live control and will not yet show data. The control shows data that arrives after the board is displayed.

It's now time to go to your Node-RED flow and send a message to the cloud.

You'll see that the tile shows the info almost immediately after you pushed it to the cloud.

Show a Temperature Chart

Now let's try a chart. To get somewhat interesting data, I modified the Node-RED flow to "generate" random temperature data, every 5 minutes.

Here's the payload definition of the injector:

[
 {
  "uniqueId":"e14nodered1",
  "data":
  {
   "Temperature":"0"
  }
 }
]

Then the generator overrides the temperature:

This will give a steady data stream. A new temperature every 5 minutes. Deploy the flow.

Now add a line chart to the dashboard. Edit it, set the title, select the device and attribute.

Apply and save.

Because the Node-RED flow generates a temperature "measurement" every 5 minutes, you'll slowly see the chart showing the data.

If you are impatient, you can increase the repeat speed of the inject node of your flow. But be careful not to overrun the quota of your iotconnect.io account.

It may be better to just manually push the inject button a few times. It will generate enough data points then to show on the chart.

Here's my board after a few exchanges:

and a more elaborate one:

There are controls for asset tracking:

The left upper chart shows devices physical locations (the device has to communicate LAT and LON).

The chart below that shows the itinerary of a single device. You can use this for rolling material or assets you rent out or lease.

The two tables on the right show new devices added to your portfolio, and alarms.