I think that after I get the data into the DynamoDB database, I can then use https://plot.ly to create graphs and charts to display that information in a good looking format.
You can then take the custom graphs and charts and embed them into a custom web page your create for your product which is what I want to do.
But I also see that Plot.ly now has a feature called Dashboards which allows you to create a dashboard for your data like Ubidots does but only with better-looking graph options.
I just want the ability to create a responsive web page where I can drop in custom graphs and charts so the end user can view the live and past system performance data while keeping cost to a minimum.
After searching for the last hour, I see that Plotly has no easy way to pull data directly from DynamoDB.
Only these databases are currently integrated and that’s just provides a way to pull the data in to create the graph, not really a way to live update your graphs on a website:
have you looked at Microsoft Azure? They offer a similar cloud to AWS.
They have Power BI for your dashboards, so maybe that can help you in your project.
Gustavo.
@gusgonnet Yea man that looks like exactly what I need
I just spent an hour watching Azure BI videos they provide showing how you can create custom charts and graphs from your data and embed it into your web pages which is exactly what I want to do.
It will take me awhile to figure out their BI dashboard software, but they do provide plenty of videos to bring you up to speed which is good.
It looks like now I’m going to need to search the forum and Hackster.io to see how others are sending data to Azure Databases using the Photon & Electron.
great!
never used Azure before, but started looking at it few weeks ago.
There is a contest running in hackster so you might want to get examples (if there are any) from there:
That Holo Lens looks pretty amazing. It’s the first I have ever heard of it.
I have been watching Power BI video’s on Youtube today in the background while working, and that’s pretty good stuff backed by a bunch of smart people with Microsofts resources.
I did learn that Power BI has a high integration with Excel documents. This is good because you have already provided a lightweight way of sending sensor data from the Photon to a could hosted Google Sheet document which is free.
I asked @Dave for the best way to send data from a Photon to Azure, and it’s still painful and expensive. So I’m wondering what the disadvantages are of storing your database info Excel spreadsheet the way you are doing it?
Are there limits to how large the Excel Spread Sheet can get?
Is the data transmission from the Photon to Google Sheet’s secure?
It seems like the Google Sheet option is a simple, cheap way of creating a database but I’m sure there are some negatives to doing this that I’m not thinking about maybe?
yes, however I still don't see how this thing really works. I did not come across a video that shows it "really working" and what you would see when using it.
Watch out. I learned that Excel is not the same as google sheets and formulas, etc might not work the same. So, not sure about power BI working perfectly in google (it might work, but what if not).
one time I ran into the situation of needing to add myself rows at the end, so I wouldn't use this approach for big data.
It seems like the Secure direct connection to Azure and AWS that the Photon is not capable of right now causes the need for all these workarounds that cause things to be more complicated and more expensive than they need to be.
At least for now I have come to the conclusion that Power BI looks to be able to provide exactly what I’m envisioning as far as the end user dashboard view goes.
So the struggle is how to build efficiently a database that easily works with the Photon & Electron. I’m sure there is a way with all the services they are setup to link to:
Do you see anything below that the Photon could post data to directly? I have a lot to learn here
Hey Ryan,
I agree with you that Power BI can help develop the super duper dashboards we all want for our project (be it home or professional projects).
Now for getting the data there, I believe it is possible today to use a Particle webhook that will securely hit an Azure API that will in time enter the data in an Azure database.
The webhook is pretty simple to implement, it would be the same that anybody uses to hit the AWS API. Even the same one described here.
Now in Azure you will have to create an API that will receive this data, and dump it in a database.
This part I suspect will be similar to AWS, but can’t tell. I remember I spent like all the evenings of a week to be able to create that API in AWS (I had never worked with AWS before). Perhaps in Azure this will be a similar effort, who knows.
Gustavo.
That Holo Lens is indeed really cool! My kids would love it.
I have setup a few web hooks in the past for pulling in weather data using the Dashboard webook generator, so I know how to do that.
I guess I need to dive in and look for some examples of how others are dropping data into an Azure database successfully if any. I know @Dave has done it, but it’s a complicated way of doing it which is less than ideal and can get expensive due to the additional processes that you have to pay for.
Azure Database looks to be a good choice for a low-cost worldwide scalable solution to databasing so ideally it’s is the first choice. There may be easier solutions though since Power BI can use data from all the different sources that I posted in the images above.
Microsoft has a Youtube playlist that goes over every single detail about Power BI which is excellent for getting you up and running. They have 500 people working on Power BI based on one of their latest Keynote speeches, and they currently have 45,000 businesses using it, and 5 million people using the service as end users.
That article provided an example weather station that sends data from a Photon to Azure in this Hackster page:
And then on that Hackster page, there is a link to this document where they say in version 2 of Connect The Dot’s they are now sending data to the Azure IOT Events instead of Azure Event Hub. https://github.com/Azure/connectthedots
This is all new to me so I’m going to have to ingest all this in the free time I come up with but the main question I want to ask is if I’m on the right track as far as this being the best way to get product sensor data into an Azure database that can be scaled in the future in an efficient way as far as data transfer and cost go.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who will be wanting to do this.
I’m a longtime AWS user. I like the toolchain provided in AWS. I don’t need something easier or something different. I need TLS so I can use MQTT, not a workaround. If I wanted to use a restful API I would, but I need MQTT with TLS.
