[SOLVED] Code is putting photon into breathing green light

General
1

Mod Edit (@harrisonhjones): Solution: See this post

James Savko makes a washing machine detector (http://www.jamessavko.com/2016/01/19/washing-machine-notification-sensor/).

I have all the hardware and his code forces my particle photon to go into breathing green light. I have to go into safemode in order to re-flash which is inconvenient.

Here is the code I am referring to:
I am using 0.6.0 firmware.

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Spark IDE.
#include "thingspeak/thingspeak.h"

const int PiezoSensor = A1; // the piezo is connected to analog pin 1
const int threshold = 1;
const long interval = 17000;           // interval at which to ping Thingspeak (milliseconds)
unsigned long previousMillis = 0;        // will store last time we reported to thingspeek

int sensorReading = 0; // variable to store the value read from the sensor pin. From 0 to 1023
int ticks = 0;

ThingSpeakLibrary::ThingSpeak thingspeak ("Channel-API-Key");

void setup() {
      pinMode(PiezoSensor, INPUT);
}

void loop() {

    unsigned long currentMillis = millis();
    sensorReading = analogRead(PiezoSensor);

    if (sensorReading >= threshold) {
        bool valSet = thingspeak.recordValue(1, String(sensorReading, DEC));

        if (currentMillis - previousMillis >= interval) {
            ticks = (currentMillis - previousMillis);
            bool valSet = thingspeak.recordValue(2, String(ticks, DEC));
            bool valsSent = thingspeak.sendValues();
            if(valsSent) {
                previousMillis = currentMillis;
                ticks = 0;
            }
        }
    }
    delay(100);

}

I am unsure what to do.
Thank you!

2

I’ve narrowed down the problem to be

bool valsSent = thingspeak.sendValues();

I have no idea how to fix this.

3

There appear to be two thingspeak libraries in the WebIDE. Which are you using? Either way, you’ll want to reach out to the library owner.

4

You’re right, there are two thingspeak libraries. How do I find the owners of each library?

5

Hi @quesopones

The official one looks like this:

Screen Shot 2016-12-28 at 9.00.23 PM.png297×645 32.4 KB

And the github link points to the official github repo here:

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6

That sounds like when trying to send values, the code is blocking and preventing your Photon from processing it’s background tasks. So eventually after about 10-15 seconds the Photon will drop back to breathing green.

This is likely because your Thingspeak account is not setup properly I’d guess. Did you by any chance replace Channel-API-Key with your own?

7

@bko
Thank you, I am currently using that library

@BDub
Yes, I have replaced the Channel-API-Key with my own. Is there a tutorial that shows how to properly set up a thingspeak account with a particle photon?
Thanks!

8

You just need these lines with your secret numbers--you don't seem to be using the channel number.

/*
  *****************************************************************************************
  **** Visit https://www.thingspeak.com to sign up for a free account and create
  **** a channel.  The video tutorial http://community.thingspeak.com/tutorials/thingspeak-channels/ 
  **** has more information. You need to change this to your channel, and your write API key
  **** IF YOU SHARE YOUR CODE WITH OTHERS, MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE YOUR WRITE API KEY!!
  *****************************************************************************************/
unsigned long myChannelNumber = 31461;
const char * myWriteAPIKey = "LD79EOAAWRVYF04Y";

Try using this example to get started:

https://github.com/mathworks/thingspeak-particle/blob/master/firmware/examples/WriteMultipleVoltages.ino

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9

@bko
Thank you, that solved the problem!

3 Likes