Kalle Ott

Kalle Ott

IoT — Reading and sending sensor data

One of the most common use cases of IoT is reading and collecting sensor data. Here I will show an example using the DHT11 sensor which reads the temperature and humidity values in its environment.

A simple setup would look like this, the sensor is connected with its data pin to the GPIO pin 4 and an error led is connected to the GPIO pin 23, it shall blink when there is an error.

dth sensor setup

To address the sensor from node there is another dependency which has to be installed. The node-dht-sensor package uses the BCM2835 library. To install this library connect to your Raspberry Pi via ssh and start by downloading the current library version (1.57) after downloading unpack and install it:

wget https://www.airspayce.com/mikem/bcm2835/bcm2835-1.57.tar.gz
tar zxvf bcm2835-1.57.tar.gz
cd bcm2835-1.57
./configure
make
sudo make check
sudo make install

With the BCM2835 library installed the project setup can continue. As you already did for the blinky app create a new folder ~/sensors01 in your home folder on the Raspberry Pi. This folder will be used as target to transfer the files over scp.

On your normal computer start a new project and add a package.json:

{
  "name": "sensors01",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "axios": "^0.18.0",
    "node-dht-sensor": "^0.0.34",
    "onoff": "^3.2.2",
    "sleep-promise": "^8.0.1",
    "yargs": "^12.0.2"
  }
}

The listed dependencies are :

  • axios - a package for easier http requests
  • node-dht-sensor - used to read the DHT sensor
  • onoff - for easy access to the gpio pins
  • sleep-promise - awaitable sleep function
  • yargs - simplifies access to arguments used to start the program

As a start for your sensor reading program you can use this code:

const sensorLib = require("node-dht-sensor");
const Gpio = require("onoff").Gpio;
const sleep = require("sleep-promise");
const yargs = require("yargs");
const axios = require("axios");

const args = yargs.options({
  backend: { alias: "b" },
  interval: { alias: "i", default: 5000 },
  verbose: {
    alias: "v",
    default: false,
    boolean: true,
  },
}).argv;

console.log(
  `starting reading of sensor data with backend: ${args.backend} and interval: ${args.interval}`
);

const errorLed = new Gpio(23, "out");

// local state holding variable used to indicate some kind of error
let deviceHasError = false;
/**
 * function to let an led connected to the pin 23 blink frantically
 * runs as long as the `deviceHasError` state is true
 */
async function errorBlink() {
  errorLed.writeSync(1);
  await sleep(100);
  errorLed.writeSync(0);
  await sleep(100);

  if (deviceHasError) {
    errorBlink();
  }
}

/**
 * some data to describe the connected DHT sensor
 * type can be 11 or 22, it depends on the device
 * the number of the gpio pin connected to the data pin of the sensor
 */
const dhtSensor = {
  type: 11,
  pin: 4,
  name: "Kalle's DHT11",
};

/**
 * function which tries to send the given data to the server,
 * which is set through the `--backend` start argument
 * @param {*} params data to send to the server
 */
async function postDataToServer(params) {
  try {
    // TODO: send the data as JSON to the server
    if (args.verbose) {
      console.log("sent sensor data to server");
    }
  } catch (e) {
    console.error(
      "failed sending sensor data to server",
      e
    );
  }
}

/**
 * function which reads the sensor values and sends them to the server
 * after waiting for the specified interval time it calls itself to run again
 */
async function readSensor() {
  sensorLib.read(
    dhtSensor.type,
    dhtSensor.pin,
    (error, temperature, humidity) => {
      // TODO: check if there is an error
      // TODO: if the sensor values are valid send them to the backend
    }
  );

  // wait for the given interval
  await sleep(args.interval);
  // start over
  readSensor();
}

// kick of the sensor reading
readSensor();

Now it's time to bring some internet to the things, the program above needs a server to send the collected data to. For an easy start the server should be as simple as possible. I recommend using a library made for micro-services called micro.js, it lets you build single purpose servers easily.

To begin working on the server create another project and start with this package.json:

{
  "name": "sensorServer01",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "micro"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "micro": "^9.3.3",
    "ip": "^1.1.5"
  }
}

The listed dependencies are :

  • micro - package to create micro-services
  • ip - package to get simple access to own ip

As a starting point for the server you can use the following script:

const { promisify } = require("util");
const { json, send } = require("micro");
const ip = require("ip");
const fs = require("fs");

const writeFileAsync = promisify(fs.writeFile);
const existsFileAsync = promisify(fs.exists);

const DATA_FILE = "./sensorReadings.json";

/**
 * tries to read the json data stored in the
 * ./sensorReadings.json file, if it fails an
 * empty array is returned
 */
async function readData() {
  let data = [];
  if (await existsFileAsync(DATA_FILE)) {
    try {
      data = require(DATA_FILE);
    } catch (e) {
      console.error(
        "failed reading file",
        DATA_FILE,
        e
      );
    }
  }
  return data;
}

/**
 * Writes the collected data as a stringified json object
 * to the ./sensorReadings.json file
 * @param {Array<any>} data
 */
async function writeData(data) {
  await writeFileAsync(
    DATA_FILE,
    JSON.stringify(data)
  );
}

console.log(
  "started sensor data collection service"
);
console.log(
  "running at ",
  `http://${ip.address()}:${
    process.env.PORT || 3000
  }`
);

/**
 * If the server gets a POST request read the posted json data and store it
 * if it is a GET request send the collected data to the client
 * @param {import("http").IncomingMessage} req
 * @param {import("http").ServerResponse} res
 */
module.exports = async function handleRequest(
  req,
  res
) {
  const data = await readData();

  if (req.method === "GET") {
    // TODO: send the collected data to the client
  } else if (req.method === "POST") {
    // TODO: add the newly collected data to the data array
    // TODO: send a success code to the client
  }
};

Tasks

  • prepare the Raspberry Pi with the installation of the BCM2835 library
  • connect a DHT11 sensor with the Raspberry Pi
  • connect a LED with the Raspberry Pi as an error signal
  • extend the program running on the RPi to read temperature and humidity values from the DHT11 sensor
  • create a server to collect data posted to it
← Back to home