Test del modulo Wifi ESP8266

Recentemente ho ricevuto una coppia di moduli Wifi ESP8266-01. 

Questo modulo e’ un piccolo transceiver Wifi per progetti Arduino, Raspberry o altri ambienti con caratteristiche eccezionali [https://github.com/esp8266/esp8266-wiki/wiki] e dal costo molto contenuto di circa 3$

Nei miei vari esperimenti per dotare i miei progettini di un canale di comunicazione ho provato i vari moduli RF a 433Mhz, connessione infrarossi, gli stupefacenti moduli Nrf24L01 wireless etc, ottenendo risultati piu’ o meno soddisfacenti.

Ma nessun modulo da me provato finora mi ha offerto le incredibili capacita’ del modulo ESP8266-01.  

Questo modulo mi permette di dotare i miei progettini di connettivita’ WiFi e quindi  permettermi di controllarli via Internet (sia da casa sia fuori casa).

In questo articolo descrivo il mio primo approccio e test con questo modulo. 

BoM

• 1x modulo ESP8266-01

• 1x breadboard

• 1x PL2302HX USB to TTL converter

• 1x porta batterie AA (riciclato da una vecchia macchinina telecomandata) e 2x batterie stilo AA

• 8x rainbow wire maschio-femmina per i collegamenti

Connessioni

Ho realizzato le connessino come rappresentato nello schema qui sotto

Alimentazione

Il modulo ESP8266-01 necessita di alimentazione e segnali a 3.3V. Consigli di usare un’alimentazione stabile in quanto ho notato che il modulo e’ molto sensibile e potrebbe resettarsi di continuo di fatto non funzionando.

Nel mio caso ho provato a prendere l’alimentazione da Arduino Uno ma non era sufficiente, quindi ho utilizzato due batterie AA da 1,5 Volt.

Nel schema le batterie di alimentazione vanno collegate cosi:

•  filo blu e’ il positivo (+) 
•  file  nero e’ il negativo (-) [massa]

Connessione Seriale

Ho utilizzato l’unico modulo USB to TTL che posseggo (PL2302HX USB to TTL converter). Questo modulo fornisce anche l’alimentazione a 3.3V ma anche in questo caso non e’ sufficiente per alimentare correttamente il modulo ESP8266-01.

Nello schema il modulo USB to TTL va collegato cosi’:

•           filo nero [1] a massa
•           filo viola [1] pin RX
•          filo grigio [1] pin TX

Modulo EPS8266-01

Il modulo ESP8266-01 che ho usato io ha la seguente piedinatura (moduli differenti ESP8266-X hanno piedinatura diversa ma comunque simile e facilmente riconducibile a quanto descritto qui)

Ho connesso il modulo in questo modo:

• filo blu [1] pin VCC
• filo blu [2] pin CH_PD (boot mode – deve essere sempre ad livello logico 1 per far funzionare il WiFi)
• filo viola [2] pix TX

• filo grigio [2] pin RX
• filo nero [2] pin GND

Una volta fatti questi collegati i fili in base alla colorazione come descritto sopra e’ facilissimo collegarli sulla breadboard. Basta collegare i fili a coppie di colori.

Quindi tutti i fili neri vanno a massa, tutti i fili blu vanno a VCC, poi viola con viola (USB RX – Wifi TX) e grigio con grigio (USB TX – Wifi RX)

Qui i collegamenti che ho fatto io in base a quanto spiegato sopra

ESP8266-01 Test

ESP8266 Wifi Access Point

A questo punto non resta che alimentare il modulo collegando i due fili delle batterie alla breadboard come indicato sopra.

Se tutto e’ andato a buon fine non si vedra’ niente, ma solo in apparenza.

Verifichiamo dal nonstro PC le connessioni wireless disponibili

Con grande piacere e’ comparsa una nuova rete wireless. Il modulo ESP8266 e’ di default configurato come un wireless access point (il nome della rete wifi potrebbe variare con il vostrop modulo). Ok i collegamenti sono corretti in quanto il modulo funziona.

Adesso proviamo a configurarlo come wireless client e a verificarne il funzionamento

Avremo bisogno di un terminale seriale come il vecchio hyperterminal, minicom ,etcc.

Io per comodita’ uso l’IDE di Arduino che ne include gia’ uno (Monitor Seriale)

ESP8266 Wifi Client

A questo punto inserisco il modulo USB to TTL in una porta USB del mio PC.

Nel mio caso questo modulo USB to TTL viene configurato su windows come COM6. Nel vostro caso il numero di porta seriale potrebbe essere diverso ma la procedura rimane ovviamente la stessa.

Adesso accertiamoci che la porta seriale in questione sia configurata correttamente per poter comunicare con il modulo ESP8266

Vado su

E qui trovo la porta COM6. Right-Click e selezione proprieta’

Selezioni la tab Hardware

Poi dinuovo proprieta’ e poi selezioni la tab Port Settings (o l’equivalente nella lingua del vostro Windows)

Adesso configuro la porta con gli stessi parametri della figura sotto

Adesso lancio l’IDE Arduino e selezioni la porta seriale corretta come in figura

Adesso apro il Monitor seriale e mi accerto che la velocita’ di trasmissione ed i caratteri di terminazione linea siano impostati come in figura

Adesso resetto il modulo ESP8266 disconnettendo e poi riconnettendo l’alimentazione.

Se tutto funziona correttamente il modulo risponde con la scritta ready

Il firmware standard del modulo ESP8266 mette a disposizione una serie di comandi standard Hayes (per chi si ricorda questo e’ lo standard usato nei vecchi modem analogici) anche detti comandi AT [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_command_set] 

Potete trovare una guida completa qui [https://room-15.github.io/blog/2015/03/26/esp8266-at-command-reference/] 

Verifichiamo innanzitutto che funzioni correttamente inviando con il comando AT (Test AT startup) . 

Se in risposta otteniamo un OK allora siamo apposto. Tutto funziona correttamente.

I comandi AT si inviano al modulo tramite il vostro programma di emulazione di terminale. Nel monitor seriale di Arduino che ho usato io basta scrivere il comando nella barra superiore e premere invio

Solo per curiosita’ verifico la versione del firmware con AT+GMR (View Version Info). Nel mio caso e’ la versione 0.9.5 ma vostro caso la versione del firmware puo’ essere diversa.

A questo punto cambio la modalita’ in Wifi client con il comando AT+CWMODE (Wifi mode)

Come da specifica il modulo ESP8266 commuta in client mode (station mode) con il parametro 1

Siccome ho ricevuto un OK significa che ora il modulo ESP8266 non e’ piu’ un access point ma un client wifi, quindi controllo quali siano gli access point disponibili con il comando AT+CWLAP (List available APs)

Il modulo EPS8266 “vede” tutte le reti wifi che vedo anche dal mio PC a conferma che tutto funziona correttamente anche in client mode.

Verifico quale sia l’indirizzo IP assegnato al modulo (ovviamente non mi aspetto nessun indirizzo siccome non e’ ancora associato a nessuna rete). Per questo uso il comando AT+CIFSR (Get local IP address)

Il modulo mi conferma che nessun indirizzo e’ assegnato (0.0.0.0) ed inoltre mi fa vedere qual’e’ il MAC address del modulo (utile per fare controllo d’accesso nel router wifi del vostro provider).

A questo punto siccome ho cambiato modalita di funzionamento da AP a client wifi devo fare un reset tramite il comando AT+RST (reset module)

A questo punto mi posso collegare alla mia rete Wifi tramite il comando AT+CWJAP (Connect to AP), specificando il node della rete e la password.

Adesso che mi sono collegato alla rete Wifi controllo dinuovo quale indirizzo IP e’ stato assegnato allo ESP8266 usando lo stesso comando di prima (AT+CIFSR)

Adesso come si vede dalla figura mi e’ stato assegnato un indirizzo IP valido

Adesso che il modulo e’ collegato alla mia rete Wifi verifichiamone il funzionamento a livello TCP/IP

Inizio facendo un ping all’indirizzo dello ESP8266

Ok come mi aspettavo e’ raggiungibile. Buon segno J

ESP8266 come client TCP

Lancio dalla mia VM linux il piu’ semplice TCP/web  server possibile tramite il comando nc (netcat)

Adesso configuriamo il modulo ESP8266 in modo da creare una sessione TCP col mio server ed inviare alcuni dati

Imposto per semplicita’ una singola connessione tramite il comando AT+CIPMUX (Enable multiple connections or not). Il parametro 0 (zero) significa singola connessione

Adesso creaiamo la conneccione TCP verso il server che e’ in ascolto sulla porta 9090 del mio linux tramite il comando AT+CIPSTART (Establish TCP connection or register UDP port and start connection).

I parametri da passare sono il tipo di connessione, l’indirizzo del server e la porta su cui il server e’ in ascolto

Dopo aver eseguto questo comando il modulo ESP8266 mi dice CONNECT e OK. Quindi il socket TCP e’ aperto verso il server 192.168.1.2:9090

Adesso inviamo una semplice stringa al nostro server tramite il comando AT+CIPSEND (Send data) e specifichiamno la lunghezza della stringa (hello ESP8266 = 13 byte). Se inviate una stringa diversa usate la giusta lunghezza come parametro

Quando riceviamo OK possiamo inserire la stringa da inviare e premere invio

Il modulo ci informa con SEND OK che i dati sono stati inviati correttamente.

Adesso chiudo la conneccione TCP con AT+CIPCLOSE (Close TCP or UDP connection)

L’OK finale mi conferma che il comando e’ stato eseguito correttamente e’ la connessione TCP e’ chiusa.

Lato server abbiamo la conferma che la stringa inviata dal modulo ESP8266 e’ stata ricevuta correttamente e che la connessione TCP e’ stata chiusa correttamente

Non so voi ma a me il fatto che questo semplice test abbia funzionato e pensare che in un piccolo chip come ESP8266 e’ implementato un intero stack TCP/IP mi galvanizza molto.

ESP8266 come server TCP

Siccome adesso vogliamo che il modulo ESP8266 funzioni come un server TCP/IP  lo imposto in modo che accetti connessioni multiple (max 4) quindi al comando AT+CIPMUX passo il parametro 1

Adesso configuro il server TCP con il comando AT+CIPSERVER (Configure as server) passando come parametri 1 (create server) e la porta 9090 su cui mettersi in ascolto

A questo punto dal mio linux invio una semplice stringa (ciao) al server sempre il comando nc

Ed il server una volta ricevuta la stringa la stampa confermandomi che la comunicazione e’ avvenuta con successo.

In conclusione ho verificato che lo ESP8266 funziona come Wifi Access Point, come Wifi client. Che funziona come TCP server per ricvere dati e come TCP client per inviare dati.

Come detto all’inizio questo mi conferma che il ESP8266 e’ il miglior modulo che abbiamo mai provato per fornire i miei progettini Arduino di un canale di comunicazione affidabile e facile da usare.

Simple blog analytics with keen.io

Nowadays most, if not all, blog platforms out there provide you with some kind on analytics data.

In my case I am using google's blogger and as expected the stats about my blogs are very good and detailed.
I also have other web sites which I normally track with google analytics. Google analytics is providing any possible info you can imagine about your pages. This is very good!!.

However for me such an amount of information is overwhelming.
In most of the cases I don't need all such details. I just care about number of visitors, sessions and nothing else.

Last but not least each the different platform provides his own dashboard.
I would like to have such information in my TrackMe dashboard (see my previous post Track your life with Tasker and Keen.io - Part 2)

Image Beacon

Once again keen.io provides me the necessary tool which is called Image Beacon

The concept is not really new and still very effective. The idea is to  embed a small (very small) transparent image in your HTML content and every time someone hit your page the transparent image is requested by the browser.

The URL of the image is pointing to keen.io service. When keen.io receives such particularly crafted URL will add an event to your selected collection and send back to the browser the transparent image.

This way you can easily track any content you have on your blog or any other type of web site.

Simple, quick and effective.!!!

Let's now see an example:

Let's assume your projectID is PROJECT_ID. Your write api key is API_KEY and your collection is COLLECTION

You construct the URL of the image in this way

https://api.keen.io/3.0/projects/PROJECT_ID/events/COLLECTION?api_key=API_KEY&data=BEACON_DATA

You are wondering what is BEACON_DATA?

Simple is the event you want to record in your collection when your page/post is hit.

An example of BEACON_DATA is:

{
  "post_id": 1234,
  "post_title": "my blog post",
  "hit": 1
}

However you cannot put this JSON in the above URL. keen.io requires that you value the data parameter with the base64 representation of the above JSON chunck.

In this case the base64 representation is:

ewogICJwb3N0X2lkIjogMTIzNCwKICAicG9zdF90aXRsZSI6ICJteSBibG9nIHBvc3QiLAogICJoaXQiOiAxCn0K

So now we have all the element to craft the final beacon image URL:

https://api.keen.io/3.0/projects/PROJECT_ID/events/COLLECTION?api_key=API_KEY&data=ewogICJwb3N0X2lkIjogMTIzNCwKICAicG9zdF90aXRsZSI6ICJteSBibG9nIHBvc3QiLAogICJoaXQiOiAxCn0K

It might look complex but it is not.

Now just add this image to your HTML content

<img src="https://api.keen.io/3.0/projects/PROJECT_ID/events/COLLECTION?api_key=API_KEY&data=ewogICJwb3N0X2lkIjogMTIzNCwKICAicG9zdF90aXRsZSI6ICJteSBibG9nIHBvc3QiLAogICJoaXQiOiAxCn0K"></img >

After that every time your page will be hit a new event will be added to your keen.io COLLECTION.

Auto Collection & Data Enrichment

I found very interesting and useful also the Data Enrichment and the Auto Collection

Using those two very useful features let's see another possible BEACON_DATA chunk:

{
    "keen" : {
        "addons" : [
            {
                "name" : "keen:ip_to_geo",
                "input" : {
                    "ip" : "ip_address"
                },
                "output" : "ip_geo_info"
            }
        ]
    },
    "ip_address" : "${keen.ip}",
    "user_agent" : "${keen.user_agent}",
    "hit": 1,
    "post_id": 1234,
    "post": "your post title"
}

As in the previous example let's calculate the base64 of this chunk:

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

and again this is the final image tag to add to yours HTML content

<img src="https://api.keen.io/3.0/projects/PROJECT_ID/events/COLLECTION?api_key=API_KEY&data=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"></img >

This is an example of an event which is created using this URL

{
    "hit": 1,
    "keen": {
        "timestamp": "2015-01-23T19:57:58.922Z",
        "created_at": "2015-01-23T19:57:58.922Z",
        "id": "54c2c7c6a6662c1527843321"
    },
    "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/40.0.2214.91 Safari/537.36",
    "post_id": 1234,
    "post": "your post title"
    "ip_geo_info": {
        "province": "Turin",
        "city": "San Benigno Canavese",
        "postal_code": null,
        "continent": "Europe",
        "country": "Italy"
    },
    "ip_address": "A.B.C.D"
}    

pretty cool,eh? :) I love it!!! :)

Image beacon simple tool

As the people who knows me knows that I am lazy, I have created a real simple bash script which is creating the IMG tag for me. 

You can find it on git hub.

The repository contains to files:

• data_beacon.json
• keen_beacon.sh

Use it in this way:

• edit your data_beacon.json as you like
• edit (only first time) keen_beacon.sh and insert your PROJECT_ID, API_KEY and COLLECTION
• execute ./keen_beacon.sh

This will generate an output similar to this (it depends on content of data_beacon.json):

https://api.keen.io/3.0/projects/PUT YOUR PROJECT ID HERE/events/PUT YOUR COLLECTION HERE?api_key=PUT YOUR API KET HERE&data=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


<img src="https://api.keen.io/3.0/projects/PUT YOUR PROJECT ID HERE/events/PUT YOUR COLLECTION HERE?api_key=PUT YOUR API KET HERE&data=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"> < /img >

That's really all about it.

Hope this is useful. Let me know if you have ideas to improve it.

take care!!!

Track your life with Tasker and Keen.io - Part 2

This post is the second part of my previous post (Track your life with Tasker and Keen.io - Part 1) on using keen.io for personal life event tracking

In part 1 I have quickly explained how I use keen.io simple REST API to track and store events in the keen.io's cloud.
I have also created an Android application using Tasker and I made everything available on git hub for everyone to use and contribute.

In this post I am now focusing in visualizing the information collected and stored in the cloud.
 I should admit that once again, keen.io is doing most of the job for me. Yet another reason for me to considering it a great service.

Datahero.com

One very simple way to visualize keen.io events information is to use another cool service from the team at https://datahero.com/

On their website is written that Datahero "Create rich analyses and share your insights in seconds."

I used for something like 15 minutes and I can only agree with that statement.

I have created a trial account and in matter of minutes I was proficient in visualizing my analytical data from keen.io

You just need to:

• connect keen.io to datahero
• import your preferred keen.io colletion
• create some charts using a cool visual editor
• add your chart to a dashboard

There are way too many option for me to explain in this post but from what I have seen it is a very interesting service.

Below the simple dahsboard I have created by connecting keen.io and datahero. It took me no more that 12 minutes!!! :)

Keen.io dashboards

Al alternative way (there are many more ways) for lazy :) people like me is to use the great tools provided by keen.io at this link https://github.com/keen/dashboards 

Even if you are not a developer you can easily build your own personalized dashboard in minutes with the tools provided.

Start by cloning the git with the following command (on Linux. On Windows can be different)

git clone https://github.com/keen/dashboards.git

This will provide you with plenty of dahsboard layouts ready to use

and some interesting example to learn from (what else one can ask for? :) )

I am here using the two and one layout which I like it

you can find it in the following directory <YOUR DIRECTORY>/dashboards/layouts/two-and-one assuming that YOUR DIRECTORY is where you have executed the git clone command

Have a look at index.html. This is the file to modify to populate your dashboard with beautiful charts

The structure is very simple. Every chart area of the layout is a set of 3 self-explanatory DIV

Set the proper title for your chart (<div class="chart-title">) and add a relevant note (<div class="chart-notes">)

In order to add the chart you need to modify the <div class="chart-stage"> in the following way:

• delete the <img data-src="holder.js/100%x350/white"> line. This is just a placeholder
• add an id to the chart-stage div like this:  <div class="chart-stage" id="chart1">

The id will be useful later and will be used by the keen.io data visualization API 

keen.io query designer

Now we have our layout ready to display our chart which is taking the data out of the keen.io collection.
What is missing is a small chunk of Javascript which build the proper query and instruct the kee.io client to display the chart.

Don't worry this is unbelievable easy: just go to https://keen.io/project/<YOUR PROJECT ID>/workbench

You will access your keen.io Workbench. This is a very easy to use tool to generate the necessary JS code for your dashboard

Select the mandatory collection you want to query and the analysis type (sum, average, ....).
In addition you might specify optional parameters like filters, timeframe, ....
You can read all the detail about Data Analysis API here 

When you have properly set up your query just hit the Run Query button and you will be immediately see a chart representing your query.

In order to see the Javascript code which generates the chart click on the Javascript tab. You should see something similar to this

That's it!! :)
Just cut&past this chunk of JS into your index.html, wrap it into a <script></script> block  and you will see the chart appearing in your own dashboard.

You should replace the projectId and the readKey with your values that you can find in your keen.io project page.

Also very important is to change this line client.draw(query, document.getElementById("my_chart") in client.draw(query, document.getElementById("chart1")

This line is telling keen.io visualization client to run the query called query and to display the resulting chart in the div with id chart1

Save your file and refresh your web browser and bam!!! Your own dashboard is up and running

Here a simple one I have created out of the data collected with my Track Me application

These layouts are fully responsive and display perfectly also on my android phone

The charts are fully customizable and have many options to set.
You can find detailed information here Google Charts

In this two part series of post I have shown you how it is easy to collect, store, analyze and visualize your valuable information.  The trick is to use smart and easy to use tools like keen.io and others.

If you like this idea let me know. If you don't like it let me know
Feel free to contribute.

Happy analytics!!! :)

Track your life with Tasker and Keen.io - Part 1

When I was a kid I was used to count everything around me. Actually I am still having such habit. :)

Everywhere I go I count objects around me. No particular reason for it, just that I get bored very quickly and counting keep me busy with something to do. :)

I always been interested in numbers, statistics and analytics. Over the time I have also developed some simple web app helping me to track important parameters for me.

Recently I have stumbled upon a fantastic service called keen.io  and I have decided to build a simple app to keep track of my life events and parameters.

In this post I'll explain you what I have done and I'll share the app with you so you can take it and improve it in case you find it useful.

Tools

The tools I have used for my tracking application are:

• keen.io: a very good data collection and analytics service in the cloud
• Tasker: the best app for Android which I have ever purchased

Keen.io

Keen.io allows me to send event data to the cloud via a well designed REST API. Store such data in the cloud and create beautiful analytics dashboards . They have a free of charge plan for up to 50.000 event/month, clear and well written documentation, SDK for the major languages (JS, Ruby, Python, iOS, Android, Java, .Net and even Scala).

In short they provides everything I always been looking for to implement a simple and extensible tracking application.

For additional information I suggest you to look into the documentation 

Tasker

Tasker is defined as "Total Automation for Android" by its author.

This is totally true and I would add that Tasker is the factotum for Android. Whatever you have in mind can be more or less easily achieved with tasker and its plug-ins.

With Tasker App Factory you can even build native Android application that you can even distribute through the Play store.

For additional information I suggest you to look into the user guide

TrackMe app

Nowadays you can find in the market many cool devices and apps that helps you to track different aspects of your life. There are tons of fitness bracelets, activity trackers, sleep trackers, whatever trackers. 

However those cool devices are all independent form each other. They all provide a separate app and analytic tool.

The only "smart" device which is always with you from morning to end of the day is your phone.

So why not using it as one single tracker device? 

With your smart phone you can track your fitness activities, your sleep etc...

This is exactly what TrackMe app is doing.

Tasks and Scenes

Using Tasker tasks and scenes I have created a simple and easily extendable app to track whatever parameter is relevant for me.

The scenes are basic input dialog which collects a specific activity or parameters (i.e. my weight, the number of Km of my car, fuel consumption, etc...)

The tasks are basic set of instruction and command to execute. The basic action shows the scene, collect the value entered by the user (me) and send the value to keen.io to be stored in a specific collection.

So far I have created the following scenes:

• trackme_dlg_gas: scene to acquire gas or electricity counter number

• trackme_dlg_denti: scene to acquire information whether my daughter has washed her teeth or not

• trackme_dlg_dieta: scene to acquire the daily point of a diet program I am following

• trackme_dlg_peso: scene to acquire my weight 

• trackme_dlg_rifornimento: scene to acquire the information about my car when I refill the tank

• trackme:  the main app scene

So far I have created the following tasks:

• TRACKME_PESO
• TRACKME_GAS
• TRACKME_ELETTRICITA
• TRACKME_DENTI
• TRACKME_DIETA
• TRACKME_RIFORNIMENTO
• TRACKME: the main task 

All the above tasks are executed when the relative icon in the main scene is tapped with the finger.

• TRACKME_KEEN_CONFIG: contains the keen.io configuration 
• TRACKME_KEEN_SENDER: sends through HTTP POST the event data information to cloud keen.io

The two above tasks do not have any scene associated. They are just used to interact with keen.io service.


Some of the above task and scenes are configured through the use of Tasker's variable.
This is to allow anyone to easily change important parameters.

As an example the title of each scene is not hard-coded but is defined in a variable. So you can change it without modify/editing the scene.

Keen.io Configuration

In order to use this tasker app you first need to configure a couple of simple kee.io parameters.
You can find such information in your keen.io's account page.

What you need is your keen.io:

• Project ID
• API Key

Now you can open the TRACKME_KEEN_CONFIG task and set the following variables:

• %TRACKME_KEEN_PROJECT_ID: in the To field insert your keen.io Project ID
• %TRACKME_KEEN_API_KEY: in the To field insert your keen.io API Key

That's it!! At this stage your Track Me app is ready to use.

Other Configurations

Each task which is associated with an image icon in the Track Me app has few variables can be customized according to your own preferences.

Let's analyze those variables:

• %TRACKME_DIAG_TITLE:  change the content of this variable to personalize the Title of the UI dialog associated to the task
• %TRACKME_KEEN_COLLECTION:  change this variable to personalize the name of the keen.io's collection you want to store the data in
• %TRACKME_KEEN_EVENT:  change the content of this variable to personalize the data structure of your data event you want to store on keen.io cloud

Next to those variables there are other text string that can be changed in order to display your preferred text messages. (i.e. all my messages are in Italian, but you can change it with English text)

Extending Track Me app

I provide a template scene called trackme_dlg_template.

In order to create a new tracker follow the below steps:

• duplicate the template scene
• customize the template scene as you prefer
• make sure your new scene properly set a variable called %TRACKME_DLG_VAL.  This is the data field which will go into the %TRACKME_KEEN_EVENT variable (I have used variables to pass data from scenes back to the task and to keen.io cloud)

The %TRACKME_DLG_VAL variable should be set according to the below:

1. NaN in case you want to abort the operation (i.e. pressing the Cancel button)
2. Value in case you want to send an event data to keen.io

• create or duplicate an existing task
• properly configure the newly created task
• edit the main trackme scene
• add a new image to main scene (select your preferred icon)
• associate such an image to the newly created task (see above)
• edit the text below the icon image in the main scene

That's it. You can extend Track Me app with as many tracker as you want in few minutes.

Icons

In my Track Me app I have used a mix of built-in icon and icons from the Glossy Silver HD icon pack (freely available in Play Store)

Obviously this is my choice but nothing is preventing you to use a complete different icon set.

Code

All the tasker scenes and tasks are available on my git hub 

Download it, use it, change it, improve it, do whatever your like and let me know your result. I can only learn from you!!! 

NOTE: I provide on github the userbackup.xml file. This way you can very easily import the full Track Me application in your Tasker. Please note however that this will completely overwrite and existing profiles, tasks and scenes. So always make sure you make a proper backup of your Tasker objects. 

Use

Let's now see a quick example on the usage of Track Me app

• run the trackme task: I do it by tapping on a icon on my home screen on Android phone (you can add it through tasker widget

• Click one of the icons (Peso = Weight in this example)
• The proper UI dialog is now shown

• Enter the weight though keyboard
• Press the Send (INVIA) button
• Now the dialog close and you will see again the main app
• A couple of confirmation message will be shown

Sending Data

Weight correctly registered

At this stage your weight has been correctly sent and accepted by keen.io. It is now stored in your trackme_peso collection and it is available for further use (analytics).

If you regularly (daily or weekly) send your weight to keen.io you can easily answer to questions like those:

• what was my minimum weight in the last 6 months
• what was my maximum weight in the last 6 months
• what was my average weight in the last 6 months
• how many time I have gone above the 75 Kg in the last 6 months
• ...
• ...

Let's see now that the weight just sent to keen.io is properly stored.

Go to your keen.io account and select the project you have configured in %TRACKME_KEEN_PROJECT_ID

You should see something like that

Now click on Last 10 Events

As you can see there are 5 different events (weight) in my collection.

The #1 is the last sent. Click on it and you show see something like that

Now we can see that the weight (80 Kg) we have inserted has been properly stored by keen.io

Contribute

If you are interested in this concept feel free to contribute.

You can do it in many ways:

• spot errors
• make suggestion to improve the existing app.
• create new scenes and task
• suggest new trackers
• improve the graphical design
• ...

Conclusion

The combination of such incredible tools like Tasker and keen.io allows me to quickly and easily keep track of the important aspect of my life.

It has never been easier than now to create useful application for our daily life. We should take advantage of that.

I hope the sharing of my work here will create some discussion. I am curious to read about new tracker and new aspect of our busy life to track and analyze.

In part 2 I will quickly show how to visualize and analyze the data collected and stored on keen.io.

Cheers!!