The Particle Core library is used to send/receive data to/from AT&T's M2X service from the Particle Core.
- Signup for an M2X Account.
- Obtain your Master Key from the Master Keys tab of your Account Settings screen.
- Create your first Device and copy its Device ID.
- Review the M2X API Documentation.
- Obtain an Arduino with built-in wifi or ethernet, or a separate wifi or ethernet shield and set it up. These docs were written for an Arduino Uno with a wifi or ethernet shield but the instructions can be adapted for other Arduino models.
Please consult the M2X glossary if you have questions about any M2X specific terms.
- M2XStreamClient Library
- In the Particle Build IDE, click the
LibrariesIcon - Search for
M2XStreamClientand click the found library - Click
Include in Appand choose your current working Application
- Examples can be found by clicking on
M2XStreamClientunder your Application'sIncluded Librarieslisting
The Particle website has a very good tutorial on getting the Particle Core setup and connected to wifi.
Different sensors can be hooked up to a Particle Core board to provide different properties including temperatures, humidity, etc. You can use a breadboard as well as wires to connect different sensors to your Particle Core. For a detailed tutorial on connecting different sensors, please refer to the Particle Hackster page.
In order to run the given examples, different variables need to be configured. We will walk through those variables in this section.
If you are using a Wifi Shield, the following variables need configuration:
char ssid[] = "<ssid>";
char pass[] = "<WPA password>";
Just fill in the SSID and password of the Wifi hotspot and you should be good to go.
For an Ethernet Shield, the following variables are needed:
byte mac[] = { 0xDE, 0xAD, 0xBE, 0xEF, 0xFE, 0xED };
IPAddress ip(192,168,1,17);
For a newer Ethernet Shield, the MAC address should be printed on a sticker on the shield. However, some sold Ethernet Shields have no MAC address shown on the board. In this case, you can use any MAC address, as long as it does not conflict with another network device within the same LAN.
The IP address here is only used when DHCP fails to give a valid IP address. It is recommended, though not required, to provide a unique IP address here.
Once you register for an AT&T M2X account, an API key is automatically generated for you. This key is called a Primary Master Key and can be found in the Master Keys tab of your Account Settings. This key cannot be edited or deleted, but it can be regenerated. It will give you full access to all APIs.
However, you can also create a Device API Key associated with a given Device, you can use the Device API key to access the streams belonging to that Device.
You can customize this variable in the following line in the examples:
char m2xKey[] = "<M2X access key>";
A device is a source of data (it could be a physical device, a virtual device, a service, or an application). It is a set of data streams, such as streams of locations, temperatures, etc. The following line is needed to configure the device used:
char deviceId[] = "<device id>";
A stream in a device is a set of times series data of a specific type (i,e. humidity, temperature). You can use the M2XStreamClient library to send stream values to M2X server, or receive stream values from M2X server. Use the following line to configure the stream if needed:
char streamName[] = "<stream name>";
TCPClient client;
M2XStreamClient m2xClient(&client, m2xKey);
In the M2XStreamClient, the following API functions are provided:
updateStreamValue: Send stream value to M2X serverpostDeviceUpdates: Post values from multiple streams to M2X serverlistStreamValues: Receive stream value from M2X serverupdateLocation: Send location value of a device to M2X serverreadLocation: Receive location values of a device from M2X serverdeleteValues: Delete stream values from M2X server
For all those functions, the HTTP status code will be returned if we can fulfill an HTTP request. For example, 200 will be returned upon success, and 401 will be returned if we didn't provide a valid M2X API Key. A full-list of M2X API error codes can be found here: [M2X API Error Codes] (https://m2x.att.com/developer/documentation/overview#Client-Errors)
Otherwise, the following error codes will be used:
static const int E_NOCONNECTION = -1;
static const int E_DISCONNECTED = -2;
static const int E_NOTREACHABLE = -3;
static const int E_INVALID = -4;
static const int E_JSON_INVALID = -5;
For all those functions, the HTTP status code will be returned if we can fulfill an HTTP request. For example, 200 will be returned upon success, and 401 will be returned if we didn't provide a valid M2X API Key. A full-list of M2X API error codes can be found here: [M2X API Error Codes] (https://m2x.att.com/developer/documentation/overview#Client-Errors)
Otherwise, the following error codes will be used:
static const int E_NOCONNECTION = -1;
static const int E_DISCONNECTED = -2;
static const int E_NOTREACHABLE = -3;
static const int E_INVALID = -4;
static const int E_JSON_INVALID = -5;
The following functions can be used to post one single value to a stream, which belongs to a device:
template <class T>
int updateStreamValue(const char* deviceId, const char* streamName, T value);
Here we use C++ templates to generate functions for different types of values, feel free to use values of float, int, long or even const char* types here.
M2X also supports posting multiple values to multiple streams in one call, use the following function for this:
template <class T>
int postDeviceUpdates(const char* deviceId, int streamNum,
const char* names[], const int counts[],
const char* ats[], T values[]);
Please refer to the comments in the source code on how to use this function, basically, you need to provide the list of streams you want to post to, and values for each stream.
Since mbed microcontroller contains very limited memory, we cannot put the whole returned string in memory, parse it into JSON representations and read what we want. Instead, we use a callback-based mechanism here. We parse the returned JSON string piece by piece, whenever we got a new stream value point, we will call the following callback functions:
typedef void (*stream_value_read_callback)(const char* at,
const char* value,
int index,
void* context,
int type);
The implementation of the callback function is left for the user to fill in, you can read the value of the point in the value argument, and the timestamp of the point in the at argument. We even pass the index of this this data point in the whole stream as well as a user-specified context variable to this function, so as you can perform different tasks on this.
type indicates the type of value stored in value: 1 for string, 2 for number. However, keep in mind that value will always be a pointer to an array of char, even though type indicates the current value is a number. In this case, atoi or atof might be needed.
To read the stream values, all you need to do is calling this function:
int listStreamValues(const char* deviceId, const char* streamName,
stream_value_read_callback callback, void* context,
const char* query = NULL);
Besides the device ID and stream name, only the callback function and a user context needs to be specified. Optional query parameters might also be available here, for example, the current query parameter picks value from a specific range:
start=2014-10-01T00:00:00Z&end=2014-10-10T00:00:00Z
You can use the following function to update the location for a device:
template <class T>
int updateLocation(const char* deviceId, const char* name,
T latitude, T longitude, T elevation);
Different from stream values, locations are attached to devices rather than streams. We use templates here, since the values may be in different format, for example, you can express latitudes in both double and const char*.
Similar to reading stream values, we also use callback functions here. The only difference is that different parameters are used in the function:
void (*location_read_callback)(const char* name,
double latitude,
double longitude,
double elevation,
const char* timestamp,
int index,
void* context);
For memory space consideration, now we only provide double-precision when reading locations. An index of the location points is also provided here together with a user-specified context.
The API is also slightly different, in that the stream name is not needed here:
int readLocation(const char* deviceId, location_read_callback callback,
void* context);
The following function can be used to delete stream values within a date range:
int deleteValues(const char* deviceId, const char* streamName,
const char* from, const char* end);
from and end fields here follow ISO 8601 time format.
We provide a series of examples that will help you get an idea of how to use the M2XStreamClient library to perform all kinds of tasks.
Note that the examples contain fictionary variables, and that they need to be configured as per the instructions above before running on your Particle Core board. Each of the examples here also needs either a Wifi Shield or an Ethernet Shield hooked up to your device.
In the ExamplePost a temperature sensor, a breadboard and 5 wires are also needed to get temperature data, you need to wire the board like the following:
This example shows how to post temperatures to M2X.
This example shows how to post multiple values to multiple streams in M2X in one API call.
This example reads stream values from M2X and prints the stream data point it got to the Serial interface.
This example sends location data to M2X. Ideally a GPS device should be used here to read the coordinates, but for simplicity we just use pre-set values here to show how to use the API method.
This example reads location data of a device from M2X and prints them to the Serial interface.
This library is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for the terms.