6 October, 2017

Telemetry — yet another key feature of flespi device

Telemetry structure in flespi device stores a list of the latest values of all parameters received from the tracker. How to use it? We’ve created TrackIt. Feel free to adapt it to your needs.
Disclaimer: this article covers the concepts of "Telemetry" flespi feature. Usage details covered by appropriate knowledge base article.

What do we expect from the telemetry device TOMORROW?

  • ability to seamlessly connect to third-party platforms
  • smart data analytics powered by Big Data algorithms
  • extended and cheap long-term storage
  • always online mode

What do we expect from the telemetry device THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW?

  • fixing the hyperdrive
  • delivering Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance
  • detecting Obi-Wan Kenobi's distress signal
  • destroying Empire’s battle droids

telemetry in flespi device

While the near future is on its way and the distant future is too far away (or a long time ago in a galaxy far away), let’s take a look at how we can extend the tracking device functionality right now.

As you may already know, flespi devices are virtual instances allowing you to interact directly with the physical devices connected to flespi channels. One of the main uses of flespi devices is streaming to various platforms. The current article presents another notable feature of the flespi device – telemetry.

The life of a remote tracking device is hard and unpredictable. Loss of cellular connection or GPS signal, sudden power outage, or a random failure of connected third-party sensors may happen anytime. These may somewhat nerve-wracking if your truck is navigating the vastness of Siberia. Of course, flespi cannot help you avoid hardware failures (I wish we could!), but we can help you answer the following questions:

  1. What was the last position of my device?
  2. When was the device online last time?
  3. What was the last value of the given sensor?
  4. When was the last value of a given sensor received?

Answers to all of these questions are available with a single request. Telemetry is an attribute of every device and can be received via a GET gw/devices/{selector}/telemetry/{selector} request. The scheme works as follows: every parameter in the message from a tracking device updates the corresponding parameter of the device telemetry. If there is no parameter in telemetry to update, the new parameter will be created. The parameter in telemetry stores the last value and the timestamp of the updated value.

device telemetry scheme in flespi device

Flespi device telemetry is the key feature for TrackIt. Indeed, you don’t need to recall the latest messages to get device location. You have one-request access to all device parameter values. Note that these parameters may come at different times and in different messages.

An attentive user might notice the device telemetry in flespi is similar to thing shadow in AWS IoT hub, device twin in Microsoft Azure IoT, or last telemetry in Thingsboard.io. Which it is. We do not claim it to be unique and extraordinary — we just highlight that we stay in sync with the industry's best practices and standards.

Try the flespi device telemetry feature and all other functionality for free.