Data visualization and device management

Question

I'm looking for a solution to manage (virtual) devices and visualize data.

I have a lot of time series data grouped by sessions and devices stored in a database. That data is coming from multiple physical sensor devices.

Now I am looking for a tool where a customer can select a device from something like a hierarchical device tree. After selecting a device he should be able to select a session. Then he should get all related sensor values displayed in a chart.

The tool/platform should be able to pull (selected) data from a web service. The tool should not store the pulled data in a database. And I want to be able send commands to the webservice to set some configurations or whatever.

The most IoT platforms don't pull the data, you have to push the data to these platforms. And they have normally their own embedded database. I don't want to analyze the data, so I don't need complex analytical features. I just want to select a device and a session and get the data from my existing database/web service.

Does anybody know a Dashboard/Device Management tool/platform?

Answer 1

Well, there are protocols to pull data from sensors and put them on graphs. Many devices support SNMP for that purpose so one can use apps like PRTG, Solar Winds, etc to monitor their activities.

But getting data over web demands proper web agents on the devices which is not a universal practice yet. You may find some devices having such monitors and sensors built in. Some of apps mentioned above support extra plugins from device vendors to do so.

Last resort will be custom tailored software, such as building management systems.

Answer 2

You could try the VOLTTRON platform for this. You will need to do some programming to get everything set up, but they have a lot of functionality for

• Database Usage
• Built in Web UI
• External HTTP Requests

Here is a picture that describes their platform better I can, taken from some of their documentation.

Answer 3

I think grafana can help you. It does not store the data, you only need to use/implement plugin for data retrieval. Also you may implement dashboard with multiple hierarchical selectors.

We are using it widely for visualizing various timeseries metrics from devices. Any custom datasource plugin for grafana can be implemented in just a few days - nothing complicated.

Answer 4

From what you have described, you already have a DB with the device data, and now you just need to pull this data onto a dashboard.

1. You need a REST api. Depending on which technology you are using you can easily create an api to expose the data to the dashboard. For e.g, if you use Django you could use DRF or if you use asp .net you could use their web api and so on...

2. For visualisation you could use solutions like grafana (like shal suggests) or power-bi from MS etc to present your data.

3. Now you have a REST api and a visualisation tool. Now just wire them up so that the tool consumes the data provided by the api and you would be well on your way to achieve your goal.