Adding a new type of datasource

Hi everyone,

I am planning to add my weather station into my Mango installation. Data comes through a specific protocol, either on serial or IP channels. There are several data points which will be automatically updated as soon as the most recent data pack comes and parsed.

Is there a how-to which tells the steps? How much effort would be involved for the implementation?

Many thanks.

Is it a custom protocol?

Yes it is a custom protocol. However it is simple.
There are several command response pairs.
One command fetches the all current weather data. The response needs to be parsed for individual data points.

I talk to my weather station through mango, however I have a LinkSysNSLU2 connected to the weather station reciever and I retrieve the data from it using the http receiver data source.

I already decided to inspect the HTTP receiver source for some other reasons.
Since my weather station is already on serial port I'd prefer to keep it directly attached to my pc.
Any simple guide for a single command single response serial port communicating data source?
Many thanks...

So, each point would have a different command? Or, would there be a single request/response that provides data for multiple points?

Mango doesn't currently have a data source for arbitrary request/response like this, but it could be easily built. Especially in M2M2, in which it could be customized to your needs.

On demand "single command-single response" provides all the instantaneos readings. The response contains all the data in packed form and needs to be parsed accordingly. Just before the command there has to be a CR to wake up the station's console. And, I believe the timeouts should also be handled by the datasource in case the console does not response within the specified time.
Thanks again.

This can all be done, and indeed there are already data sources that work in similar ways (such as modbus). Still, it would take a custom data source to implement the specifics. The first question is, do you want to build it yourself, or get someone else to do it?

I think I can do it. However, before going into coding I'd like to understand some basics about the data source internals, so that I can have something compatible with future releases...

Perhaps a howto for a simple custom datasource would be in order.

I am using modbus for my kiln however I have a number of other devices I want to hook up and would prefer to talk to directly.

Like the Velleman K8061 USB Interface Board. Id like not to have to write a database pickup script or a http/cgi interface.

Perhaps a howto for a simple custom datasource would be in order.

Agreed.

I've got several different devices, serial and GPIB, each with custom protocols that I'd like to interface with.

An example of a custom datasource as well as an API document would be great.

Hi,

I am solving similar problem now. I don't want to build all Mango with my own datasource and I don't have time for studying, how to datasources works.

But I have small idea. I have developed small JAR for connecting to my device via TCP/IP, parsing Oxymat (Elan) protocol.
This JAR I am using in JAVASCRIPT in MetaDataSource.

It works. It is not done yet, but works.

Oja

Hello,

we have come up with a detailed step-by-step on adding custom protocols.

it was written in portuguese, unfortunatelly it would take too long to translate it. But i guess google could translate it for you

well here it is, good luck.
https://sites.google.com/a/certi.org.br/certi_scadabr/home/minicursos/scada

small notice: ScadaBR is in fact heavily based on mango, so just replace "scadabr" for "mango" all over the docs. be happy

@Victor:
Is ScadaBR planning to upgrade to M2M2? Or do you think your developments will show up among M2M2 modules?

Regards,
Greg

Not sure about ScadaBR upgrading to M2M2 as long as M2M2 seems to be a commercial product.

I am also interested on this question and waiting for an official answer from ScadaBR team.