Connectivity_Tools_with_Particle_Devices

Document describing the IoT connectivity tools and techniques that we use with Particle devices.

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We (Team Practical Projects) have developed a number of tools and techniques for integrating our Internet of Things projects with external apps and services. We use Particle devices (see particle.io) and cloud-based services that Particle provides to implement various integration scenarios:

Real-time communication with a mobile app.

We describe how we create mobile apps that communicate with our embedded systems using MIT App Inventor 2 and Particle's cloud API.

Device logging to a cloud spreadsheet.

We describe how we use Particle webhooks and Google Apps Script to log sensor data from our embedded devices to Google Sheets.

Real-time alarm/alert notification.

We describe how we use Particle webhooks, Google Apps Script and mobile providers' SMS gateways to send alarm and alert messages to mobile devices using SMS texting.

Device-device secure wireless communication.

We describe how we use Particle's publish/subscribe mechanism to securely and wirelessly communicate between embedded devices.

Integrating to a cloud database.

We describe how we use Particle webhooks and PHP to provide embedded devices a means to communicate with cloud-based services that use a REST API, including third party services and our own cloud database.