How to read data from a Thingspeak channel using a Raspberry Pi

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How to read data from a Thingspeak channel using a Raspberry Pi

March 28, 2016
4:52 pm

MohanadOdema

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March 18, 2016

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Hello,

I'm trying to read data from an existing channel on Thingspeak using a Python Code running on a Raspberry Pi in order to automate some devices connected to the Pi but I'm having problems finding the proper library and function that facilitates these readings.

Help anyone ?

March 28, 2016
6:15 pm

Hans

Natick, MA

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CheerLights is a project where devices read data from the ThingSpeak channel 1417. That might point you in the right direction.

Also, this library looks to be API complete. You can read and write to ThingSpeak channels.

https://github.com/ninjawil/pythingspeak

The problem is that there are zero examples with the lib.

What version of Python are you using?

March 28, 2016
11:37 pm

rw950431

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Basic example using standard python libraries, fetching last update from a given channel. (also at https://gist.github.com/rw950431/d186bb72f7d531b76a0b in case the forum mucks up the indentation)
See https://au.mathworks.com/help/thingspeak/get-a-channel-feed.html for other variants.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import urllib2,json
READ_API_KEY='your_read_api_key'
CHANNEL_ID=<your channel id>

def main():
conn = urllib2.urlopen("http://api.thingspeak.com/channels/%s/feeds/last.json?api_key=%s" \
% (CHANNEL_ID,READ_API_KEY))

response = conn.read()
print "http status code=%s" % (conn.getcode())
data=json.loads(response)
print data['field1'],data['created_at']
conn.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
main()

April 3, 2016
6:11 pm

MohanadOdema

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Thank you both for your support.

I'm using Python 2.7 and it worked just fine with the URL and JSON libraries as rw950431 advised.

Much much gratitude.

June 7, 2016
3:40 am

shubham_chopra3

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June 7, 2016

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The code only reads one value , can someone provide me with the code which reads values from thing speak continuously as it gets updated?

June 9, 2016
3:22 am

rw950431

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If you wish to read data continuously you have 2 options

1. Wrap the above code in a loop that continually re-reads the data after a delay (at least 15 seconds, possibly more depending on your data).

2. If you have an internet-accessible device set it up as a HTTP server and set up a thingspeak react to push the data out to your device. This will (obviously) require much different code to the above.

Unfortunately, no matter how nicely everyone asks, thingspeak does not yet support MQTT or similar pub/sub protocols that would make this task very easy. Cry

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