Choice of service for data logging and visualization

I’m just starting on a project. I want to log a variety of sensor data, store the data in the cloud, and auto-create visualizations that interested parties can view. I’m not sure which tool to choose, ideally one that combines data storage and vis. And hopefully something that will probably be around for years.

I was thinking of using Google Spreadsheets, programming scripts to gather data from the imps and create/update charts. I’ve heard the API/interface can be a bit unreliable.

The Wolfram Data Drop looks interesting, especially with the ready-to-roll imp interface and data processing functionality. It’s new though, and it’s not clear to me what the cost implications are going to be into the future.

Plotly looks nice, but perhaps not really geared towards storing data from lots of devices and doing custom processing of data.

Any opinions and experiences on good tools for this kind of thing?

Thanks,
James

James,
You could subscribe to a shared webhost (like GoDaddy) and store data on your own website. Then you would need some PHP scripting to display data, tabular or visually. There are some webhosts, like cleverdot, that charge about $50 per year.

A good reason to have your own website would be to have full control of the data and to do whatever you wish. You write the scripts that others will use to get the data.

Data could be stored in a MySQLi database, which has powers of its own. You can have as many imps as you wish storing data on your website. You choose what to do with the data.

I guess you would need to know PHP (of course). But people like myself do freelance programming and could assist. Lots of tutorials and forums online too.

Thingspeak is also a good option. They’ve just posted an updated tutorial https://discourse.electricimp.com/discussion/2573/connecting-electric-imp-to-thingspeak-iot-data-services#latest

I would highly recommend Grovestreams, based upon two years of experience with them. They are outstanding!

Google for “Integration Platform as a Service” (iPaaS). Everyone is getting in on it, even AWS and now Zuckerberg personally coding for IoT. The IMP platform complements iPaaS like no other.

I like Influx for a time-series key-value store with Grafana for the dashboard.

Thanks for the suggestions! Checking out the options…

Firebase (real time database + static file hosting + user authentication) + Highcharts (JS graphing library) has been a great combination for me…