Small enhancements to file naming and recording

A few posts ago I set out the design objectives for the software development and this included things like recording the results in a database. Well those objectives are still there and look achievable thanks to sites like the Java tutorial site Home and Learn.

In the meantime I've decided that structuring the output for the spreadsheet app provided by Google would be a good idea. This is available free to everyone with a Google account and it's companion software provides graphing which takes care of the visual presentation of the results.

With this software in mind the results gained from the logging node(s) will now be saved in files created each day with the date as the name.  So the latest version of the logging software has implemented these requirements and can be found here. (Unfortunately, there is a bug to be sorted and that is the fact that the date doesn't update from the first time it is is returned from the Date function. I'm sure it's a simple problem arising from my lack of Java expertise).

The software that has been developed is almost usable for simple applications like degree day calculations and fuel monitoring but my ambitions are much greater than this. The reason for this work was the the work on energy saving measures on the project house but these ran into problems when analysing the effects as things such as the weather. A task that requires simultaneous recording from multiple nodes. Ok instrumentation exists that I could buy but I can't afford this and anyway the knowledge gained should be valuable. Especially if it develops into control and perhaps assessing and integrating products from other sources.

Consequently, the next development of the software will receive the readings from a logging node over a specified time interval, average them if necessary and then record the average for the time period for each node to file. This will allow measurements from multiple nodes to be easily graphed and compared easily.

Logging Readings to File

Progress is being made albeit slowly due to time constraints.

The basic program that obtains a temperature reading from the Xbee has been modified to

Include the system message logging output configuration in the body of the code.
Record the system message output in a log file.
Record the temperature readings in a file.

It's not in anyway refined at the moment. Just enough to test the code and my Java programming. The code can be found here.

The next objective is to further develop the log file recording for the Xbee measurements. The measurements will be stored in a file per day. The readings will be written with a specified frequency such as once every half hour or hour. If readings are being received more frequently they will be averaged over the period.