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Internet of Things made simple; Simulated Web Server and TCP - The Flowcode Way

As we are discussing the internet of things it might be worthwhile mentioning the simulation capability of Flowcode 6.

The TCP base component provides the simulated network communications which is then built into the higher level embedded components to provide the simulation functionality should the user want it.

TCPbase1

The higher level components provide connectivity for these modules though more could be added using the component creation interface. More are planned for the future based on demand.

  1. Wiznet NM7010A Ethernet Module
  2. Wiznet WIZ810MJ Ethernet Module
  3. Wiznet WIZ610WI Wifi Module
  4. Microchip ENC28J60 Ethernet Module
  5. Espressif ESP8266 Wifi Module

This wiki page details an example of creating a webserver that can be ran in simulation or downloaded to an embedded target. By clicking the play button in Flowcode the web server will initialise and become active so that typing in the IP address into the address bar of your web browser should fetch the webpage served by the Flowcode software. Any device on your local network should then be able to access your served page.

Flowcode generated web page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This functionality allows you to simulate a lot of different scenarios:

  1. An internet of things sensor
  2. An internet of things actuator
  3. A web Server or data center
  4. A real time TCP/IP data logger
  5. Low level TCP/IP comms

Another nice feature is that the low level comms data is automatically provided for you as part of the console interface. Red indicates incoming data and Blue indicates outgoing data.

Low level TCP/IP comms data

By running multiple instances of Flowcode (either on the same PC or on different PC's connected to the same network) it is possible to establish communications and simulate a whole host of different hardware so you can be sure to get your software interacting seamlessly before you download the code to the black box that is a microcontroller. Once the code is in the Microcontroller you can use Matrix's Ghost Technology to control the program execution as well as monitoring the external signals around the microcontroller.

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