Time Series Data
Time Series is a feature in ESP RainMaker that has the ability to log and store data points over time, each tagged with a timestamp. This allows users to track changes in parameters like temperature, humidity, or energy usage, enabling historical analysis and trend monitoring.
The RainMaker Time Series Data has 2 variants:
-
Full featured time series data: Supports raw values as well as latest, min, max, count, average and sum for a given time window. These additional options are called as "aggregates" in the API.
-
Simple time series data: Supports only raw values. Typically useful for keeping a timestamped track of events. This is cost efficient and should be used if raw values are sufficient for the use case.
Simple time series data was introduced in RainMaker backend v2.0.1 and does not require AWS Timestream service.
:::
Use Case
In RainMaker, any dynamic value is reported as a parameter update. The new value overwrites the older value in the cloud backend and the phone apps and other clients can read only this latest value. Any historical information of the value and their timestamps are lost. This is sufficient for most use cases like outlets, lights, etc. where only the instantaneous value is important. However, certain parameters like energy consumption and temperature sensor readings require some historical data, which can be visualized as a graph by the end users. For such use cases, RainMaker has a concept of time series data.
Specifications
Both the time series data variants use special MQTT topics and data formats for reporting the data.
To understand how specific time series data variants MQTT topics are made, please refer to Node to Cloud Communication.
Usage Guide
Firmware
This usage guide would mainly cover the firmware side to enable and use time series variants.
On the usage of time series variants on firmware, click here.