Ranching technology post #6

A recent examination of my surveillance system's mobile broadband device web interface (i.e. 192.168.1.1) led me to the discovery of a bunch of hidden and useful information available from the device. While examining the device's webpage, I noticed an icon showing the charge level of the device's battery. Realizing that the icon was updating its status every few seconds, I searched for the source of the updates via Firebug.  As I had suspected, the device was sending the update status via a small JSON file, but what surprised me was the amount of information available in each file that was not reflected on the webpage.   Among the more interesting pieces of data were values for RAC, LAC, MCC, MNC, cell ID, txlevel, and rxlevel.  There was also a great amount of detail on signal quality (see above picture).

The basic Python script used to extract the information from the JSON file and create a text block for the automated email.
The possibilities for this data are great and as an initial step I've added scripting to the surveillance station to request a JSON file from the device (using cURL) each hour prior to sending an email update.  The file is then read by a python script during the creation of the systems hourly automated email and selected information is added to each email as text.  The following image was captured from an email I received today.   It sure is hot out there.
 In the future I may choose to add additional info from the JSON, but I'm currently satisfied with what I have now. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Front-end loader mounted t-post installer

Image
 Since we started fencing the perimeter of our ranch in 2014, I've strove to increase the rate at which I am able to fence an area.  Among the most recent improvements has been a t-post pusher which is mounted to our tractor's front-end loader bucket.  This device is very simple, but has already saved us countless hours of work. The following photographs illustrate how I use the post pusher.  Aiming: The loader is first positioned with the end of the pusher is close to the ground.  I then maneuver the tractor until the end of the pusher is in alignment with the marked post location.  This is how the lined up pusher looks from the driver's seat of the tractor.  Yes, I know the loader has an issue with the hydraulics cover. Loading:  Once the pusher is aligned, I place the tractor in park, raise the loader arm and insert a t-post into the open end of the pusher.  Tilting:  Correct placement of the t-post is dependent aligning the post along three axises,
Read more

DIY cultipacker-roller

Image
For those of you who are unfamiliar with agricultural equipment, a cultipacker is an implement used to compress soil.  There are several reasons a farmer may use a cultipacker, but, for me, the primary purpose for the cultipacker is to pack down soil that has just been planted with grass seed.  This should greatly improve seed germination in newly planted bison pasture. Five truck tire rims welded together form the shape of the cultipacker.  Technically this is really more of a cultipacker-roller hybrid as the ridged portions on the roller should be more closely spaced on a true cultipacker.  A thick piece of steel tube runs through the center of the rims, which I'll explain later in this post. For added weight each tire rim was filled with concrete after it was welded in place.  A photograph of the roller portion of the cultipacker completed and waiting for the concrete to cure.  The length of steel tube that runs through the center of the roller is welded to the
Read more

Face fly nightmare

Image
Face flies beginning to appear a few days after my initial treatment with AiM-L VetCaps.  I unfortunately don't have any photos of the original mob of flies, which was much worse. Since the forth of July an insect called the face fly ( Musca autumnalis ) has plagued our ranch and caused me a considerable amount of stress.  It was a week ago, on the forth, while doing a routine check on the herd, that I noticed that the bison appeared to be greatly agitated by a surprisingly high number of the flies.  While the sight of flies or other small insects buzzing around grazing animals is nothing unusual, this was something different.  The flies flocked in groups around the eyes and nose of each animal so incessantly that the bisons' natural defenses appeared to be ineffective.  All the blinking, ear flapping, tail wagging, snorting, rolling in soil, and rubbing on trees had little effect.  No matter how many times they did these things the flies would just briefly fly up into the
Read more