Quick and Dirty datalogging
Well, this mostly works.
Here's the story. Using processing and arduino code linked below, I'm sending data fom the ever easy-to-use potentiometer and using a php file to write to a text file in my NYU account. Then using this applet, I am displaying it as, well, a rotating line. Very exciting.
When you start the applet, you see the history of all the data, and then it shifts into a live updating mode. Theoretically, if you click on the applet, it shows you the whole history again.
The biggest modification I made is that the data-sending program only sends data to the server when the value changes, rather than sending at regular intervals.
There are all sorts of issues with timing, and obviously the pot is not the right sensor for this setup. I am imagining that this would work in a setup where the value of the sensor changes in very small increments and only occasionally. Ideally, the feedback would weight the duration of the line by how long it sat at that value, which would be possible, because the data is time stamped.
This is the second time I've worked with using Processing and the network, never mind sensor data and a network, so at the moment this is more of a 'hello world' assignment for me.