Configuring Resources and Sensors to Emit Events

Working with Sensors, Inputs, and Virtual Resources

There are two types of resources for handling input values: Sensors and Inputs. Sensors are devices that gather data about some physical phenomenon (e.g., light, temperature, etc.) and convert that data into analog or digital signals, while inputs are assets that push signals to the Octave-enabled device at some arbitrary time and interval.

Sensor data is obtained by polling the sensor device at some fixed frequency (e.g., every 5 seconds). The sensor's polling frequency can be configured in the Octave Dashboard. This configures the data hub to tell the sensor how often to send data.

Input data can be received at any arbitrary time and frequency because the input device is in control of when it sets signals.

Sensors are useful when you want the cloud side of your system to control how often data is interrogated, while inputs are useful for cases where devices must interrupt the system.

Virtual resources are resources that are created in Octave that are not connected to any physical hardware. A virtual resource is updated whenever you supply a value to it. An
Observation that has been configured to observe a virtual resource, will receive a new value whenever the virtual resource's value is set by the user.

The following topics provide more detailed information: