Blickfeld Flow

Blickfeld Flow is a low-code prototyping and integration tool for customizing and extending the functionality of the Qb sensor. It is based on the open-source tool Node-Red, an efficient and state-of-the-art flow-based programming tool for event-driven applications. The tool is seamlessly integrated in the Blickfeld sensor while maintaining the flexibility and the library provided by the open-source community.

Key features

  • Simple access to the Blickfeld Qb API through built-in nodes

  • Browser-based wiring and editing of flows with the WebGUI

  • Support for various input and output interfaces such as REST, Websocket, MQTT, Kafka, ..

  • Live deployment of changes with status and debug messages

  • Deployment of custom Javascript methods

  • Import, export and library support to re-use flows

  • Fully integrated and on-device execution (flows can be configured to start automatically with the power-up of Qb)

How to get started?

Ensure that the sensor is running the firmware version v1.8 or higher. If it is not, please proceed to download the most recent release from Github and then upload it to the sensor using the firmware page.

Blickfeld Flow is available in the WebGUI under Configuration / Flow. With Blickfeld Flow, users can generate new flows by simply dragging nodes into the workspace and establishing connections between them.

Overall, it is highly recommended to follow the Node-Red documentation and its tutorials.

Qb API access

The Blickfeld Qb Method Node offers direct access to the gRPC API of both the local Qb and remote Qb devices within the same network. All request and response messages are available in JSON format.

Detailed information about the services, methods, and parameters can be found in the Protocol section of this documentation. See the Blickfeld Qb Method Node guide for how to connect, select methods, map requests and responses, and use streaming with auto-reconnect.

Additionally, built-in flows are available for reference, and ready-to-import example flows ship with the node (menu btn:[≡] → Import → Examples).

Limitations

Compute power

Qb devices leverage a quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor for on-device processing tasks. Only a fraction of this computational capacity is allocated to Blickfeld flows. Consequently, resource-intensive flows might exhibit reduced performance. It is worth highlighting that this adjustment does not significantly impact the fundamental operations of the core device. This is because Blickfeld Flows are executed with a lower process priority, ensuring the stability of core device functionalities.

Here are some simple recommended optimizations:

Point cloud processing

At the moment, processing point clouds with Blickfeld flows is not recommended. It’s a resource-intensive operation that usually requires optimizations to run in real-time.

Please approach the Blickfeld Support with the corresponding use-case where point cloud processing is required. We can likely provide a suitable solution.

Storage

Custom packages are installed on a 2GB large data partition. Depending on the dependencies, the storage limit may be reached.

Maintainability of complex flows

Even though it is straightforward to get started with Blickfeld Flow, large and complex flows can lead to higher maintainability efforts in the future. It is highly recommended to carefully read through the Developing Flows guide of Node-Red.