Wiki source code of ThingsBoard

Version 197.1 by Dilisi S on 2025/03/31 13:04
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1 **Table of Contents:**
2
3 {{toc/}}
4
5 {{warning}}
6 Draft Document
7 {{/warning}}
8
9
10
11
12 = 1. Introduction =
13
14
15 This document guides you on integrating Dragino **-NB** and **-CB** series devices data with ThingsBoard. For this guide, we use ThingsBoard Cloud, which is one of the ThingsBoard versions that allows you to try it for free.
16
17 The **NB series** devices end with the suffix **-NB**, and the **CB series** devices end with the suffix **-CB**. For example, **S31B-NB** is an **NB device**, and **S31-CB** is a **CB device**.
18
19
20 = 2. Prerequisites =
21
22 To complete this tutorial, you need to have the following:
23
24 * ThingsBoard cloud account
25 * MQTT Broker (public or private) such as,
26 ** **[[HiveMQ Cloud>>https://www.hivemq.com]] - You can create a free account to try it or subscribe for a paid account. - We use HiveMQ Cloud as the MQTT broker to build example in this tutorial.**
27 ** [[emqx>>https://www.emqx.com/zh/mqtt/public-mqtt5-broker]] - The public MQTT server is only used for MOTT learning and testing, and should not be used in the production environment.
28 ** [[lns1.thingseye.io>>http://lns1.thingseye.io/]] - This is Dragino's MQTT broker, which requires a CA certificate to use.
29
30 == 2.1 ThingsBoard Cloud ==
31
32
33 Go to [[https:~~/~~/thingsboard.io/>>https://thingsboard.io/]]
34
35 Click on the **Try it now**.
36
37
38 [[image:thingsboard-1.png]]
39
40
41 Select either the **North America** or **Europe** region. Here, we use the Europe region.
42
43 [[image:thingsboard-2.png]]
44
45
46 You can sign up with your **Google**, **GitHub**, **Facebook**, or **Apple** account. If not you can create an account with providing your **name**, **email address** and a **password**.
47
48 Click on the **Sign up** button.
49
50 [[image:thingsboard-3.png||height="651" width="500"]]
51
52
53 You will be navigated to the following page.
54
55 [[image:thingsboard-5.png||height="109" width="500"]]
56
57
58 simultaneously, you will receive an email to confirm your email address. Click on the **Activate Your Account** button.
59
60
61 [[image:thingsboard-4.png||height="249" width="500"]]
62
63
64 Now losing to the account using your credentials:
65
66
67 [[image:thingsboard-6.png||height="244" width="500"]]
68
69
70 == 2.2 HiveMQ Cloud ==
71
72 === 2.2.1 HiveMQ Cloud ===
73
74
75 Go to [[https:~~/~~/www.hivemq.com>>https://www.hivemq.com]]
76
77 Click on the **Start Free** button.
78
79 [[image:hivwmq-1.png]]
80
81
82 Click on the **Sign Up FREE Now** button in the **HIVEMQ CLOUD** section.
83
84 [[image:hivemq-2.png]]
85
86
87 Click on the **Sign Up** button.
88
89 You can sign up with HiveMQ using your **GitHub**, **Google**, or **LinkedIn** account.
90
91 If not, provide your **email address** and a **password** to create an account by clicking on the **Sign Up** button.
92
93
94 [[image:hivemq-3.png]]
95
96
97 You will receive an email to verify your email address. Click on the **Confirm my account** button.
98
99
100 [[image:hivemq-4.jpg||height="889" width="400"]]
101
102
103 You will be redirected to a page asking you to complete your profile. Once done, click the **Continue** button.
104
105
106 [[image:hivemq-5.png||height="655" width="700"]]
107
108
109 Select the CloudMQ Cloud plan you need. For testing purposes, select the **Serverless FREE** plan by clicking on the **Create Serverless Cluster** button.
110
111
112 [[image:hivemq-6.png]]
113
114
115 You will be navigated to the **Your Clusters** page. Click on the **Manage Cluster** button.
116
117 [[image:hivemq-7.png]]
118
119
120 In your cluster page, you can find some useful parameters you need to create a MQTT connection.
121
122 **URL**: This is the host name. Click on the copy button to copy it.
123
124 **Port**: 8883
125
126
127 Click on the **Getting Started** tab to setup the username and the password as the connection credentials.
128
129
130 [[image:hivemq-8.png]]
131
132
133 In the '**Create Connection Credentials**' section, provide a **username** and **password**, then click the **Add** button.
134
135
136 [[image:hivemq-9.png]]
137
138
139
140 If everything is successful, you will see the following message.
141
142
143 [[image:hivemq-10.png||height="206" width="500"]]
144
145
146 You will need these MQTT connection parameters when configuring the MQTT integration in the '**Add Integration**' section.
147
148
149 === 2.2.2 emqx ===
150
151
152 The [[emqx>>https://www.emqx.com/zh/mqtt/public-mqtt5-broker]] public MQTT server is only used for MOTT learning and testing, and should not be used in the production environment.
153
154
155 [[image:emqx.png||height="420" width="500"]]
156
157
158 === 2.2.3 Ins1.thingseye.io ===
159
160 [[lns1.thingseye.io>>http://lns1.thingseye.io/]] is the Dragino's MQTT broker, which requires a CA certificate file, Certificate file, and the Private key file to use.
161
162 If customers need to use this MQTT connection with ThingsBoard, they need to contact the TE team to obtain three license files.
163
164 [[image:ins1.png||height="310" width="500"]]
165
166
167 = 3. Creating Devices (Optional) =
168
169 {{info}}
170 **The following procedure is optional. If you haven't created any device in ThingsBoard first, ThingsBoard will automatically create a device for you based on the integration settings (the device name defined in the uplink decoder) just after it receives the first uplink from your device.Type your information message here.**
171 {{/info}}
172
173 First, you need to create devices in ThingsBoard to represent your physical devices. For example, you can name it **Device A**, and the second device could be **Device B** or any name you prefer. The device name should be unique within the **Devices** space.
174
175
176 In the left navigation, click **Entities -> Devices**.
177
178 Click the **Add Device** button (the button with the **+** sign), and from the dropdown menu, click **Add new device**.
179
180 In the **Add new device** dialog box, enter the device name in the **Name** text box. For example, we will use **Device A**.
181
182 Click the **Add** button.
183
184 Skip the **connectivity testing** by clicking the **Close** button.
185
186 The device is created and listed on the **Devices** page. Note that its initial state is **Inactive** because it has not received any data yet.
187
188
189 = 4. Data Converters =
190
191
192 In **ThingsBoard**, **Data Converters** are components used to transform incoming or outgoing data between different formats, typically to convert raw telemetry data from devices into a structured format that ThingsBoard can understand, or vice versa.
193
194
195 == 4.1 Uplink ==
196
197
198 In the left navigation, click **Integrations center**, and then click **Data converters**.
199
200
201 [[image:data-converters-list-empty.png]]
202
203
204 On the **Data converters** page, click on the ‘**+**’ button, and then click on the **Create new converter** from the dropdown menu.
205
206
207
208 [[image:create-new-converter-menu.png||height="259" width="500"]]
209
210
211 The **Add data converter** window will appear.
212
213 Let's create an uplink data converter for the device named '**Device A**'. Name it ‘**MQTT Uplink Converter - Device A**’ and select the Type as **Uplink**.
214
215 Click on the **TBEL** button if it has not been selected by default.
216
217 Modify the default TBEL function to match with your device as described below:
218
219
220 * Uncomment** line 11**:
221
222 //var data = decodeToJson(payload)//
223
224
225 * **Line 13**: Assign your device name to the **deviceName** field. - We used **Device A** as it is to match with our device, **Device A **in the Devices section.
226 * From **line 38**: Modify the telemetry section to allow parsed data to be assigned to the fields.
227
228 //telemetry: {
229 temperature: data.temperature,
230 humidity: data.humidity,
231 rawData: payloadStr
232 }//
233
234
235 The modified uplink decoder function to match with **Device A** is shown below.
236
237 {{code language="JavaScript"}}
238 // Decode an uplink message from a buffer
239 // payload - array of bytes
240 // metadata - key/value object
241
242 /** Decoder **/
243
244 // decode payload to string
245 var payloadStr = decodeToString(payload);
246
247 // decode payload to JSON
248 var data = decodeToJson(payload);
249
250 var deviceName = 'Device A';
251 var deviceType = 'thermostat';
252 var customerName = 'Customer C';
253 var groupName = 'thermostat devices';
254 var manufacturer = 'Example corporation';
255 // use assetName and assetType instead of deviceName and deviceType
256 // to automatically create assets instead of devices.
257 // var assetName = 'Asset A';
258 // var assetType = 'building';
259
260 // Result object with device/asset attributes/telemetry data
261 var result = {
262 // Use deviceName and deviceType or assetName and assetType, but not both.
263 deviceName: deviceName,
264 deviceType: deviceType,
265 // assetName: assetName,
266 // assetType: assetType,
267 // customerName: customerName,
268 groupName: groupName,
269 attributes: {
270 model: 'Model A',
271 serialNumber: 'SN111',
272 integrationName: metadata['integrationName'],
273 manufacturer: manufacturer
274 },
275 telemetry: {
276 temperature: data.temperature,
277 humidity: data.humidity,
278 rawData: payloadStr
279 }
280 };
281
282 /** Helper functions 'decodeToString' and 'decodeToJson' are already built-in **/
283
284 return result;
285 {{/code}}
286
287
288 Once you modify the decoder function, click on the **Add** button.
289
290
291
292 [[image:ul-data-converter-device-a.png||height="524" width="500"]]
293
294
295 You should see that the newly added **MQTT Uplink converter **NB/CB is listed on the **Data Converters** page.
296
297
298 [[image:ul-data-converter-added.png||height="257"]]
299
300
301
302 = 5. Add Integration =
303
304
305 In the left navigation, click **Integrations center**, and then click **Integrations**.
306
307
308 [[image:integrations-list-empty.png]]
309
310
311 On the **Integrations** page, click on the '**+**' button.
312
313
314 The **Add integration** window appears.
315
316 In the **Add integration** window, configure the following settings:
317
318
319 **Basic settings:**
320
321 * **Integration type**: MQTT
322 * **Name**: MQTT integration - Device A
323 * **Enable integration**: YES
324 * **Allows create devices or assets**: YES
325
326 Click **Next** button.
327
328
329 [[image:add-integration-basic-settings.png||height="504" width="500"]]
330
331
332
333
334 **Uplink data converter:**
335
336 * Click on the **Select existing** button.
337 * **Uplink data converter**: Select **MQTT Uplink Converter NB/CB **from the dropdown list.
338
339 Click **Next** button.
340
341
342 [[image:add-integration-ul-data-converter.png||height="505" width="500"]]
343
344
345
346 **Downlink data converter:**
347
348 Dragino NB/CB devices don't require a downlink data converter to decode their payloads, so you can skip this step.
349
350 * Click on the **Skip **button in the Downlink data converter section.
351
352 Click **Skip** button.
353
354
355 [[image:integration-dl-skip.png||height="511" width="500"]]
356
357
358
359 **Connection:**
360
361 * **Host**: Host URL (Eg. **//011731f7xxxxxxxxxxxfbbedfc63f4.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud//**)
362 * **Port**: 8883
363 * **Credentials type**: Basic
364 * **Username**: Username (from your HiveMQ Cloud Cluster with your credentials)
365 * **Password:** Password (from your HiveMQ Cloud Cluster with your credentials)
366 * **Enable SSL**: YES
367 * **Topic: device/a** (The topic can be anything; you can even use just the device name.)
368 * **QoS:** 0-At most once
369
370 [[image:add-integartion-connection.png||height="505" width="500"]]
371
372
373 Click on the **Advanced settings** button.
374
375 * **Clean session:** YES
376 * **Retained**: YES
377
378 [[image:add-integration-connection-advanced-settings.png||height="510" width="500"]]
379
380
381 Click on the **Check connection** button to verify the MQTT connection using the provided parameters.
382
383
384 [[image:check-connection.png||height="83" width="300"]]
385
386
387 If the connection is successful, you will see the **Connected** message. If not, check your connection parameters again.
388
389
390 [[image:connection-success.png||height="511" width="500"]]
391
392
393 Click on the **Add** button.
394
395 You should see that the newly added integration is listed on the **Integrations** page.
396
397 Since we haven't received data from a device yet, the integration **Status** is shown as **Pending.**
398
399
400 [[image:integration-added.png]]
401
402
403
404 = 6. Verifying the receipt of data from virtual devices =
405
406
407 == 6.1 How does it work? ==
408
409
410 We use the Mosquitto MQTT client to simulate MQTT messages, acting as a virtual device. First, install the Mosquitto client on your computer from [[this link>>url:https://mosquitto.org/download/]]. The Mosquitto client publishes messages to the MQTT broker (HiveMQ) on a specified MQTT topic. ThingsBoard subscribes to these messages using the same topic.
411
412 The Mosquitto client publishes messages (payloads) on the topic **/device/a**. Of course, you can use any topic for testing.
413
414 (% id="cke_bm_37386S" style="display:none" %) (%%)The MQTT payload format is as follows:
415
416 {{code language="none"}}
417 {"IMEI": "350693903995577", "temperature":25, "humidity":80, "pressure":1005}
418 {{/code}}
419
420 Once ThingsBoard receives this message, it forwards this payload to the matching device through the integration.
421
422
423 == 5.2 Sending messages ==
424
425
426 On your computer's terminal, issue the following MQTT command which simulates the device '**Device A'**. The message payload contains the fields IMEI, temperature, humidity, and pressure, which hold the values 350693903995577, 30, 80, and 1005 respectively. This payload is also (technically) known as telemetry.
427
428 {{code language="none"}}
429 mosquitto_pub -d -q 1 -h 011731f7928xxxxx.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud -p 8883 -u "xxxxx" -P "xxxxx" -t "device/a" -m '{"IMEI":"350693903995577", "temperature":30, "humidity":80, "pressure":1005}'
430 {{/code}}
431
432 If the integration was performed without errors, the status of the integration changes to 'Active' after the first telemetry transmission.
433
434
435 [[image:integration-active.png]]
436
437
438 == 6.3 Viewing messages ==
439
440
441 Go back to the **Integrations** page.
442
443 Click on the **MQTT integration NB/CB** in the **Integrations** page to see its details.
444
445 Click on the **Edit** button (//**pen icon**//).
446
447 Click on the **Disabled** button in the upper-right corner.
448
449 Turn on the **All messages (15 min)** option. This will enable displaying all messages in the **Events** tab. This setting will expire in 15 minutes, and you will need to repeat the same steps if you want to view the messages in the Events tab later.
450
451 Click on the **Apply** button.
452
453 Then click on the **Apply changes** (//**tick icon**//) button.
454
455
456 [[image:debug-enabled.png||height="301" width="700"]]
457
458
459
460
461 Now go to the **Events** tab.
462
463 Select the **Event type** as **Debug** from the dropdown list.
464
465 Publish another message (of course, you can repeat the previous message by pressing the UP arrow on your keyboard and then press Enter key) to your MQTT broker from your terminal, for example:
466
467 {{code language="none"}}
468 mosquitto_pub -d -q 1 -h 011731f7928xxxxx.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud -p 8883 -u "xxxxx" -P "xxxxx" -t "device/a" -m '{"IMEI":"350693903995577", "temperature":30, "humidity":80, "pressure":1005}'
469 {{/code}}
470
471 Now you can see that uplink message in the **Events** tab (Click the **refresh** button if you didn't see any messages in the Events tab). The status should be **OK **if there is no errors in your integration.
472
473
474 [[image:Screenshot 2025-03-26 at 19.49.31.png]]
475
476
477
478 Then click on the **three dots (...)** in the **Message** column. You can see the uplink message's **payload** in the **Message** window.
479
480
481 [[image:Screenshot 2025-03-26 at 19.47.52.png]]
482
483
484
485
486 Now, you have successfully tested your integration with a simulated uplink payload and verified that it is received by ThingsBoard, and the device is provisioned.
487
488
489 = 7. Creating a Dashboard =
490
491 ThingsBoard **Dashboards** provide a powerful way to visualize and monitor real-time and historical data from connected devices. They allow users to create interactive, customizable panels displaying telemetry data, device status, and other key metrics. With a variety of widgets, including charts, maps, and tables, dashboards help users gain insights, track trends, and manage IoT deployments efficiently.
492
493
494 This section guides you on how to create a dashboard to display temperature and humidity data from the device on a time-series chart. You may also use other widgets in ThingsBoard to display data according to your requirements.
495
496
497 First simulate a few messages using MQTT. This time, we have added the 'humidity' field to the payload. Eg:
498
499 {{code language="none"}}mosquitto_pub -d -q 1 -h 011731f7928xxxxx.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud -p 8883 -u "xxxxx" -P "xxxxx" -t "device/a" -m '{"IMEI":"350693903995577", "temperature":22, "humidity":80, "pressure":1005}'{{/code}}
500
501
502 In **ThingsBoard**, from the left navigation menu, click **Dashboards**. Then, click the **+** button and select **Create new dashboard** from the dropdown menu.
503
504
505 [[image:dashboard-1.png]]
506
507
508 In the **Title** text box, enter **NB/CB Test Dashboard** as the title of the dashboard.
509
510 Click on the **Add** button.
511
512
513 [[image:dashboard-2.png||height="526" width="500"]]
514
515
516 Click on the **Add widget / Add new widget** button.
517
518
519 [[image:dashboard-3.png]]
520
521
522 In the **Select widgets bundle** window, click **Charts**.
523
524
525 [[image:dashboard-4.png||height="537" width="700"]]
526
527
528
529 In the **Charts: select widget** window, click **Time series chart**.
530
531
532 [[image:dashboard-5.png||height="525" width="700"]]
533
534
535 Configure the **Time series chart** widget as follows:
536
537 * **Datasource** - select **Device A** device you provisioned.
538 * **Series**:
539 ** **temperature** - you can see this key by default.
540 ** **humidity** - Click **Add series** button. Then add the **humidity** for the key and then type **%** as its unit.
541 * Click on the **Add** button.
542
543 [[image:timeseries-1.png||height="491" width="700"]]
544
545
546 The time-series chart will appear in edit mode. Resize it by clicking and dragging the lower-right corner.
547
548 Click the **Save** button to add the widget to the dashboard.
549
550
551 [[image:timeseries-3.png||height="347" width="700"]]
552
553
554 Now send the following MQTT messages from the terminal to simulate the data.
555
556
557 {{code language="none"}}
558 mosquitto_pub -d -q 1 -h 011731f7928xxxxx.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud -p 8883 -u "xxxxx" -P "xxxxx" -t "device/a" -m '{"IMEI":"350693903995577", "temperature":22, "humidity":70, "pressure":1005}'
559
560 mosquitto_pub -d -q 1 -h 011731f7928xxxxx.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud -p 8883 -u "xxxxx" -P "xxxxx" -t "device/a" -m '{"IMEI":"350693903995577", "temperature":27, "humidity":72, "pressure":1005}'
561
562 mosquitto_pub -d -q 1 -h 011731f7928xxxxx.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud -p 8883 -u "xxxxx" -P "xxxxx" -t "device/a" -m '{"IMEI":"350693903995577", "temperature":19, "humidity":80, "pressure":1005}'
563 {{/code}}
564
565 The chart will update with the values in realtime, as shown in the below image.
566
567
568 [[image:timeseries-4.png||height="316" width="700"]]
569
570
571 = 8. Configure NB-IoT Sensor =
572
573
574 Now, let's experiment with sending data to ThingsBoard using a real NB-IoT device. For example, we will use the **TS01-NB**.
575
576 First, configure the NB-IoT device with the necessary MQTT settings using AT commands. Below is a list of AT commands you can use.
577
578
579 **AT Commands**
580
581 * **AT+PRO=3,3    **~/~/ Use MQTT to connect to ThingsBoard. Payload Type set to 3.
582 * **AT+SUBTOPIC=<MQTT subscribe topic> Eg: TS01-NB**
583 * **AT+PUBTOPIC=<MQTT publish topic> Eg: TS01-NB**
584 * **AT+CLIENT=null**
585 * **AT+UNAME=<MQTT Username>**
586 * **AT+PWD=<MQTT Password>**
587 * **AT+SERVADDR=<Broker address, Port>**
588
589 Test your uplink by pressing the ACT button for 1 second.
590
591
592
593 The following image shows the uplink payload of a real Dragino device. The publish topic is '**TS01-NB' that contains fields in the payload, IMEI, IMSI, Model, temperature, etc**. Note that we have created a device named **TS01-NB** in the **Devices** section in advance.
594
595 {{info}}
596 The ThingsBoard uses the device's IMEI number included in the payload to create a device in the Devices section.
597 {{/info}}
598
599 [[image:image-4.png]]

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