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Wiki source code of ThingsBoard

Version 209.1 by Dilisi S on 2025/04/21 17:49
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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
168 = 3. Data Converters =
169
170
171 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.
172
173 **In this section, you will create a universal uplink data converter for all Dragino NB-IoT devices. The uplink decoder converts any MQTT message coming from a device into key-value pairs that can be used to display and visualize data using various widgets on the dashboard**.
174
175
176 == 3.1 Uplink ==
177
178
179 In the left navigation, click **Integrations center**, and then click **Data converters**.
180
181
182 [[image:data-converters-list-empty.png]]
183
184
185 On the **Data converters** page, click on the ‘**+**’ button, and then click on **Create new converter** from the dropdown menu.
186
187
188
189 [[image:create-new-converter-menu.png||height="259" width="500"]]
190
191
192 The **Add data converter** window appears.
193
194 Name it ‘**MQTT Uplink Converter**’ and select the Type as **Uplink**.
195
196 Click on the **TBEL** button if it has not been selected by default.
197
198 Replace the default TBEL decoder function with the following universal TBEL decoder function, which decodes MQTT payload from any Dragino NB-IoT device.
199
200
201 {{code language="JavaScript"}}
202 // decode payload to JSON
203 var pattern = "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss";
204 var objdata = {};
205 var obj1 = {};
206 var data = decodeToJson(payload);
207 var deviceName = data.IMEI;
208 data.remove("IMEI");
209 var modelname = "Dragino "+ data.Model;
210 //var mod = data.mod
211 data.remove("Model");
212 //delete data.mod
213 var timestamp = new Date().getTime();
214 foreach (entry: data.entrySet()) {
215 var key = entry.getKey();
216 var value = entry.getValue();
217 //objdata[key] = data[key]
218 if(key.matches("^-?\\d+$")){ //is number
219 obj1[key]=data[key];
220 var index = obj1[key].length-1;
221 obj1[key][index]=new Date(obj1[key][index],pattern).getTime();
222 }
223 else if (key==="bat"||key==="BAT"){
224 objdata["battery"] = data[key];
225 }
226 else{
227 objdata[key] = data[key];
228 }}
229 var listdata = [{"ts":timestamp,"values":objdata}];
230 foreach ( entry1: obj1.entrySet()){
231 var key1 = entry1.getKey();
232 var value1 = entry1.getValue();
233 var index = obj1[key1].length-1;
234 var ts = obj1[key1][index];
235 if (modelname=="Dragino RS485-NB"){
236 listdata.push({"ts":ts,"values":{"Payload":obj1[key1][0]}});
237 }
238 else{
239 listdata.push({"ts":ts,"values":{"values":obj1[key1]}});
240 }
241 }
242 var result = {
243 deviceName: deviceName,
244 deviceType: modelname,
245 attributes: {
246 model: modelname
247 //customerName: "NB-CB",
248 //groupName: "NB-CB",
249 //integrationName: metadata['integrationName']
250 },
251 telemetry: listdata
252 };
253 return result;
254 {{/code}}
255
256
257 Once you modify the decoder function, click on the **Add** button.
258
259
260 [[image:mqtt-uplink-converter.png||height="498" width="500"]]
261
262
263
264 You should see that the newly added **MQTT Uplink converter **NB/CB is listed on the **Data Converters** page.
265
266
267
268 [[image:data-converters-list.png]]
269
270
271 = 4. Add Integration =
272
273
274 In the left navigation, click **Integrations center**, and then click **Integrations**.
275
276
277 [[image:integrations-list-empty.png]]
278
279
280 On the **Integrations** page, click on the '**+**' button.
281
282
283 The **Add integration** window appears.
284
285 In the **Add integration** window, configure the following settings:
286
287
288 **Basic settings:**
289
290 * **Integration type**: MQTT
291 * **Name**: MQTT integration
292 * **Enable integration**: YES
293 * **Allow create devices or assets**: YES
294
295 Click **Next** button.
296
297
298
299 [[image:add-integration-part-1.png||height="483" width="500"]]
300
301
302 **Uplink data converter:**
303
304 * Click on the **Select existing** button.
305 * **Uplink data converter**: Select **MQTT Uplink Converter NB/CB **from the dropdown list.
306
307 Click **Next** button.
308
309
310
311 [[image:add-integration-part-2.png||height="484" width="500"]]
312
313
314 **Downlink data converter:**
315
316 Dragino NB/CB devices don't require a downlink data converter to decode their payloads, so you can skip this step.
317
318 * Click on the **Skip **button in the Downlink data converter section.
319
320 Click **Skip** button.
321
322
323 [[image:integration-dl-skip.png||height="511" width="500"]]
324
325
326
327 **Connection:**
328
329 * **Host**: Host URL (Eg, **//011731f7xxxxxxxxxxxfbbedfc63f4.s1.eu.hivemq.cloud//**)
330 * **Port**: 8883 (the port number may differ based on your MQTT broker)
331 * **Credentials type**: Basic
332 * **Username**: Username (from your HiveMQ Cloud Cluster with your credentials)
333 * **Password:** Password (from your HiveMQ Cloud Cluster with your credentials)
334 * **Enable SSL**: YES
335 * **Topic**: # (the # symbol indicates that it filters all topics).
336 * **QoS:** 0-At most once
337
338
339
340 [[image:add-integration-4.png||height="484" width="500"]]
341
342
343 Click on the **Advanced settings** button.
344
345 * **Clean session:** YES
346 * **Retained**: YES
347
348 [[image:add-integration-connection-advanced-settings.png||height="510" width="500"]]
349
350
351 Click on the **Check connection** button to verify the MQTT connection using the provided parameters.
352
353
354 [[image:check-connection.png||height="83" width="300"]]
355
356
357 If the connection is successful, you will see the **Connected** message. If not, check your connection parameters again.
358
359
360 [[image:connection-success.png||height="511" width="500"]]
361
362
363 Click on the **Add** button.
364
365 You should see that the newly added integration is listed on the **Integrations** page.
366
367 Since we haven't received data from a device yet, the integration **Status** is shown as **Pending.**
368
369
370 [[image:integration-added.png]]
371
372
373
374 = 5. Verifying the receipt of data from virtual devices =
375
376
377 == 5.1 How does it work? ==
378
379
380 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.
381
382 The Mosquitto client publishes messages (payloads) on the topic **/device/a**. Of course, you can use any topic for testing.
383
384 (% id="cke_bm_37386S" style="display:none" %) (%%)The MQTT payload format is as follows:
385
386 {{code language="none"}}
387 {"IMEI": "350693903995577", "temperature":25, "humidity":80, "pressure":1005}
388 {{/code}}
389
390 Once ThingsBoard receives this message, it forwards this payload to the matching device through the integration.
391
392
393 == 5.2 Sending messages ==
394
395
396 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.
397
398 {{code language="none"}}
399 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}'
400 {{/code}}
401
402 If the integration was performed without errors, the status of the integration changes to 'Active' after the first telemetry transmission.
403
404
405 [[image:integration-active.png]]
406
407
408 == 5.3 Viewing messages ==
409
410
411 Go back to the **Integrations** page.
412
413 Click on the **MQTT integration NB/CB** in the **Integrations** page to see its details.
414
415 Click on the **Edit** button (//**pen icon**//).
416
417 Click on the **Disabled** button in the upper-right corner.
418
419 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.
420
421 Click on the **Apply** button.
422
423 Then click on the **Apply changes** (//**tick icon**//) button.
424
425
426 [[image:debug-enabled.png||height="301" width="700"]]
427
428
429
430
431 Now go to the **Events** tab.
432
433 Select the **Event type** as **Debug** from the dropdown list.
434
435 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:
436
437 {{code language="none"}}
438 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}'
439 {{/code}}
440
441 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.
442
443
444 [[image:Screenshot 2025-03-26 at 19.49.31.png]]
445
446
447
448 Then click on the **three dots (...)** in the **Message** column. You can see the uplink message's **payload** in the **Message** window.
449
450
451 [[image:Screenshot 2025-03-26 at 19.47.52.png]]
452
453
454
455
456 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.
457
458
459 = 6. Creating a Dashboard =
460
461 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.
462
463
464 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.
465
466
467 First simulate a few messages using MQTT. This time, we have added the 'humidity' field to the payload. Eg:
468
469 {{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}}
470
471
472 In **ThingsBoard**, from the left navigation menu, click **Dashboards**. Then, click the **+** button and select **Create new dashboard** from the dropdown menu.
473
474
475 [[image:dashboard-1.png]]
476
477
478 In the **Title** text box, enter **NB/CB Test Dashboard** as the title of the dashboard.
479
480 Click on the **Add** button.
481
482
483 [[image:dashboard-2.png||height="526" width="500"]]
484
485
486 Click on the **Add widget / Add new widget** button.
487
488
489 [[image:dashboard-3.png]]
490
491
492 In the **Select widgets bundle** window, click **Charts**.
493
494
495 [[image:dashboard-4.png||height="537" width="700"]]
496
497
498
499 In the **Charts: select widget** window, click **Time series chart**.
500
501
502 [[image:dashboard-5.png||height="525" width="700"]]
503
504
505 Configure the **Time series chart** widget as follows:
506
507 * **Datasource** - select **Device A** device you provisioned.
508 * **Series**:
509 ** **temperature** - you can see this key by default.
510 ** **humidity** - Click **Add series** button. Then add the **humidity** for the key and then type **%** as its unit.
511 * Click on the **Add** button.
512
513 {{info}}
514 You can add only the relevant fields from the device's payload to display data on a widget. These fields are called 'keys'.
515 {{/info}}
516
517 [[image:Screenshot 2025-03-31 at 06.51.15.png||height="485" width="700"]]
518
519
520 The time-series chart will appear in edit mode. Resize it by clicking and dragging the lower-right corner.
521
522 Click the **Save** button to add the widget to the dashboard.
523
524
525 [[image:timeseries-3.png||height="347" width="700"]]
526
527
528 Now send the following MQTT messages from the terminal to simulate the data.
529
530
531 {{code language="none"}}
532 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}'
533
534 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}'
535
536 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}'
537 {{/code}}
538
539 The chart will update with the values in realtime, as shown in the below image.
540
541
542 [[image:timeseries-4.png||height="316" width="700"]]
543
544
545 = 8. Configure Physical NB-IoT Sensor =
546
547
548 Now, let's experiment with sending data to ThingsBoard using a real NB-IoT device. For example, we will use the **TS01-NB**.
549
550 First, configure the NB-IoT device with the necessary MQTT settings using AT commands. Below is a list of AT commands you can use.
551
552
553 **AT Commands**
554
555 * **AT+PRO=3,3    **~/~/ Use MQTT to connect to ThingsBoard. Payload Type set to 3.
556 * **AT+SUBTOPIC=<MQTT subscribe topic> Eg: TS01-NB**
557 * **AT+PUBTOPIC=<MQTT publish topic> Eg: TS01-NB**
558 * **AT+CLIENT=null**
559 * **AT+UNAME=<MQTT Username>**
560 * **AT+PWD=<MQTT Password>**
561 * **AT+SERVADDR=<Broker address, Port>**
562
563 Test your uplink by pressing the ACT button for 1 second.
564
565
566
567 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.
568
569
570 [[image:image-4.png]]