Connect S210X Sensor to Microsoft Azure IoT Central Via Node-RED

SenseCAP S210X is a series of wireless LoRaWAN® sensors. It can cover a transmission range of 2km in urban scenes and 10km in line-of-sight scenes while keeping lower power consumption during the transmission process. Together with a replaceable battery that supports up to 10 years of usage and an industrial IP66 enclosure. It supports -40 ~ 85℃ operating temperature and can be deployed in harsh environments. SenseCAP S210X is compatible with LoRaWAN® V1.0.3 protocol and can work with LoRaWAN® gateway. Users can install the device, bind it using the QR code and configure the network, then data can be viewed from the SenseCAP portal, which supports popular IoT protocols such as HTTP and MQTT.

pir

In this tutorial, we will introduce how to connect S210X series Sensors to the Microsoft Azure IoT Central via Node-RED.

SenseCAP & Node-RED

This chapter, the first in a series, walks you through installing and using Node-red and calling the SenseCAP API to connect to Node-RED.

This chapter is to make it easier for our users to connect data from the SenseCAP platform to various other Paas platforms for more in-depth data processing.

Node-RED

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways. It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

pir

Install Node.Js

To install Node-RED locally you will need a supported version of Node.js.

Node-RED currently recommends Node 14.x LTS.

Installing Node-RED with npm

To install Node-RED you can use the npm command that comes with node.js:

sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red

Note

If you are using Windows, do not start the command with "sudo".

This command will install Node-RED as a global module along with its dependencies. Once installed as a global module you can use this command to start Node-RED in your terminal.

node-red

Then you can then access the Node-RED editor by pointing your browser at http://localhost:1880.

Get the SenseCAP API

Before proceeding to this section, make sure you have bound your S210x device in the SenseCAP console.

Log in to the SenseCAP console. In the drop-down bar to the right of the user name at the top of the dashboard, we can find the Organization Information, please select it to get the Organization ID

Then, we also need to get the API key for SenseCAP. Please click on Security -> Access API keys on the left side of the dashboard. Then Create an Access Key.

Click on the API ID you created and you will get her Access API keys, please copy it and the Organization ID, we will use them in the later steps.

Node-RED Configuration

Step 1. Add a new mqtt-broker node

Drag out an mqtt in node, double-click it to enter the configuration page, then click the edit button after Add new mqtt-broker.

The configuration of mqtt-broker is required to be filled out as follows:

Server：openstream.api.sensecap.seeed.cc

Port：1883

Protocol: MQTT V3.1.1

Client ID format：org-"Organization ID" "Random ID"

Organization ID: Obtained from your Organization information

Random ID: Use your own randomly generated numbers and lowercase letters.

Example:org-43243***23-test

Then we fill in the Security options field with the Username and Password:

Username: org-"Organization ID"

Organization ID: Your organization ID. We have obtained it before

Password: Fill in the Access API keys that we obtained before.

Add Topic

Topic: Configuring a topic in a specific format determines the kind of device and data type to be received.

Topic format: /device_sensor_data/"OrgID"/"DeviceEUI"/"Channel"/"Reserved"/"MeasurementID"

OrgID	You can find the id on your organization information
DeviceEUI	You can find EUI on the Device Basic Properties or device label
Channel	A physical interface on the device to connect to the sensor, default:1
Reserved	Reserved field
MeasurementID	measurement_list

Note

"+" indicates that this field has no filter conditions and can match all. "/+/+/+/+" means to listen to all "DeviceEUI", "Channel", "Reserved", "MeasurementID"

Example：/device_sensor_data/424988****44/2CF7F***0002/+/+/+

This topic means receiving all remote sensing data of the current device.

Step 2. Add debug node

Drag out a debug node, connect to the mqtt-in node, then click Deploy

After the deployment is successful, you will see "Connected" under the mqtt in building block, the data reporting interval is determined by the sensor which we connected. After receiving the data, the debug window on the right will display the raw data.

SenseCAP & Node-RED & Azure IoT Central

Microsoft Azure IoT Central is a fully managed global IoT SaaS (software as a service) solution that makes it easy to connect, monitor and manage your IoT assets at scale. It is highly secure, scales with your business as it grows, ensures that your investments are repeatable and integrates with your existing business apps. It also bridges the gap between your business applications and IoT data. Finally it offers centralized management to reconfigure and update your devices.

The content of this chapter will continue to use the Node-RED introduced earlier and facilitate the management of the S210X Sensor suite in Microsoft Azure IoT Central through the use of Node-RED.

Microsoft Azure IoT Central Configuration

Step 1. Log in to Azure IoT Central.

Please visit Azure IoT Central website, click Build from the navigation menu on the left, and click Custom apps.

Step 2. Fill in the Application name and choose the Pricing plan. Application URL will be created automatically when you fill in the application name.

Note: If you are a new user of Azure IoT Central, we recommend that you select Free as this will not consume your fees.

Step 3. Click Create to create the new application. Now you have successfully set up Azure IoT Central!

Step 4. Create a Device Template

Please create a new device template by clicking on Device templates in the left-hand menu bar.

Name your device template and click create

Step 5. Create a Device

Click on Devices -> S2103 under the left menu bar.

Once you have created the device, you will see the device we have just created under Device, please tap into the device and click on the Connect button in the top left corner.

Please make a note of this information, which we will use in the next steps.

Node-RED Configuration

Step 1. Install Azure IoT Paletts

Click on the upper-right menu bar and select Settings

Search and install "node-red-contrib-azure-iot-central" in the Paletts - Install

Step 2. Configure the Azure IoT Central node

Drag out the Azure IoT Central node from the function bar on the left, double-click it to enter the configuration page, then click the edit button to edit Azure IoT Central node

The configuration is required to be filled out as follows:

Transport: MQTT

Authentication: SAS

Scope ID/Device ID/Primary Key: We have obtained it before

Step 3. Configure the function node

Data reporting to Azure IoT Central needs to follow a specific data format, so it's necessary to add a function building block to process the data format.

Drag out the function node from the function bar on the left, double-click it to enter the edit page, then copy the code to On Message.

Code:

{
    var payload = msg.payload;
    var topic = msg.topic;
    var strs = topic.split("/");
    var length = strs.length
    if (length >= 2) {
        var measurementId = strs[length - 1]
        var body = {}
        var value = payload.value
        if (measurementId == 4097) {
            body.AirTemperature = value
        } else if (measurementId == 4098) {
            body.AirHumidity = value
        } else if (measurementId == 4100) {
            body.CO2 = value
        }
        msg.payload = body;
    }
    return msg;
}

If you want to see the logging information of the data, you can add a debug node after the function node.

Once the S210X Sensor starts powering up and working and starts sending data to the SenseCAP PaaS server, then we can check the data on Azure IoT Central.