IoT Solution World Congress 2016 starts next week, starting on Tuesday 25th of October until 27th of October. The night before, on Monday at 7pm, there’s also the awesome IoT Stars that thethings.iO is proudly sponsoring.

At thethings.iO we are very excited about participating at the 2nd edition of the IoT Solutions World Congress event at the Barcelona (Gran Via) expo. The industrial IoT is one of thethings.iO main markets and it’s a great opportunity to meet up companies and partners to exchange impressions of the market and show off our new developments to potential customers, resellers and partners.

During the #IoTSWC16, we are going to introduce the last innovations at thethings.iO such as the product analytics, the node code and the marketplace. At thethings.iO we are pushing hard to become the most simple industrial IoT platform in the market.

As exhibitors, we will have a booth at the IoT Solutions World Congress. Looking forward have you visiting our booth at C371 (Barcelona Activa) and chat with us about your needs, experiences, projects and ideas with thethings.iO. Last year it was great, so we hope it will be at least the same!

Our CEO, Marc Pous, is going to give two talks during the IoT Solutions World Congress. The first one on Wednesday 26th of October at 10:00 AM inside the IoT Catalan Alliance, speaking about IoT and innovation. The second talk, it is as well on Wednesday at 3.30 PM at the ISACA Alliance and Marc will speak about industrial IoT and security.

IoT Stars

IoT Stars MWC 2015

thethings.iO is a proud sponsor of the IoT Stars. Our CEO, Marc Pous and Rudy de Waele are making a big party for IoT again, this time during the IoT Solutions World Congress. Join us to enjoy awesome speakers such as Rob Tiffany, Tom Raftery or Ignasi Vilajosana and fresh beers sponsored by Moritz. Can’t miss it!

Zolertia + thethings.iO Workshop

Finally we will be teaching a workshop with our friends from Zolertia at their event. Meet our team (Miquel and Carles) showing how to connect the Zolertia’s Remote to thethings.iO in just few clicks at this interesting (and free) workshop on Monday 24th.

Looking forward meeting you. If you can’t come to Barcelona this year, you can follow us on Twitter and the blog or just contact us by e-mail. Let’s stay connected!

In today’s post we are going to show you how to create (step by step) a Sigfox IoT Dashboard with thethings.iO IoT platform. Literally it’s 5 minutes time, no more.

In this example we will use a Sigfox board with temperature and humidity sensors, same as the previous post (Connecting the SmartEverything to thethings.iO). On this video you can see how we do all the process of creating a product on thethings.iO, introduce the callback URL on the Sigfox backend and parsing the Sigfox message at thethings.iO cloud code function plus designing a beautiful dashboard. As said, all in 5 minutes! Watch it on Youtube!

Let’s start the step-by-step Sigfox thethings.iO tutorial

First, make sure you have an account at thethings.iO. If not, register quickly at the free account of thethings.iO by clicking here.

Once you have done this, you can start with this Step by Step tutorial to connect a Sigfox device to an IoT platform.

In order to receive the data from Sigfox, you’ll need to redirect all the messages using a callback URL from our Sigfox profile. You’ll need to configure our thethings.iO IoT profile for this:

1. Navigate to the Things Manager (2nd row at the left).
2. Create a new product (have in mind that a thethings.iO product is similar than a Sigfox Device Type) : Insert your product name. Choose Sigfox payload Format. Check the image to see how this works.
   

3. Press on the product you have created. Copy the URL in the Product Settings widget that is called Callback URL.

thethings.iO Product Details for Sigfox products

Now lets move to the Sigfox backend:

1. Select your DEVICE TYPE on the Sigfox Backend
2. Click on CALLBACKS on the left menu.
3. Click the (tiny) button “New” on the top right.

4. Choose the following configuration:
   1. Type: DATA – UP-LINK (or BIDIR if you have bidirectional communication with the device)
   2. Channel: URL.
   3. URL pattern: Paste your previous callback URL from thethings.iO.
   4. Use HTTP method: POST and click Ok.
   5. Leave body and the other options empty.
   

Parsing data from Sigfox

Now go to thethings.iO IoT platform and you will need to specify how to parse the data that Sigfox redirects to thethings.iO, in order to display the correct values. At this point thethings.iO is going to collect all the sigfox messages (12 bytes) and provision all the Sigfox devices that you have on your Sigfox account automatically. To parse properly the Sigfox payload, follow these instructions:

1. Go to Cloud Code
2. Navigate to Functions and Edit the sigfox_parser generated function with the name that you gave to the product.
3. Parse your resources by splitting the string that Sigfox sends (generally an hexadecimal number containing all the sensor values, one after the other). In the preview params, copy the Sigfox payload you send from Sigfox and change “quote” to “data” to prove your function.

function parseF(s) { // Use this function in order to patch the GPS data stored as floats in the code
 var a = ((s & 0x7FFFFF | 0x800000) * 1.0 / Math.pow(2,23) * Math.pow(2, ((s>>23 & 0xFF) - 127)));
 if (s >= 2147483647) { //If >= (it's a negative latitude or longitude)
 a =-a;
 }
 return a;
}

function main(params, callback){
 var result = [
 {
 //Replace with your own payload parse 
 "key": "temperature",
 "value": parseF(parseInt(params.data.substring(8,16),16))
 },
 {
 "key": "humidity",
 "value": parseF(parseInt(params.data.substring(0,8),16))
 }
 ]
 callback(null, result) 
}

Create an IoT dashboard

It’s time to create an IoT Dashboard with thethings.iO to show all the values of your Sigfox sensors with thethings.iO widgets!

1. Go to the Dashboard (1st icon on the left)
2. Click on the bottom right cross (+)
3. Introduce a name for the widget.
4. Select Thing Resource (for example) as a Data Source.
5. Select the name of the product that we created for this Sigfox device.
6. Select your thing (automatically they should have the Sigfox ID as name).
7. Select the resource that you want to show (the name will be generated by the sigfox_parser function).
8. Select how you want to show your resource (Lines, bars, log…) and choose real-time (if you want to see the values updating in real-time). Play with the value inside Custom Parameters.

Repeat this process until you finish your awesome IoT Dashboard!

If you have any question just contact us through the chat and enjoy the most simple Sigfox IoT plaform for your projects.

Today, we’re gonna show you how to connect your STMicroelectronics board with thethings.iO. At this post we are going to connect exactly STMicroelectronics Discovery-F746NG board to take advantage of the mbed platform.

STMicroelectronics & thethings.iO

The STMicroelectronics Discovery-F746NG is a development kit board of the ST32F7 series of microcontrollers based on ARM Cortex-M7 processor. The board brings a microcontroller with 1MB of flash memory and 340KB of RAM connected with a 4.3 inches 480×272 TFT with capacitive touch screen. It brings Ethernet connectivity for Internet and for example Arduino UNO connectors. One of the most interesting part for this demo is that this board support mbed IDE.

We decided to connect it to the Internet with thethings.iO to build a functional pilot for a customer.

How to connect STMicroelectronics Discovery-F746NG to thethings.iO

In order to connect with thethings.iO IoT platform, we’re going to need a thingToken to identify our board with the IoT platform and the business logic on the top. Find here the instructions to make it happen:

1. Login or Register to thethings.iO (or quickly register here).
2. If you already have a thing to work with, skip two steps. Navigate to Things (third row on the left)  and click on “Create new IoT product”. Insert a name, choose 8266 as the board and JSON as the format.

1. Click on the created product and click on “Get activation codes”. If you don’t have enough activation codes, generate more using “Genereate Activation Codes”. Now press on the “+” below “Activate” Row and copy the thing Token.

Making the firmware at the mbed platform

One of the interesting parts of this board is the use of the mbed platform that simplifies a lot the way to deploy new firmware on the board.

1. Navigate to mbed developers site and login (or signup if you don’t have an account).

1. Click the  “Compiler” button. This link will redirect you to the mbed online compiler.
2. A floating window will emerge, asking for a platform to work with. Select your board (DISCO-F746NG).
3. On the top part of the mbed online compiler, click on Import.

1. Press “Click here to import from URL”.

1. Insert the following link: 
   1. For the HTTP version https://developer.mbed.org/users/charlyo/code/thethingsiO-DISCO_F746NG-http/
   2. For the MQTT version https://developer.mbed.org/users/charlyo/code/thethingsiO-DISCO_F746NG-mqtt/

• The program is going to be imported into your workspace. Remember to change the TOKEN define with your thing token.
• Connect the board to the computer: Connect both ST-LINK (mini USB) and FS (micro USB) to the computer. A new drive unit is going to appear in your computer:

• Click on compile. After compile is done, download the file into the USB disk that appeared when you connected the board to the computer.
• The code is going to be flashed into the board and executed afterwards on the board.

thethings.iO STMicroelectronics library

Once we know how to program the STMicroelectronics board with ARM mbed platform. It’s time to build a code that send the sensors’ data to thethings.iO. Find thethings.iO IoT platform STMicroelectronics library at our github account for HTTP and MQTT, with an example for each.

This is the library that connects the STMicroelectronics board to thethings.iO with HTTP. It have 4 basic calls to thethings.iO API: activate, read, readAll and write.

#include "ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG.h"

ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG()
{
    this->interface.init();
    this->interface.connect();
    this->buffer = network::Buffer(1024);
}

ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG(string token)
{
    this->interface.init();
    this->interface.connect();
    this->thingToken = token;
    this->buffer = network::Buffer(1024);
}

ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::~ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG()
{

}

string ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::thingReadAll(int limit)
{
    std::string request("GET /v2/things/");
    request.append(thingToken);
    request.append("/all_resources?limit=");
    stringstream convert;
    convert << limit;
    request.append(convert.str());
    request.append(" HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: %s\r\nUser-Agent: curl/7.43.0\r\nAccept: application/json\r\n\r\n");
    if (socket.open() < 0) {
        printf("Failed to open TCP Socket\n\r");
        return "Failed to open TCP Socket\n\r";
    }
    if (socket.connect("api.devices.thethings.io", 80) < 0) {
        printf("Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r");
        return "Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r";
    }
    if (socket.write((void *)request.data(), request.size()) < 0) { printf("Failed to write HTTP request\n\r"); return "Failed to write HTTP request\n\r"; } int result = this->socket.read(buffer);
    //printf("Received %d bytes:\n\r%s\n\r", string string string string string string string int result, (char *)buffer.data());
    string response = string((char*)buffer.data()).substr(string((char*)buffer.data()).find("\r\n\r\n"));
    buffer.flush();
    socket.close();
    return response;
}

string ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::thingRead(string resource, int limit)
{
    std::string request("GET /v2/things/");
    request.append(thingToken);
    request.append("/resources/");
    request.append(resource);
    request.append("?limit=");
    stringstream convert;
    convert << limit;
    request.append(convert.str());
    request.append(" HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: %s\r\nUser-Agent: curl/7.43.0\r\nAccept: application/json\r\n\r\n");
    if (socket.open() < 0) {
        printf("Failed to open TCP Socket\n\r");
        return "Failed to open TCP Socket\n\r";
    }

    if (socket.connect("api.devices.thethings.io", 80) < 0) {
        printf("Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r");
        return "Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r";
    }

    if (socket.write((void *)request.data(), request.size()) < 0) { printf("Failed to write HTTP request\n\r"); return "Failed to write HTTP request\n\r"; } int result = this->socket.read(this->buffer);
    //printf("Received %d bytes:\n\r%s\n\r", string string string string string string string int result, (char *)buffer.data());
    string response = string((char*)this->buffer.data()).substr(string((char*)this->buffer.data()).find("\r\n\r\n"));
    this->buffer.flush();
    socket.close();
    return response;
}

int ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::thingWrite(string resource, string value)
{
    string body;
    body.append("{\"values\":[{\"key\":\"");
    body.append(resource);
    body.append("\",\"value\":\"");
    body.append(value);
    body.append("\"}]}");
    std::string writerequest("POST /v2/things/");
    writerequest.append(thingToken);
    writerequest.append(" HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: %s\r\nUser-Agent: curl/7.43.0\r\nAccept: application/json\r\nContent-Type: application/json\r\nContent-Length: ");
    stringstream convert;
    convert << body.length();
    writerequest.append(convert.str());
    writerequest.append("\r\n\r\n");
    writerequest.append(body);
    writerequest.append("\r\n");
    if (socket.open() < 0) {
        printf("Failed to open TCP Socket\n\r");
        return -1;
    }
    if (socket.connect("api.devices.thethings.io", 80) < 0) {
        printf("Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r");
        return -1;
    }
    if (socket.write((void *)writerequest.data(), writerequest.size()) < 0) { printf("Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r"); return -1; } int result = socket.read(buffer); //printf("Received %d bytes:\n\r%s\n\r", string string string string string string string int result, (char *)buffer.data()); string response = string((char *) buffer.data()); //printf("%s\n", (char *) buffer.data()); int ret = response.find("status:created"); buffer.flush(); socket.close(); if (ret >= 0) return 0;
    else return -1;
}

string ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::thingActivate(string activationCode)
{
    string body;
    body.append("{\"activationCode\":\"");
    body.append(activationCode);
    body.append("\"}");
    std::string writerequest("POST /v2/things/");
    writerequest.append(" HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: %s\r\nUser-Agent: curl/7.43.0\r\nAccept: application/json\r\nContent-Type: application/json\r\nContent-Length: ");
    stringstream convert;
    convert << body.length();
    writerequest.append(convert.str());
    writerequest.append("\r\n\r\n");
    writerequest.append(body);
    writerequest.append("\r\n");
    if (socket.open() < 0) {
        printf("Failed to open TCP Socket\n\r");
        return "Failed to open TCP Socket\n\r";
    }
    if (socket.connect("api.devices.thethings.io", 80) < 0) {
        printf("Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r");
        return "Failed to connect with thethings.iO\n\r";
    }
    if (socket.write((void *)writerequest.data(), writerequest.size()) < 0) { printf("Failed to write HTTP request\n\r"); return "Failed to write HTTP request\n\r"; } int result = socket.read(buffer); //printf("Received %d bytes:\n\r%s\n\r", string string string string string string string int result, (char *)buffer.data()); string response = string((char *) buffer.data()); response = response.substr(response.find("\r\n\r\n")); buffer.flush(); socket.close(); //string string string int result = "{\"status\":\"created\",\"message\":\"thing activated\",\"thingToken\":\"5RWZ6xFogVSJEla3b2gbToHGF1Ko-R8vTNoS3FMl8mM\"}" return response; } string ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::getToken() { return this->thingToken;
}

void ThethingsiO_DISCO_F746NG::setToken(string token)
{
    this->thingToken = token;
}

Try it and let us know how do you connect your STMicroelectronics board to thethings.iO. We are going to publish your example at our github and at thethings.iO blog.

At thethings.iO we are constantly learning from our customers to improve our IoT platform. At thethings.iO we use a software continuous delivery, that means, that when we have a new feature we deploy it immediately (after unit testing and other). Yesterday, because of the specific features that we deployed we had to schedule a maintenance outage.

We are glad to announce that yesterday we delivered these next 3 great new features:

Users Management

Create users and grant access to developers, testers and people from your organization to the dashboard. Grant different permissions to the users depending of their role. The users will be able Read, Read&Write or Administrate the account.

Activation Codes By Product

One of the most requested features used to be the possibility to move acquired Activation Codes among products. Since yesterday that was not possible. We have improved the Activation Codes and made the way you provision the new things more dynamic.

First of all, now you can share Activation Codes among products and we also open the possibility to have an Activation Code that activates multiple things. That means that now, with only one activation code for product, you are able to activate as many thing things as you need.

Apps Management

We improved the Applications Manager user interface. Now, using the new Application scope, it’s possible to define in a better and easy way how your Apps will interact with thethings.iO.

One more thing

Yesterday we also published our status page!

Status Page

We created the status page https://status.thethings.io where you can check the status of all our services, the average of the response time and a board of incidences.

At thethings.iO we are building the simplest IoT platform in the market for several verticals such as Industry 4.0, Agriculture, Logistics or Connected Home. Feel free to contact us for more information.