Let's assume you created an account on AllThingsTalk Maker and created a LoRaWAN Rapid Development Kit as your device. This step by step guide will help you setting up all the components to feed data into the AllThingsTalk IoT Platform.
Download and install the Arduino IDE
The open-source Arduino Software (IDE) makes it easy to write code and upload it to an Arduino compatible board. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The environment is written in Java and based on Processing and other open-source software.
- Download Arduino IDE here.
- After the download install the application as indicated.
Configure Arduino IDE for the Sodaq MBili board
In order to use the Arduino compatible MBili board that is included in the LoRaWAN Rapid Development Kit we need to make sure that the MBili "core" is installed in Arduino IDE.
- Open the Arduino IDE application
- Click on File > Preferences and at the bottom you should see ‘Additional Boards Manager URLs’. This is where you need to paste in the following URL:
http://downloads.sodaq.net/package_sodaq_avr_index.json
- Click on Tools > Board > Boards Manager… and search for 'SODAQ MBili'
- Click on a board collection and an install button will appear. Install the latest version of the selected board collection
- Set the Mbili as board to be used. Click on Tools > Board: … and search for 'SODAQ Mbili...' (Located in the section SODAQ AVR Boards).
Installing the AllThingsTalk LoRaWAN libraries
For your convenience we have combined and published all libraries and example sketches in a single package. To install these complete the following steps:
- Click on Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries… and search for 'AllThingsTalk'
- Install the latest version of the AllThingsTalk LoRaWAN SDK
Everything is now set...
The only thing do for you is to decide which AllThingsTalk LoRaWAN RDK experiment corresponds to your intended use case or application. The experiment card included in the box can serve as guidance:
- Environmental Sensing: This experiment shows how we can use a LoRa sensor device to monitor the quality of the surrounding environment. It measures air quality, noise level, temperature, humidity and pressure. In AllThingsTalk Maker the visualisation will provide stakeholders a dashboard to support decision making to improve quality of living.
- Count Visits: Facility management can be improved, taking into account actual usage and based on real-time measurements. This experiment shows how a LoRa sensor device can count visits to optimise cleaning based on usage rather than rigid schedules.
- Guard Your Stuff: Do you want to get notified when someone moves things that are precious to you? This experiment shows how a LoRa device along with sensors can be used to detect unexpected movement of an object and send out notifications to its owner. Furthermore, this experiment shows how you can track the object using its geolocation and visualise the location in AllThingsTalk Maker.
- Push Button: This basic example gives you a good overview of an example sketch. It has a simple push button that acts as a toggle and sends the state true or false to the AllThingsTalk IoT Platform.