sigfox-gcloud-ubidots is a sigfox-gcloud
adapter for integrating Sigfox devices with Ubidots.
With sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
you may process and render sensor
data from your Sigfox devices in real time, through the
Ubidots and Google Cloud platforms. You may also configure
Ubidots alerts to notify you via email and SMS based on
the sensor data received.
sigfox-gcloud
is an open-source software framework for building a
Sigfox server with Google Cloud Functions and Google Cloud PubSub
message queues. Check out sigfox-gcloud
Releases
- Version 1.0.0 (11 Oct 2017): Supports Google Cloud Trace for tracing the Sigfox Callback processing time across Cloud Functions. Supports Google Cloud Debug for capturing Node.js memory snapshots. Supports Ubidots map visualisation of Sigfox Geolocation and other geolocated sensor data points.
Getting Started
For development we support Linux, MacOS and Ubuntu on Windows 10.
Open a command prompt and enter these commands to download the sigfox-cloud-ubidots
source folder to your computer.
git clone https://github.com/UnaBiz/sigfox-gcloud-ubidots.git
cd sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
If you're using Ubuntu on Windows 10, we recommend that you launch "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows" and enter the following
commands to download the source files into the folder /mnt/c/sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
:
cd /mnt/c
git clone https://github.com/UnaBiz/sigfox-gcloud-ubidots.git
cd sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
That's because /mnt/c/sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
under bash
is a shortcut to c:\sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
under Windows.
So you could use Windows Explorer and other Windows tools to browse and edit files in the folder.
Remember to use a text editor like Visual Studio Code that can save files using
the Linux line-ending convention (linefeed only: \n
),
instead of the Windows convention (carriage return + linefeed: \r \n
).
Create a file named config.json
in the sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
folder
with the contents below (replace YOUR_UBIDOTS_API_KEY
by your
Ubidots API Key)
{
"comment": "Configuration file for Ubidots adapter for sigfox-gcloud",
"ubidots-api-key": "YOUR_UBIDOTS_API_KEY"
}
To use multiple Ubidots accounts, combine the API keys from each account with a comma:
"ubidots-api-key": "YOUR_UBIDOTS_API_KEY1,YOUR_UBIDOTS_API_KEY2"
Setting up Google Cloud
-
Install
sigfox-gcloud
with the base modules (exclude optional modules):https://github.com/UnaBiz/sigfox-gcloud/blob/master/README.md
-
Open a bash command prompt. For Windows, open "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows."
Create a file named.env
in thesigfox-gcloud-ubidots
folder
and populate theGCLOUD_PROJECT
variable with your project ID. To do that, you may use this command (changemyproject
to your project ID):cd sigfox-gcloud-ubidots echo GCLOUD_PROJECT=myproject >.env
-
Add the following
sigfox-route
setting to the Google Cloud Project Metadata store. This route says that all received Sigfox messages will be processed by the two stepsdecodeStructuredMessage
andsendToUbidots
.gcloud compute project-info add-metadata --metadata=^:^sigfox-route=decodeStructuredMessage,sendToUbidots
-
Create the Google PubSub message queue that we will use to route the Sigfox messages between the Cloud Functions:
gcloud beta pubsub topics create sigfox.types.sendToUbidots
sigfox.devices.sendToUbidots
is the queue that will receive decoded Sigfox messages to be sent to Ubidots via the Ubidots API -
Deploy all the included Cloud Functions (including the demo functions) with the
deployall.sh
script:chmod +x */*.sh scripts/deployall.sh
How it works
-
Sigfox messages are pushed by the Sigfox Cloud to the Google Cloud Function
sigfoxCallback
-
Cloud Function
sigfoxCallback
delivers the message to PubSub message queuesigfox.devices.all
, as well as to the device ID and device type queues -
Cloud Function
routeMessage
listens to PubSub message queuesigfox.devices.all
and picks up the new message -
Cloud Function
routeMessage
assigns a route to the Sigfox message by reading thesigfox-route
from the Google Compute Metadata Store. The route looks like this:
decodeStructuredMessage, sendToUbidots
-
This route first sends the message to function
decodeStructuredMessage
via the queuesigfox.types.decodeStructuredMessage
-
decodeStructuredMessage
contains the logic to decode a compressed message format that we call Structured Message Format. Within a 12-byte Sigfox message, the Structured Message Format can encode efficiently 3 sensor field values and their sensor field names.For example, the encoded 12-byte message
b0513801a421f0019405a500
contains 3 sensor values (temperature, humidity, altitude) and their field names:
tmp = 31.2, hmd = 49.6, alt = 16.5
-
According to
sigfox-route
above, the resulting decoded message is sent next to functionsendToUbidots
via the queuesigfox.types.sendToUbidots
-
sendToUbidots
sends the decoded message to Ubidots by calling the Ubidots API.
It assumes that you have created a device in Ubidots that's named likeSigfox Device 2C30EB
, where the last 6 letters/digits is the Sigfox device ID. -
sendToUbidots
also assumes that you have created variables with the same name as the decoded message fields. For example if you're using this Arduino sketch to send structured sensor data to Sigfox:Message msg(transceiver); // Will contain the structured sensor data. msg.addField("tmp", scaledTemp); // 4 bytes for the temperature (1 decimal place). msg.addField("hmd", scaledHumidity); // 4 bytes for the humidity (1 decimal place). msg.addField("alt", scaledAltitude); // 4 bytes for the altitude (1 decimal place). msg.send(); // Send the structured sensor data.
sendToUbidots
assumes that you have created the variables namedtmp, hmd
andalt
in your Ubidots device, e.g.Sigfox Device 2C30EB
.sendToUbidots
can then populate thetmp, hmd
andalt
variables through the Ubidots API. -
See this doc for the definition of Structured Messages:
https://unabiz.github.io/unashield/
For instructions on creating the Ubidots devices and variables, check the UnaShield Tutorial for Ubidots:
sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
server logs
Viewing You may view the logs through the
Google Cloud Logging Console
Select "Cloud Function" as the "Resource"
From the screen above you can see the logs generated as each Sigfox message is processed in stages by sigfox-gcloud
:
-
Sigfox Device IDs are shown in square brackets e.g.
[ 2C30EB ]
-
Completed Steps are denoted by
_<<_
-
sigfoxCallback
is the Google Cloud Function that listens for incoming HTTPS messages delivered by Sigfox -
routeMessage
passes the Sigfox message to various Google Cloud Functions to decode and process the message -
decodeStructuredMessage
decodes a compressed Sigfox message that contains multiple field names and field values -
sendToUbidots
is a Google Cloud Function that sends the decoded sensor data to Ubidots via the Ubidots API.
sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
server performance
Tracing The Google Cloud Trace Console shows you the time taken by each step of the Sigfox message processing pipeline, tracing the message through every Google Cloud Function.
Each message delivered by Sigfox appears as a separate trace timeline. Messages are shown like 2C30EB seq:1913
where 2C30EB
is the Sigfox Device ID and 1913
is the Sigfox Message Sequence Number (seqNumber)
The Google Stackdriver Trace API needs to be enabled manually.
Custom reports may be created in Google Cloud Trace Control to benchmark the performance of each processing step over time.
sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
server
Understanding and troubleshooting the To understand each processing step in the sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
server, you may use the
Google Cloud Debug Console
to set breakpoints and capture in-memory variable values for each Google Cloud Function, without stopping or reconfiguring the server.
In the example below, we have set a breakpoint in the sigfoxCallback
Google Cloud Function. The captured in-memory
values are displayed at right - you can see the Sigfox message that was received by the callback.
The Callback Stack appears at the lower right.
Google Cloud Debug is also useful for troubleshooting your custom message processing code without having to insert the debugging code yourself.
sigfox-gcloud-ubidots
server
Testing the -
Send some Sigfox messages from the Sigfox devices. Monitor the progress of the processing through the Google Cloud Logging Console.
Select "Cloud Function" as the "Resource" -
Processing errors will be reported to the Google Cloud Error Reporting Console.
-
We may configure Google Cloud Stackdriver Monitoring to create incident reports upon detecting any errors. Stackdriver may also be used to generate dashboards for monitoring the PubSub message processing queues.
Demo
-
To send messages from a Sigfox device into Ubidots, you may use this Arduino sketch:
https://github.com/UnaBiz/unabiz-arduino/blob/master/examples/send-light-level/send-light-level.ino
The sketch sends 3 field names and field values, packed into a Structured Message:
ctr - message counter lig - light level, based on the Grove analog light sensor tmp - module temperature, based on the Sigfox module's embedded temperature sensor
-
In Ubidots, create the Devices / Datasources for each Sigfox device to be integrated with Ubidots. Name the device / datasource using this format: (change
2C30EB
to your Sigfox device ID)Sigfox Device 2C30EB
-
For each Ubidots device / datasource, create the Variables that will be used to transmit sensor values from the Sigfox device to Ubidots. For the above example, you may create 3 variables
ctr, lig, tmp
for the Ubidots deviceSigfox Device 2C30EB
.Run the above Arduino-Sigfox sketch and the sensor values will be automatically recorded by Ubidots under
Sigfox Device 2C30EB
. -
Alternatively, you may test by sending a Sigfox message from your Sigfox device with the
data
field set to:920e82002731b01db0512201
We may also use a URL testing tool like Postman to send a POST request to the
sigfoxCallback
URL e.g. (changemyproject
to your Google Cloud Project ID)https://us-central1-myproject.cloudfunctions.net/sigfoxCallback
Set the
Content-Type
header toapplication/json
. If you're using Postman, clickBody
->Raw
->JSON (application/json)
Set the body to:{ "device":"1A2345", "data":"920e82002731b01db0512201", "time":"1476980426", "duplicate":"false", "snr":"18.86", "station":"0000", "avgSnr":"15.54", "lat":"1", "lng":"104", "rssi":"-123.00", "seqNumber":"1492", "ack":"false", "longPolling":"false" }
where
device
is your Sigfox device ID.Here's the request in Postman:
We may use the
curl
command as well. Remember to changemyproject
and1A2345
to your project ID and device ID.curl --request POST \ --url https://us-central1-myproject.cloudfunctions.net/sigfoxCallback \ --header 'cache-control: no-cache' \ --header 'content-type: application/json' \ --data '{"device":"1A2345", "data":"920e82002731b01db0512201", "time":"1476980426", "duplicate":"false", "snr":"18.86", "station":"0000", "avgSnr":"15.54", "lat":"1", "lng":"104", "rssi":"-123.00", "seqNumber":"1492", "ack":"false", "longPolling":"false"}'
-
The response from the callback function should look like this:
{ "1A2345": { "noData": true } }
-
The test message sent above will be decoded and sent to Ubidots as
ctr (counter): 13 lig (light level): 760 tmp (temperature): 29
-
For instructions on creating the Ubidots devices and variables, check the UnaShield Tutorial for Ubidots:
Sending latitude-longitude values to Ubidots
Some Sigfox devices transmit location data in the form of latitude-longitude values, such as GPS trackers. Ubidots is capable of rendering such data points into a map, but under these conditions:
- The field names must be
lat
andlng
- The fields must appear in the Context Field of the variable to be rendered.
Suppose your GPS tracker transmits latitude, longitude as well as temperature.
Then Ubidots expects the lat
and lng
fields to be present in the context
whenever the temperature value is transmitted to Ubidots.
The sendToUbidots
step can be configured to send any latitude-longitude fields
as lat
and lng
. In the config.json
file that you have created above,
insert 2 lines for lat
and lng
like this: (note the comma after the API key)
{
"comment": "Configuration file for Ubidots adapter for sigfox-gcloud",
"ubidots-api-key": "YOUR_UBIDOTS_API_KEY",
"lat": "deviceLat,geolocLat",
"lng": "deviceLng,geolocLng"
}
Then deploy the configuration using the command:
scripts/deployall.sh
This configures sendToUbidots
to look for any data fields named
deviceLat
and deviceLng
, and if found, duplicate the fields as lat
and lng
Create variables named lat
and lng
for your Sigfox Device in Ubidots.
If your GPS tracker sends the fields deviceLat
and deviceLng
,
they will be rendered correctly in a Ubidots map, like below.
Multiple latitude-longitude field names may be specified in config.json
. In the example above,
sendToUbidots
searches for the fields deviceLat
and deviceLng
first.
If the fields are not found, then it searches for geolocLat
and geolocLng
.
Sending Sigfox Geolocation data to Ubidots
Sigfox Geolocation is an optional service provided by your Sigfox Operator that locates your Sigfox device by using the Sigfox network signal data. The latitude-longitude data provided through this service may be rendered in Ubidots by setting the GEOLOC Callback as follows:
Log on to the Sigfox Backend
https://backend.sigfox.com/
Click "Device Type" at the top menu.
Click on your device type.
Click "Callbacks" in the left menu.
Click "New" at top right.
Enter the callback details as follows:
-
Type:
SERVICE, GEOLOC
-
Channel:
URL
-
URL Pattern:
https://us-central1-myproject.cloudfunctions.net/sigfoxCallback
Changemyproject
to your Google Cloud Project ID -
Use HTTP Method:
POST
-
Send SNI:
Checked (Yes) -
Headers:
(Blank) -
Content Type:
application/json
-
Set the Body as:
{ "time": {time}, "action": "geoloc", "device" : "{device}", "geolocLat": {lat}, "geolocLng": {lng}, "geolocLocationAccuracy": {radius}, "seqNumber": {seqNumber}, "duplicate": "{duplicate}", "snr": "{snr}", "station": "{station}", "avgSnr": "{avgSnr}", "rssi": "{rssi}" }
Note that the Sigfox Geolocation latitude and longitude fields will be transmitted as
geolocLat
andgeolocLng
with the above settings
Note that this is a different callback from the Data Callback that we use for normal Sigfox messages.
After saving the callback you should see the Sigfox Geolocation callback
appear under the SERVICE Callbacks
section, not DATA Callbacks
.
Follow the instructions in the previous section to set config.json
as
{
"comment": "Configuration file for Ubidots adapter for sigfox-gcloud",
"ubidots-api-key": "YOUR_UBIDOTS_API_KEY",
"lat": "deviceLat,geolocLat",
"lng": "deviceLng,geolocLng"
}
Then deploy the configuration using the command:
scripts/deployall.sh
Create variables named lat
, lng
, geolocLat
and geolocLng
for your Sigfox Device in Ubidots.
To verify that the Sigfox Geolocation data is transmitted correctly,
click on the variable geolocLat
for your Sigfox Device.
You'll see that the lat
field in the Context
column shows the same value
as the geolocLat
field in the left column. Which means that sendToUbidots
has correctly copied the geolocLat
field into lat
.
Check the same for geolocLng
and lng
fields.
Now that the lat
and lng
fields are properly populated, we will see the
Sigfox Geolocation points on the Ubidots map.