Devices

Device is the main system element that implements one-way or two-way communication between VizIoT and your physical device.

Devices such as ESP8266, Arduino, Raspberry PI, Personal computer, Smartphone and other devices with Internet access can act as physical devices.

You can manage (add and edit) devices on the «My Devices» page.

To add a device open the page «My devices» in the lower right corner there will be a button for adding a device . Adding a device takes place in two stages.

At the first stage, the name of the device and the protocol for interacting with the device are set, after confirmation, the device will be assigned a unique key and access password that are required to connect and identify a physical device in the system.

At the second stage, the parameters are configured that will be transmitted by the physical device to the server. If the device transmits an unknown parameter, then it is automatically added to the list of parameters with the «Custom» type, so the parameters can be configured after connecting the device to the server.

The main settings are:

• Name – used to display the device in the system.
• Access key – generated automatically upon creation, is unique and used to identify the device in the system.
• Public access key – active only when you grant access to the device, allows only reading data.
• Access password – generated automatically on creation.
• Description – used for notes and displayed only on the «My Devices» page.
• Transferred parameters – used to designate all transmitted device parameters, assign data types and a user-understandable designation of the parameter (since often the parameter key carries little information about what data is stored in it)

Your device must be connected to the Internet. Our service supports two types of connection to the server via HTTP GET requests or MQTT client.

To transfer data via the HTTP GET protocol, you must send requests to the address http://viziot.com:48656/update with parameters.

• key: your device access key;
• pass: your device access password.

• date: used to indicate date and time. The value must be specified in the format Unix Timestamp UTC+0. If you do not pass the parameter, then the time of data recording on the server will be used.
• All other parameters are considered device parameters.

Request example:

http://viziot.comdev:48656/update?key=123456789ABCDEFG&pass=123456789ABCDEFGabcd&date=1531486022¶m1=0

Described in more detail in Section Protocols -> HTTP GET requests.

To transfer data via the MQTT protocol, you need to connect to our MQTT broker.

• SERVER: viziot.com
• PORT: 48651
• CLIENTID: any text (can match USERNAME)
• USERNAME: access key that is generated when the device is created
• PASSWORD: access password that is generated when the device is created
• Topic for sending data: /devices/USERNAME/packet
• Topic for getting data: /devices/USERNAME/param/+

When publishing data the payload must be in the JSON format. For example, {"date":"1527897593","rsst":"-64","t1":"28.90"}.

Use the date key to specify the date and time with a Unix Timestamp UTC+0. If you do not pass the parameter, then the time of data recording on the server will be used.

All other parameters are considered device parameters.

Described in more detail in Section Protocols -> MQTT.

Device parameters are data that your device sends for monitoring and control, for example, temperature, humidity, battery voltage, whether the light is on, whether the door is open, etc.

Each parameter has three settings:

• Key – transfers your device.
• Type – it is necessary to understand what data this parameter stores.
• Description – used for visualization in the system instead of a key, since the key does not always clearly describe the data it contains (the recommended length is up to 10 characters).

Parameter types such as:

• Custom
• Temperature, °C
• Temperature, °F
• Temperature, K
• Humidity, %
• Atm. pressure, Pa
• Precipitation, mm
• Speed, m/s
• Azimuth, °
• Voltage, V
• Current, A
• Power, W
• Energy meter, Wh
• Signal strength, dBm
• On / Off, 0-1 – A special type as soon as it is applied in the radio button widget
• Illumination, lx
• Water meter, m3
• Carbon dioxide, ppm
• Alt, m
• Percent, %
• Milliseconds, ms
• Seconds, s
• Minute, m
• Hour, h
• Days, Days
• Bit, bit
• Byte, B
• Kilobyte, KB
• Megabyte, MB
• Gigabyte, GB
• Terabyte, TB

Public access to a device means that you provide access to your device data to all users who have an public link to this device. Also, if you wish, you can add your device to a special section of the site for public devices. Users can use your device for their own purposes.

To share your device:

1. Go to page «My devices».
2. Find the device you need and click on the «Access settings» button.
3. The «Form settings device access» window will open and click on the «Enable» checkbox.
4. And on this form, you can specify a description of your devices public access it is possible to describe briefly what kind of device which transmits data.

All your device is now open and accessible via the link (the link can be copied with a special button). If you want your device to be available in the section «List of public devices» then check the box next to «Show on public devices».