Losant Connector Setup

Losant Setup

Step 1 : Make a Losant Account if you don't have one already

Go to https://www.losant.com, Click sign-up and follow the instructions

Step 2 : Set up a Losant application

• Go to the Applications section of your Losant Dashboard [ https://app.losant.com/applications ]

• Click on Add Application

• Either choose a Template that suits you or choose Blank Application

• Enter a name for your application and click Create Application

Step 3 : Create a Device Recipe

Any remote device communicating with the Losant server must be modeled in a Losant application, so that it is properly identified and the data it sends can be properly parsed. For ease of replication, we can make a Device Recipe with the required model. To create a new recipe :

• Click on Device Recipes in the Sidebar

• Click the Add Device Recipe button in the top-right corner

• Give a name for your recipe and choose Set my own default names, tags and attributes

• Click the Create Recipe button

• This should take you to the Properties tab of your Device Recipe. In this page, ensure that the Device Class is Standaone

• Now go to the Attributes tab. The parameters to be sent to the Losant Server have to be defined here as attributes along with a suitable data type.

• Once you have added the attributes necessary for your device, click Update Attributes.

Step 4 : Create Devices

• Click on the Devices tab in the sidebar.

• Click on the downward arrow beside the Add Device button in the top-right corner

• Click on Create from Recipe.

• Choose the recipe that was made in the previous step and click Create from Recipe.

• Optionally, rename the device and click Save Device

Step 5 : Create an access key

Any device connecting to our application will need to provide authentication credentials. In Losant, these credentials are defined in the form of an access key and a corresponding access secret. A given access key can be shared by more than one device; in our application we are going to create a single access key which will be used by all devices.

• Click on the Access Keys tab in the sidebar.

• Click the Add Access Key button in the top-right corner.

• Give a descriptive name for your Access Key.

• In the ACCESS KEY DEVICE RESTRICTIONS Section, select the devices that the key applies to. Choose All Devices if you are unsure.

• Click on Create Access Key

• Save your keys as the Secret key cannot be recovered after this. Click on Download to file to save it on your PC as a text file.

• Once saved, acknowledge that you have saved the key and close the window.

Step 6 : Create a Dashboard.

Losant allows creating personalized dashboards to display data coming from any device in a given application, and also to send commands to a device.

• Click on the Dashboards tab in the sidebar.

• Click the Add Dashboard button in the top-right corner.

• Enter a name for your Dashboard and click Create Dashboard

• Click on Add Block.

• Losant provides you with many templates for Dshboard blocks. Choose one that is suitable to you.

• In the block settings, choose the attributes to be used to generate the view and click on Add block

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IoTify Network Simulator Templates

Now that we have our Losant application and dashboard set up, we need to create a template for each device in the IoTify Network Simulator.

You can import our Losant Connector Template Boilerplate from the link below

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iotify/nsim-examples/master/connectors/losant-connector.json

Paste this URL in the dialog box that opens when you click Import a Template from the Network Simulator templates page [ https://beta.iotify.io/network/templates ]

Or make your own from scratch :

• Choose a template that suits your application or click on Blank Template

• Select the MQTT(S) protocol and enter a name for your template.

• In the template editor, Go to the MQTT tab to set the connection parameters

  • Ensure that the protocol is mqtt(TCP)

  • Enter broker.losant.com and the Endpoint URL

  • In the topic field, enter losant/<device-id>/state

    • To get device-id, click on the devices tab of your Losant Application homepage. The device Id is listed below the Device name. Click on the button beside the ID to copy it.

  • Enter the same device-id in the ClientID field.

• Go to the Security tab and provide the authentication credentials to connect to our Losant application

  • Enter the Access Key as the Username

  • Enter the Access Secret as the Password

    These can be found in the .txt file we downloaded while making the Access key in Losant

• Go to the Device Model Tab.

  • In the message generator section, define the message to be sent to simulate your device.

• Click the Save button one you are done editing the template.

Simulation

In the simulate tab of the IoTify Network Simulator, use the newly created template to run a simulation. Ensure that the Number of clients in each simulation is set to 1.

Observe your data being populated in the Losant Dashboard.