Losant IoT

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

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.