Austin Spivey for Wia

Posted on Jun 13, 2018

Setup an Arduino MKR FOX 1200 and Publish an Event to Wia

#sigfox #arduino #tutorials #opensource

Components

Arduino MKRFox1200
Sigfox Antenna
Micro USB to USB

Setup Your Environment

If you have not already done, download and install the Arduino IDE for your chosen operating system here.

Open the IDE and go to Tools > Boards > Board Manager
Search for the Arduino SAMD Boards
Install the board's core library

Arduino board manager

Connect the Board to your Computer

Using a micro USB cable, connect the micro USB port on the board to the USB port on your computer.

Install required Libraries

Go to Sketch > Include Libraries > Manage Libraries
Type SigFox into the search bar and click the first option. A button will appear in the bottom right of the box that will allow you to install the library

Repeat install for libraries:

Arduino Low Power
RTCzero Sigfox Library

Select Board and Port

Once you've got it connected to your computer, in the Arduino IDE, Select Tools

Select the Arduino MRKFox1200 board
Select the correct port (Arduino MRKfox1200 should be on the port name): If no name is displayed, you can find the port with the following steps:

Linux and Mac OS X

Download and install the FTDI drivers from here. Select the appropriate version for your operating system and architecture
Open a terminal window and run the command ls /dev/tty*
Look for a device with the name that begins with /dev/tty e.g. /dev/tty.usbmodemPy343431 on MAC or /dev/ttyUSB0/dev/ttyACM0 on Linux

Note: For Linux, you may need to run the two commands below. Once you've completed that, reboot your computer. This will add permissions that will allow you to upload a sketch to the board.

sudo usermod -a -G tty ${USER}
sudo usermod -a -G dialout ${USER}

Windows

Download and install the FTDI drivers from here. Select the appropriate version for your operating system and architecture
Open the Windows start menu and search for Device Manager
The COM port for the Pycom device will be listed as USB Serial Device or something similar
Keep note of the COM port (e.g. COM4)

Install the required libraries

Create a new Sketch

Create a new file called sketch_sigfox_init.ino and add the code below.

sketch_main.ino

 #include <SigFox.h>   // must include the SigFox library

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); 
  while(!Serial) {}; //waits for Serial to be available
  if (!SigFox.begin()) { //ensures SigFox is connected
    Serial.println("Shield error or not present!");
    return;
  }

  String version = SigFox.SigVersion();
  String ID = SigFox.ID();
  String PAC = SigFox.PAC();

  Serial.println("ID  = " + ID);
  Serial.println("PAC = " + PAC);

  delay(100);

  // Send the module to the deepest sleep
  SigFox.end();
}

void loop() {
}

The code above just waits until the Serial has begun. This makes sure Sigfox is connected and prints the Device ID and PAC number of the Device.

Upload Code to the Board

Click Sketch > Upload to upload the code to your Device to retrieve the ID and PAC number of the device.

View the Serial Monitor

Click the Screen Monitor icon on the right hand side
In the monitor, it should display the ID and PAC for the device Board ID and Pac Numbers

Register Device with Sigfox

Click here to register the Device with Sigfox
Choose the provider Arduino from the list Then, choose the appropriate country Sigfox providers

Enter Device information

Enter the ID and PAC of your device into Sigfox Sigfox Device ID and PAC

Once entered, you must sign in or sign up to a Sigfox account to view your Device on the Sigfox Dashboard.

The Code

Create a new file called sketch_sigfox.ino and add the code below.Make sure that:

Tools > Boards is set to Arduino MRKfox1200
Tools > Port is set to the port of the board

Sigfox

 #include <SigFox.h>   // must include the SigFox library

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); 
  while(!Serial) {}; //waits for Serial to be available
  if (!SigFox.begin()) { //ensures SigFox is connected
    Serial.println("Shield error or not present!");
    return;
  }
  Serial.print("sending");
  Serial.print(SigFox.internalTemperature())
  SigFox.begin();
  SigFox.beginPacket();
  SigFox.print(SigFox.internalTemperature()); //content of the packet

  SigFox.endPacket();
  Serial.print("sent");
}
void loop() {
  while(1);
}

SigFox.beginPacket() & SigFox.endPacket() are the wrappers for the payload
The data is placed between the wrappers and has a max size of 12 Bytes
Strings will be converted to hexadecimal

Upload the Code

Click Sketch > Upload to upload the code for MRKfox1200
You can view the output from the serial monitor on the right of the screen

Receiving the Message on Sigfox dashboard

Go to the Sigfox dashboard, the link is here
On your Sigfox account, click on the Device tab, click on your Device ID and click Messages

Sigfox message
The payload will be displayed in hexadecimal
Convert to ASCII to view your message

Connecting Sigfox with Wia

First, Sigfox must be integrated with Wia to see your Sigfox messages in Wia
The tutorial can be accessed here

Receiving the message on Wia

If the callback has been properly setup between Sigfox and Wia, the message should also be displayed in Wia

Go to your Space that has your Sigfox integration
Click on Device that matches the Sigfox device on the Sigfox website
Click on the events tab and Sigfox message should be displayed

If you need any help with getting setup or you don't understand the tutorial, tweet us, email support@wia.io or chat on Intercom.

DEV Community