Phase 3: Onboard

Phase 3: Onboard


With the datapoints configured, the next step is to establish a connection between the device and the application to enable the Raspberry Pi device to receive the measured data. If you do not have a physical device you can proceed to the Simulating Device Data section in this document to simulate data and receive messages.

Onboarding the Real Device

To onboard the device,
1. Access the End Application.
2. Select Devices > Devices in the left pane.
3. Click My RPi Device in the list.
Note: Select the device name you provided while creating.
4. Click Actions > Connection Details.



5. Use the respective connection credentials in the Raspberry Pi to establish a communication

Here is a sample of how the connection credentials are used in an MQTT client.

No.
Field
Description
1
Client ID
Device ID value in Zoho IOT Device Connection Credentials
2
Host
mqtts , Server url in Zoho IOT Device Credentials.
3
Port
8883
4
Username
Username value in Zoho IOT Device Connection Credentials.
5
Password
Authentication Token value in Zoho IOT Device Connection Credentials.
6
SSL/TLS
ON (Authentication Type is Security Token with TLS).
7
Root CA
Certificate (.pem file) to ensure secure and authenticated communication
8
MQTT Version
3.1.1


Once the credentials are provided and a connection is established between the device and the application, the Raspberry Pi device will be able to send payloads to the application.

If a successful connection is established, the device status will change to connected.

Simulating Device Data (If real device is not available)

In case you don't have the actual device at hand you can simulate the data for the datapoints with the inbuilt simulator and complete this tutorial.

To simulate data,
1. Open the device's information page.
2. Click Actions > Simulator, and scroll down.



3. Select the check box near the Datapoint names Fuel Level, Engine RPM, and Engine Temperature.
4. Provide the following values.

Datapoint Name
Data Type
Values
Fuel Level
Increment
100
10
Engine RPM
Random
3000
5000
Temperature
Random
10  - 50

Idea
Values provided for illustration purpose only. You can configure the values as required.



5. Click Start Simulator. After a few seconds, the simulator will run.



6. Click Minimize in the top-right to switch to Mini View and to proceed accessing the application.

Confirming Data Reception.

After establishing the connection by onboarding the Raspberry Pi device or simulating data with the inbuilt simulator, you can confirm if the data sent is being received in the Messages tab.

To confirm data being received,
1. Open the device's information page.
2. Click the Messages tab.



3. Click the toggle to enable to Live Messages.
4. Click Start Listening. 
The message sent by the raspberry pi device or the simulated value will appear.

Now that you have successfully started receiving the data, you can visualize it with a dashboard and widgets.

Next Phase 4: Visualize​