Step 3. Add a connector

Let’s add an MQTT connector, which will subscribe to some data topics using the demo broker with a built-in data generator and send data to the gateway.

As a demo MQTT broker, we will use a Docker image, that can be installed and run using the following command:

docker run -it -p 1884:1884 thingsboard/tb-gw-mqtt-broker:latest

After running docker image, you can see the following logs in your terminal:

To create a connector with the default configuration, follow these steps:

1. Click on Connectors configuration button on the right panel.

   

2. Click the + Add connector button.

   

3. Choose MQTT connector type from the dropdown, fill in the Name field, set the Logging level to INFO, leave the Fill configuration with default values option enabled, and click the Add button.

   

4. The connector is created with the default configuration.

   

5. Let’s change default 127.0.0.1 host to host.docker.internal. Click on “Connection to broker” tab and change the host to host.docker.internal, and set the port to 1884. Click the “Save” button to apply changes.

   

Also, you can see the connector logs to make sure that the connector works, for this purpose, follow these steps:

1. In the General connector tab enable remote logging by turning on the Enable remote logging toggle. Choose DEBUG in the Logging level drop-down menu. Click on the Save button to apply changes.

   

2. Click on logs icon to open connector logs page.

   

3. You can see the Logs table that consists of Created time, Level and Message columns.

   

For now, the gateway is ready to process data through the newly created and configured MQTT connector.

Let’s add a Modbus connector, which will read some data from the demo slave to the created gateway.

As a demo simulation slave, we will use a Docker image, that can be installed and run using the following command:

docker run -it -p 5021:5021 thingsboard/tb-gw-modbus-server:latest

After running docker image, you can see the following logs in your terminal:

To create a connector with the default configuration, follow these steps:

1. Click on Connectors configuration button on the right panel.

   

2. Click the + Add connector button.

   

3. Choose MODBUS connector type from the dropdown, fill in the Name field, set the Logging level to INFO, leave the Fill configuration with default values option enabled, and click the Add button.

   

4. The connector is created with the default configuration.

   

5. Let’s change default 127.0.0.1 host to host.docker.internal. Select “Basic” mode, then click on “Master Connections” tab, click on “pencil” icon and change the host to host.docker.internal. Click the “Apply” button and then “Save” button to apply changes.

   

Also, you can see the connector logs to make sure that the connector works, for this purpose, follow these steps:

1. In the General connector tab enable remote logging by turning on the Enable remote logging toggle. Choose DEBUG in the Logging level drop-down menu. Click on the Save button to apply changes.

   

2. Click on logs icon to open connector logs page.

   

3. You can see the Logs table that consists of Created time, Level and Message columns.

   

For now, the gateway is ready to process data through the newly created and configured Modbus connector.

Let’s add an OPC-UA connector, which will read some data from the demo server to the created gateway.

As a demo simulation server, we will use a Docker image, that can be installed and run using the following command:

docker run -it -p 4840:4840 thingsboard/tb-gw-opcua-server:latest

After running docker image, you can see the following logs in your terminal:

To create a connector with the default configuration, follow these steps:

1. Click on Connectors configuration button on the right panel.

   

2. Click the + Add connector button.

   

3. Choose OPCUA connector type from the dropdown, fill in the Name field, set the Logging level to INFO, leave the Fill configuration with default values option enabled, and click the Add button.

   

4. The connector is created with the default configuration.

   

5. Let’s change default 127.0.0.1 host to host.docker.internal. Select “Basic” mode, then click on “Server” tab and change the host to opc.tcp://host.docker.internal:4840/freeopcua/server/. Click the “Save” button to apply changes.

   

Also, you can see the connector logs to make sure that the connector works, for this purpose, follow these steps:

1. In the General connector tab enable remote logging by turning on the Enable remote logging toggle. Choose DEBUG in the Logging level drop-down menu. Click on the Save button to apply changes.

   

2. Click on logs icon to open connector logs page.

   

3. You can see the Logs table that consists of Created time, Level and Message columns.

   

For now, the gateway is ready to process data through the newly created and configured OPC-UA connector.