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TheThingsNetwork Integration

ThingsBoard PE Feature

Only Professional Edition supports Platform Integrations feature.
Use ThingsBoard Cloud or install your own platform instance.

Overview

TheThingsNetwork is LoRaWAN network designed for connecting your devices using LoRaWAN stack. After integrating TheThingsNetwork with Thingsboard, you can connect, communicate, process and visualize data from devices in the Thingsboard IoT platform.

TheThingsNetwork setup

Register Application

The first step is to create an application in TheThingsNetwork console. Go to console, open Applications section, press add application button and fill required fields.

  • Application ID - tb_platform
  • Handler registration - ttn-handler-eu

Handler registration - used to identify region where application will be registered. In our example it will be eu region.

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Payload Decoder

Our device submits data in binary format. We have 2 options where to decode this data:

  • TheThingsNetwork decoder - data will be decoded before entering the Thingsboard
  • Thingsboard converters - uplink/downlink converters will be used to decode data from binary format into JSON

In this tutorial, we will make an initial transformation into JSON with TTN decoder and then use Thingsboard converters for correct data processing. In real life scenario, it is up to you where to decode/encode data, because it is possible to do this on any side.

After application registered in TTN, go to payload_formats, select decoder function. We will take the first byte as a temperature value from a device and transform it into JSON.

Decode Function

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function Decoder(bytes, port) {
  var decoded = {temperature: bytes[0]};
  return decoded;
}

Output json:

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{
  "temperature": 15
}

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Press Save payload function

Device Registration in TheThingsNetwork

Next step is a Device creation in the TTN. Open Devices page and press register device

  • Device ID - thermostat_a
  • Device EUI - press generate button for generating random identified

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Press Register button.

Integration with Thingsboard

We made all required configurations in the TheThingsNetwork (register application, add decoder function and register device). Now we can start configuring Thingsboard.

First, we need to create an Uplink Data Converter which will be used for receiving messages from the TTN. The converter should transform incoming payload into the required message format. Message must contain deviceName and deviceType. Those fields are used for submitting data to the correct device. If a device was not found a new device will be created. Here is how payload from TheThingsNetwork will look like:

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{
    "app_id": "tb_platform",
    "dev_id": "thermostat_a",
    "hardware_serial": "*********",
    "port": 1,
    "counter": 0,
    "payload_raw": "Dw==",
    "payload_fields": {
        "temperature": 15
    },
    "metadata": {
        "time": "2018-06-07T17:31:18.670792607Z"
    }
}

We will take dev_id and map it to the deviceName and app_id to the deviceType. But you can use another mapping, which fits your specific use cases. Also, we will take the value of the temperature field and use it as a device telemetry.

Go to Data Converters and create new uplink Converter with this function:

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var data = decodeToJson(payload);
var deviceName = data.dev_id;
var deviceType = data.app_id;

var result = {
    deviceName: deviceName,
    deviceType: deviceType,
    telemetry: {
         temperature: data.payload_fields.temperature
    }
};

function decodeToString(payload) {
    return String.fromCharCode.apply(String, payload);
}

function decodeToJson(payload) {
    var str = decodeToString(payload);
    var data = JSON.parse(str);
    return data;
}

return result;

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For sending Downlink messages from Thingsboard to the device inside TTN, we need to define a Downlink Converter. In general, the output from the Downlink Converter should have the following structure:

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{
    "contentType": "JSON",
    "data": "{\"port\":1,\"confirmed\":false,\"payload_fields\":{\"version\":\"0.11\"}}",
    "metadata": {
        "devId": "thermostat_a"
    }
}
  • contentType - defines how data will be encoded {TEXT | JSON | BINARY}
  • data - actual data that will be sent to the device in TTN. More details about API can be found in this TTN API
  • metadata - in this object you should place correct devId value that will be used to identify target device in TTN

Go to Data Converters and create new downlink Converter with this function:

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var data = {
      port: 1,                
      confirmed: false,      
      payload_fields: {
          version: msg.version
      }
    };

var result = {
    contentType: "JSON",
    data: JSON.stringify(data),
    metadata: {
        devId: 'thermostat_a'
    }

};

return result;

This converter will take the version field from the incoming message and add it as a payload field in the outbound message. The destination device is a thermostat_a device.

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TTN Integration

Next we will create the integration with TheThingsNetwork inside Thingsboard. Open Integrations section and add new Integration with type TheThingsNetwork

  • Name: ttn_integration
  • Type: TheThingsNetwork
  • Uplink data converter: ttn_converter
  • Downlink data converter: ttn_downlink_version
  • Region: eu (region where your application was registered inside TTN)
  • Application ID: tb_platform (use Application ID from TTN)
  • Access Key: use Access Key from TTN

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Validation

Lets verify our integration. Go to the device thermostat_a page in TheThingsNetwork. Scroll to the Simulate Uplink section. Our device will publish temperature 0F (15). So enter 0F into the payload field and press the Send button.

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In Thingsboard go to Device Group -> All -> thermostat_a - here you can see that

  • a new device was registered in Thingsboard
  • in the Latest Telemetry section you will see that the last submitted temperature equals 15.

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For testing Downlink Messages, we will update our Root Rule Chain to send downlink message when a device attribute is changed. Open and edit Root Rule Chain. Add Integration Downlink Action node and connect it with the Message Type Switch Node using the relation Attributes Updated

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Save Changes.

Go to Device Group -> All -> thermostat_a -> attributes section. We will add Shared attribute with the name version and the value v.0.11

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By making this step, we triggered a downlink message to the device thermostat_a and this message should contain the versions field value. Open TTN Console, navigate to tb_platform application, to the section Data. And we see that the Downlink message was received.

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See also

With this integration you can also configure Downlink converters and trigger required actions using Rule Engine nodes.

Next steps