Rubix Wires: LoRa Sensor Nodes

Rubix Wires: LoRa Sensor Nodes


This article describes the Rubix Wires nodes that are in the LoRa category. 

Preparation

  1. Rubix Wires: Getting Started Guide
  2. Rubix Platform: Adding and Editing Wireless LoRa Droplet Sensors
  3. Rubix Platform: Adding and Editing Wireless Microedge Sensors

Nodes

LoRa Nodes are used to receive data from the LoRa Sensors (Droplets and MicroEdges) that have been configured in Rubix Platform (see Preparartion article links below). 

LoRa-Droplet

The LoRa-Droplet node functions as a method to import points from a Droplet device (configured in Rubix Platform).  This allows for the use of the sensor measurements to be utilised within the Rubix Wires programming.  The LoRa-Droplet node allows advanced flows to be created based on the elements and properties of a Droplet device, such as temperature, humidity, light levels, and other available Droplet properties.

Outputs

  1. JSON - JSON is the summation of all data available from the device in a single JSON string.  This includes all data points, not just the data points available on the node outputs.  Most often used for debugging purposes.
  2. ID - ID is the Sensor ID of the LoRa Droplet, this will be unique to each LoRa sensor.
  3. Voltage - Voltage is the voltage of the batteries in the device.  
  4. RSSI -  Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is a measurement of the power present in a received radio signal.  This is how good the quality of the wireless LoRa connection is.  A negative number closer to Zero is better.
  5. LowBatteryAlm - Low battery alarm is a boolean and is triggered to true whenever the voltage (of the batteries of the droplet) drop below the pre-set limit.
  6. Watchdog - Watchdog is a boolean that triggers to true when data has not been received from the LoRa Droplet within the configured interval.
  7. Temperature - Temperature is the temperature measurement last pushed from the LoRa Droplet.
  8. Humidity - Humidity is the humidity measurement last pushed from the LoRa Droplet.
  9. Lux - Lux is the light level (unit of luminance, equal to one lumen per square metre) last pushed from the LoRa Droplet.
  10. Pressure - No Longer Supported.
  11. Movement - Movement is a boolean and is true/1 if movement was detecting when the LoRa Droplet last pushed data.

Settings

  1. Name - The desired name of the node.
  2. Enable - Node will not function if Enable is not switched on.  Can be used to disable the node functions.
  3. Selected Sensor - (Read-Only) This is the currently selected sensor.
  4. Topic Type -This is how the sensor is referenced within the Rubix Platform/Wires environment.  This can either be by the Sensor ID, or by the UUID of the sensor (in Rubix Platform).
  5. Low Battery Warning Voltage - This is the voltage level of the low battery warning. Anything less than this set level will trigger low voltage warning.
  6. Watchdog
    1. Time - The unit of time for Watchdog (No message warning) delay.
    2. Watchdog (No message warning) delay - The duration of time before the watchdog triggers if no data is received/pushed from the sensor.

Operation

When Rubix Platform receives a data push from a LoRa Droplet sensor, the data is sent to the corresponding LoRa-Droplet node so that the measurements can be used for logical programming within Rubix Wires. 

Troubleshooting

  1. If the dropdown list of LoRa Droplet Sensors is empty (or not up-to-date) please click Settings > Save, then re-open the Settings for the LoRa Droplet Node. 
  2. In order for the LoRa nodes to receive data from the LoRa App, the LORA_RAW config file must have the correct MQTT details.  Contact Nube-iO Support for assistance if you are not receiving data to the LoRa nodes.

LoRa-MicroEdge

The LoRa-MicroEdge node functions as a method to import points from a MicroEdge device. This allows for the use of the device properties to be translated and utilised within the Rubix Wires environment for processes. The LoRa-MicroEdge node allows advanced flows to be created based on the elements and properties of a MicroEdge device, such as pulse counts, and analogue data.

Outputs

  1. JSON - JSON is the summation of all data available from the device in a single JSON string.  This includes all data points, not just the data points available on the node outputs.  Most often used for debugging purposes.
  2. ID -ID is the Sensor ID of the LoRa MicroEdge, this will be unique to each LoRa sensor.
  3. Voltage - Voltage is the voltage of the batteries in the device.  
  4. RSSI -  Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) is a measurement of the power present in a received radio signal.  This is how good the quality of the wireless LoRa connection is.  A negative number closer to Zero is better.
  5. LowBatteryAlm - Low battery alarm is a boolean and is triggered to true whenever the voltage (of the batteries of the droplet) drop below the pre-set limit.
  6. Watchdog - Watchdog is a boolean that triggers to true when data has not been received from the LoRa Droplet within the configured interval.
  7. Pulses - Pulses is the measurement of pulses that the device has received at the pulse input on the MicroEdge sensor.
  8. A1/A2/A3 - A1/A2/A3 respectively is the measurements taken from each analogue input point on the MicroEdge sensor.

Settings

  1. Name - The desired name of the node.
  2. Enable - Node will not function if Enable is not switched on.  Can be used to disable the node functions.
  3. Selected Sensor - (Read-Only) This is the currently selected sensor.
  4. Topic Type -This is how the sensor is referenced within the Rubix Platform/Wires environment.  This can either be by the Sensor ID, or by the UUID of the sensor (in Rubix Platform).
  5. Low Battery Warning Voltage - This is the voltage level of the low battery warning. Anything less than this set level will trigger low voltage warning.
  6. Watchdog
    1. Time - The unit of time for Watchdog (No message warning) delay.
    2. Watchdog (No message warning) delay - The duration of time before the watchdog triggers if no data is received/pushed from the sensor.

Operation

When Rubix Platform receives a data push from a LoRa MicroEdge sensor, the data is sent to the corresponding LoRa-MicroEdge node so that the measurements can be used for logical programming within Rubix Wires. 

Troubleshooting

  1. If the dropdown list of LoRa MicroEdge Sensors is empty (or not up-to-date) please click Settings > Save, then re-open the Settings for the LoRa-MicroEdge Node. 
  2. In order for the LoRa nodes to receive data from the LoRa App, the LORA_RAW config file must have the correct MQTT details.  Contact Nube-iO Support for assistance if you are not receiving data to the LoRa nodes.

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  1. Rubix Wires: Nodes Guide

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