How do you add IOT Central credentials to a device (device id, scope id) - do you even need to do this?
In the following video a plugin and play device is just powered on, and then it is visible in IOT Central.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzTw1_AuxdQ
I don't understand how this works, as if no IOT Central specific credentials are added, wouldn't this device be available to everyone in their IOT central environments?
As this isn't the case, I presume these to be added to the device (somehow?)
You can find a summary of the options for connecting a device to IoT Central here.
This article illustrates the process with a specific device.
The recommendation for a production environment is to use X.509 certificates - you install a root or intermediate certificate into IoT Central and then configure your devices with leaf certificates generated from the root or intermediate cert.
You can also use SAS keys - you can use a group key to generate multiple device keys than you can use in a connection string.
As Matthijs mentioned, Plug and Play means that a device can be automatically associated with a device template so that a device can start sending data that IoT Central understands as soon as it connects.
You do need to add something to the device before you connect it. How this works differs per device, but the process involves generating an SAS key or leaf certificate. The picture below explains the general steps that are taken. In the case of Plug And Play, step 5 becomes obsolete because the device communicates its capability model and is automatically associated.
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I am working on a project based on the azure sphere kit where I want to control a motor from a web application. I managed to send the command to the iot hub and the build in monitor shows that the message is received by the iot hub. Now, my question is: How can I forward this message to the board? I have to mention that this is my first experience with the iot-hub so please dont judge me if it is a stupid question.:) Here is the confirmation that the message is received by the iothub
If you want to communicate with your Azure Sphere from Azure IoT Hub, you're talking about Cloud-to-device communication. There are three different ways to do this communication:
Direct Methods
Device Twin Desired Properties
Cloud-to-device (C2D) messages
Microsoft documented them here. This document also lists the different considerations for each of the three methods.
To forward the IoT Hub message that you mentioned in your question, a good start would be to write an Azure Function that listens to the IoT Hub output and send that to the device using one of the three methods above. You can find an example for the Azure Function IoT Hub trigger here
Adding few more detailed options in this scenario to the above responses.
Scenario 1: You may be interested in configuring your devices from your back-end service(s) as your web application. To synchronize state information between a device and an IoT hub, you use device twins. A desired property is set by a back-end application and read by a device. A reported property is set by a device and read by a back-end application. A tag is set by a back-end application and is never sent to a device. You use tags to organize your devices. Long-running commands intended to put the device into a certain desired state. For example, set the telemetry send interval to 30 minutes. This completes your E2E state synchronization scenario : Web-Application<=>IoT Device, Ref Link
Question: How can I forward this message to the board?
Scenario 2: You may be interested in direct method to control a device connected to your IoT hub. You can use direct methods to remotely change the behavior of devices connected to your IoT hub. Commands that require immediate confirmation, such as turning on a fan.
Requirements:
-->IoT Device: To receive the direct method calls, the applications running on IoT Device connect to a device-specific endpoint on your IoT hub.
HostName={YourIoTHubName}.azure-devices.net;DeviceId=MyNodeDevice;SharedAccessKey={YourSharedAccessKey}
-->Web-Application: To call a direct method on a device, your Web application connects to service-side endpoint on your IoT hub.
HostName={YourIoTHubName}.azure-devices.net;SharedAccessKeyName=service;SharedAccessKey={YourSharedAccessKey}
Direct Method calls: Points to be noted. Please visit the link: detailed comparison of the various cloud-to-device communication options.
The maximum direct method payload size is 128 KB.
Disconnected devices are not contacted. The solution back end is notified that the device is not connected.
Ref Link
If you need further help in this matter, please comment in the below section and we will be happy to help you on this forum.
I want to make a webhook that can be triggered by either get/post and triggers connected IoT devices to a WebSocket.
So, I thought Azure might help to automize this process, instead of writing everything from scratch and run it on a webserver.
I am very new in the Azure world, I found it very complicated to make it working on Azure.
Can you point me to any simple to make it work?
The first thing to do is to decide where you want to connect your devices to. Generally, you'll either use Azure IoT Hub or IoT Central (which uses an IoT Hub anyway). Your question doesn't include any details about your devices, or whether you're developing them yourself, but I'll assume you can connect to either.
If you go for Azure IoT Central, the easiest way to get a webhook going is to create a Logic App and link nodes together to trigger a Command to your device. You can use an HTTP request as the trigger, and use the built-in IoT Central node to trigger your command, example:
If you end up connecting your devices to IoT Hub, you can use Direct Methods, Cloud to Device messages or even Device Twins to communicate with your devices. You can leverage these by creating an Azure Function with an HTTP trigger, and you program the logic to call IoT Hub, which will communicate with your devices. There are a lot of samples on the web that show how to create Functions, or control your device remotely.
There are a lot of ways to go about your scenario, if you need some help from the Microsoft community, you can get a lot of help on Microsoft Q&A.
Update based on the comments:
In this case, the devices are connected to IoT Hub. You can use the Service SDK to run a job that fires a Direct Method to all currently connected devices. This doc describes the process.
I need to connect some sensors to an Azure IoT Edge Runtime via MQTT.
I read here:How an IoT Edge device can be used as a gateway , that in the "Transparent" Pattern, devices who hold their own IoT Hub device identity can communicate directly with Azure IoT Edge via MQTT.
I am still in the planning phase and don't have the sensors (or Iot Hub devices) at the moment so I couldn't really start testing directly. I wanted to know if all devices/sensors can hold their IoT Hub device identity and if there are any hardware requirements in order to do so?
Thank you very much in advance!
In the transparent gateway case, the requirements for devices / sensors are the same as if the device would connect directly to an IOTHub using its identity. That is, if the device or sensor supports to Azure IOTHub via MQTT, it should work through the transparent gateway. When configuring the device, instead of using a connection string for the Azure IOTHub itself, you'd use a connection string that references the local Edge gateway.
There are 3 basic steps to take in the transparent gateway scenario - the article you linked steps into them, but I'll add in some color for 2 and 3.
Set up the gateway for connectivity from the downstream devices & routing to the upstream IOTHub. This article has good details.
For each device, create an identity in Azure IOTHub, using the device's unique ID (for example, device EUI for a lorawan sensor) as the IOTHub DeviceId, and set up auth per this article. This step is where you determine the Edge gateway connection string.
Connect the downstream device to the gateway device and start sending messages. That's this article. This is obviously dependent on the device itself and the operating code/configs (whether a 3rd party black box type device or something running your own code).
I'm planning to build an IoT project for an oil palm plantation through the use of an Arduino and an Android Mobile application for my final year project in University. As plantations have low to no communication signals which includes wifi, it is possible to implement LoRaWAN without access to the internet/use/ of a web-based application?
The LoRaWAN node does not need any other communications channel aside from LoRaWAN, of course. Would not make any sense otherwise. ;-)
The gateway however does need a connection to the server application that is to be used as a central instance for your use case. Usually this is an existing LoRaWAN cloud service such as The Things Network (TTN) with your application connected behind, but in theory you could connect the gateway to your very own central, making your whole network independent. This is possible because LoRa uses frequency bands free for use (ISM bands) so anyone can become a „network operator“. The TTN software is available as Open Source, for example.
Connection from the gateway to the central is usually done via existing Ethernet/WiFi infrastructures or mobile internet (3G/4G), whatever suits best.
Besides, the LoRa modules available for Arduinos can be used for a low-level, point-to-point LoRa (not LoRaWAN) connection between two such modules. No gateway here. Maybe that is an option, too, for your use case.
The LoraWAN is using the Gateway connected to some kind of cloud, for example the TTN network which is community based. If you live in a bigger city you have good chances to have a TTN Gateway in your area.
You can however connect two Lora nodes together to get a point to point connection. You can send data from Node1, which is connected to some kind of sensor and batterypowered, to Node2, which is stationary and stores all the data to a flashdrive for example. From this flashdrive you can import the data to a website or you could use an application like Node-Red to display the data on a Dashboard.
Here you will find instructions on how to send Data from one Lora-Node to another.
Here you will find instuctions on how to use Node-Red to display your Lora-Data. You will have to change the input from the TTN-Cloud to a textfile on your Raspberry, or whatever gateway you use. (Optional)
In order to send messages to the Azure IoT Hub, you first need to register the devices to the IoT Hub registry, though how can you make the devices register its' ID by themselves in a safe way?
My intention of this question is about the security problem.
I am thinking of implementing them on apps such as Androids, iOS, etc. which will be used by many users.
If you give those devices a read/write permission to the registry (which the shared access key is stored in the app), there will be a risk that a malicious user finds out the shared access key and use it to abuse the system.
Are there any other solutions besides preparing a public server that provides a function to register a device and give them back the per-device access key? Or, shouldn't I use the IoT Hub and find another service?
If you want users to be able to register their own devices with your IoT hub, you should create a separate service that can be called from the device and that returns a key. The service should register the device with IoT Hub and provide some logic that limits the number of devices that any user can register.
This is the approach taken in the MyDriving sample solution here that allows users to register their phones as devices connected to an IoT hub.
You can create multiple keys, so using the way Azure Storage works - have a primary and a secondary.