Crimson Cloud Connectors: Ubidots

Abstract:

This document explains how to get Crimson® 3.1 to talk to Ubidots using the Ubidots MQTT Connector. It assumes a basic knowledge of Crimson and its operation, and the ability to read and manipulate JSON. For more details on the Crimson cloud connectors, please consult the Crimson User Manual.

Products:

CR3000 HMIs / DA Series Data Stations / Graphite^® HMI / Graphite Controllers

Use Case: Ubidots

Transferring tag data to Ubidots.

NOTE: Only numeric data can be transferred, so flag tags should be converted to integers (1/0) and string tags cannot be transmitted at this time.

Required Software:

Crimson 3.1

Required Firmware:

Build 3119.001 or higher

Optional:

For testing purposes, an outline database can be created as described in the Crimson Cloud Connectors: Creating an Outline Database Tech Note. The outline database will be referenced when configuring the connector.

Step 1 – Creating an Account

If you do not have an Ubidots account, visit https://ubidots.com/ to create a free trial account. This account should provide more than sufficient capacity for testing.

Step 2 - Creating a Device

Log in to the Ubidots account, click Devices at the top of the page, then click the Add New Device button as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Choose to create a new Blank Device as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Give the device a name, for example, g10ts as shown in Figure 3; then click the green checkmark to create the device.

• What is a Device Name? As the name implies this is the name of the device. You can assign and change the name to a more friendlier one as you see fit.

• What is a Device Label?  Also referred to as an API Label, the device label is the single and unique label of your Device that is randomly assigned to your device by Ubidots. Check out our API docs to learn how to send data to Ubidots using the device label. 

Figure 3.

Click on the user icon in the upper left and select API Credentials as shown in Figure 4, this authentication information for the Ubidots account is required by the Crimson configuration.

Figure 4.

Click the copy button next to the Default Token, as shown in Figure 5, this will be required when configuring the Crimson Connector.

Figure 5.

Step 3 – Configuring the Ubidots Connector

We are now in a position to configure and test the Ubidots connector. We shall be configuring it to talk a device that we shall soon create and to push four of the data tags that we have created. The fifth tag will be used to display the connection status. Start by returning to the Communications category and select the Ubidots MQTT settings in the Connectors section…

Figure 6.

Referring to Figure 6, perform the following actions:

1. In the Control section, set the Enable Agent property to Yes.
2. In the Operation section, choose the Update Mode (Send Changes is recommended if tag writes will be used), Send Properties, Reconnection, and Data Buffering options as required for the application.
3. In the MQTT Server section, check that the Host Name 1 property is set to industrial.api.ubidots.com
4. In the MQTT Server section, define a Client ID, g10ts in this case.
5. In the Authentication section, set the Default Token copied from the last step of Step 2 above.
6. In the Diagnostics section, set the Status property to Status.

Next, select the Tag Set 1 tab.

Figure 7.

Referring to Figure 7, perform the following actions:

1. In the Control section, set the Tag Writes property to Enabled; assuming writing is required.
2. Select the Data Tags category of the Resource Pane.
3. Drag Tag1 through Tag4 into the Contents field in the Editing Pane.

NOTE: If Data Buffering is Enabled, tags that are only being sent to the cloud should be in a SEPARATE tag set that has Tag Writes Disabled. Otherwise, these tags will be overwritten when the reconnect occurs.

You have now configured Crimson to push Tag1 through Tag4 to the cloud once per second. Press F9 to download the database to your device.

Step 4 - Viewing the Data

Click on the Device in Ubidots to view the data values being written to the cloud, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8.

Disclaimer

It is the customer's responsibility to review the advice provided herein and its applicability to the system. Red Lion makes no representation about specific knowledge of the customer's system or the specific performance of the system. Red Lion is not responsible for any damage to equipment or connected systems. The use of this document is at your own risk. Red Lion standard product warranty applies.

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