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Connect a mcGateway with Ubidots over MQTT
Connect a mcGateway with Ubidots over MQTT

Learn to setup your mcGateway to be able to send data to the Ubidots cloud over MQTT.

Sergio M avatar
Written by Sergio M
Updated over 3 months ago

The mcGateway is always placed within a certain radius of the mcModules to provide connectivity from your sensor hardware to the internet. This gateway will allow you to speak with and thousands of mcModules, transferring the required information back and forth using our mc-Air Low Power Local Area Network, GPS, ethernet or WIFI.

IMPORTANT: If you are purchasing a mc-Module, ensure you also have the mc-Gateway and the mcDongle. All three products in tandem work to create the mcThings platform which can easily communicate with Ubidots direct from the devices or by way of the mcStudio and UbiFunctions.

By the end of this guide you will be able to setup your mcGateway to forward the data received from the mcModules to Ubidots. If you've already setup the mcGateway, refer to the guide below to setup the mcModules to start transmitting data.

Requirements

Step-by-Step

  1. Setting up Firmware  

  2. Setting up mcGateway 

  3. Summary

1. Setting up Firmware  

Before beginning to work with the mcModule & mcGateways it's important have the devices updated with the latest version of the firmware. These firmware updates provide increased functionality and are used to keep everything up to date and operational in your Apps.

To update the firmware you will need the mcOTA, a desktop application used in conjunction with the mcDongle to facilitate over-the-air mcOS updates to mcDevices and mcGateways. 

To learn how to get your device(s) up to date, refer to the guide below:

2. Setting up mcGateway 

Before beginning with the mcGateway, we highly recommend you refer to this guide, which specifies details of the hardware's features and how to connect the gateway to the internet over WiFi or Ethernet.

Once the board is properly connected to a network, continue with the next steps.

All the mcThings hardware series are programmed using an IDE of of mcThings called mcStudio. This Integrated Development Environment (IDE) mcScript using a programming language which is based and focuses on Visual Basic programming

mcStudio includes features for authoring, modifying, compiling, refactoring, deploying and debugging your code. Also, it provides the interface to wirelessly debug and load programming into mcThings hardware.

 To start we highly recommend you checkout the mcStudio's introduction video:

Configure the mcGateway with Ubidots MQTT Broker 

Before beginning the configuration, we recommend you read the Ubidots MQTT API Reference to get a better understand the configuration structures needed. 

1. Update the mcGateway with the last firmware version using the mcOTA updater (step #1 above). 

2. Then, we need to assign the devices you'll be workin with. To do this, open the mcStudio and go to Tools –>Devices

3. The window which will appear is related to "Device Maintenance and Connection". Here, you need to select the gateway detected in order establish the connection. To establish the connection with the gateway just press the "Connect Gateway" button:

4. Once the gateway established the connection you'll see how the status of the gateway changes to "Connected". Now it's time to configure the gateway in order to setup the Ubidots MQTT Broker to forward the data received by the mcModules directly and securely to Ubidots cloud.  

To start configuring the gateway, press the "Gateway Config" button:

5. At this point, the Gateway configuration will appear. Please, fill in the following fields with the respective parameters in order to configure the gateway with your Ubidots account:

  • Time Zone: Assign the Time Zone where the device is going to be deployed

  • DNS Server: Leave the field empty

  • SNTP Server: Leave the field empty  

  • MQTT Server: industrial.api.ubidots.com

  • MQTT Port: 1883 

  • MQTT Username: Assign your Ubidots TOKEN

  •  MQTT Password: Assign your Ubidots TOKEN

  • MQTT ClientID: Random ASCII name to Identify the client during the data transmmition

  • WiFi SSID: Leave the field empty

  • WiFi Password: Leave the field empty

After completing all the parameters properly, press the "Save to Gateway" button to save all the changes just made. 

Now your gateway is configure to forward all the incoming data provided by the mcModules to your Ubidots Account.

3. Summary  

Ubidots & mcThings provides you an easy access into the efficiencies and problem-solving capabilities of the Internet of Things. In just few minutes your mcModules are able to send data to Ubidots through the mcGateway. To start with your mc-Module setup, simply click here.

One of the latest services offered by mcThings is the mcCloud, which allows you manage hardware deployment in a scalable way by creating different Organizations and other scaling features. If you want to learn more about mcCloud and how you can use the mcCloud with UbiFunctions to communicate data between hardware and software, simply refer to this page.  

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