Implementing Sensors and Actuators with BlueRange

This guide will walk you through the complete process of actually implementing sensors & actuators for a device running BlueRange firmware, configuring the system appropriately and finally, using the system to retrieve all the sensor data and controlling your device through our Platform.

Most devices that are enrolled with our BlueRange platform want to communicate sensor data to the platform. The platform will make sure that this data is made available on MQTT as a live stream of data, it will also take care of historizing the data so that the user is able to view historical data per device and aggregated over a number of devices.

Next, there are devices that the user wants to control through the BlueRange platform, e.g. light fixtures need to be switched on or off using our actuators. This can be done through our platform or by using a 3rd party software that connects to our platform.

Finally, we offer a dedicated way for error reporting through our indicators where a device can raise a number of error flags to report a (temporary) error condition that must be fixed by a maintainer.

This guide is separated into multiple parts that can be read independently of each other. We will guide you through the whole process and will detail best practice and helpful tips along the way.

For more information take a look at the dedicated chapters for Sensors and Actuators in the Firmware which are known as component_sense and component_act commands. For an overview of how these work together with the BlueRange platform, take a look at Sensors and Actuators in the Platform. From a user’s perspective, you can check out our Sensor Data section. We also offer a raw view to access the firmware’s actuators and sensors without configuring the platform, make sure to take a look at our RWIO interface.