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Get started with The Sparkfun Thingdev Azure IoT Starter Kit

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Get Started with Microsoft Azure IoT Starter Kit - SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit (Arduino-compatible)

Note: this article has been archived and it is not longer updated. Instructions may not be totally up to date.


Looking for something simple? This tutorial is very complete and contains a lot of detail. If you want something quick and simple, try one of these:


This page contains technical information to help you get familiar with Azure IoT using the Azure IoT Starter Kit - SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit (Arduino-compatible). You will find two tutorials that will walk you through different scenarios. The first tutorial will show you how to connect your Azure IoT Starter kit to our Remote Monitoring preconfigured solution from Azure IoT Suite. In the second tutorial, you will leverage Azure IoT services to create your own IoT solution.

You can choose to start with whichever tutorial you want to. If you've never worked with Azure IoT services before, we encourage you to start with the Remote Monitoring solution tutorial, because all of the Azure services will be provisioned for you in a built-in preconfigured solution. Then you can explore how each of the services work by going through the second tutorial.

We hope you enjoy the tutorials! Please provide feedback if there's anything that we can improve.


Don't have a kit yet?: Click here


Running a Simple Remote Monitoring Solution with the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit (Arduino-compatible)

This tutorial describes the process of taking your SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit kit, and using it to develop a temperature, humidity and pressure reader that can communicate with the cloud using the  Microsoft Azure IoT SDK. 

Table of Contents

1.1 Tutorial Overview

In this tutorial, you'll be doing the following:

  • Setting up your environment on Azure using the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite Remote Monitoring preconfigured solution, getting a large portion of the set-up that would be required done in one step.
  • Setting your device and sensors up so that it can communicate with both your computer, and Azure IoT.
  • Updating the device code sample to include our connection data and send it to Azure to be viewed remotely.

1.2 Before Starting

1.2.1 Required Software

1.2.2 Required Hardware

  • SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit kit
    • A microB USB cable
    • A desktop or laptop computer which can run Arduino IDE 1.6.8

1.3 Create a New Azure IoT Suite Remote Monitoring solution and Add Device


Note: For first time users, click here to get your Azure free trial which gives you 200USD of credit to get started.


  • Click select in the Remote Monitoring option
  • Type in a solution name. For this tutorial we’ll be using “SparkFunSuite” (You will have to name it something else. Make it unique. I.E. "ContosoSample")

Note: Make sure to copy down the names and connection strings mentioned into a text document for reference later.


  • Choose your subscription and desired region to deploy, then click Create Solution
  • Wait for Azure to finish provisioning your IoT suite (this process may take up to 10 minutes), and then click Launch

Note: You may be asked to log back in. This is to ensure your solution has proper permissions associated with your account.


  • Open the link to your IoT Suite’s “Solution Dashboard.” You may have been redirected there already.
  • This opens your personal remote monitoring site at the URL <Your Azure IoT Hub suite name>.azurewebsites.net (e.g. SparkFunSuite.azurewebsites.net)
  • Click Add a Device at the lower left hand corner of your screen
  • Add a new custom device
  • Enter your desired device ID. In this case we’ll use “SparkFun_w_DHT22”, and then click Check ID
  • If Device ID is available, go ahead and click Create
  • Make note of your device ID, Device Key, and IoT Hub Hostname to enter into the code you’ll run on your device later 

Warning: The Remote Monitoring solution provisions a set of Azure IoT Services in your Azure account. It is meant to reflect a real enterprise architecture and thus its Azure consumption is quite heavy. To avoid unnecessary Azure consumption, we recommend you delete the preconfigured solution in azureiotsuite.com once you are done with your work (since it is easy to recreate). Alternatively, if you want to keep it up and running you can do two things to reduce consumption:

  1. Visit this guide to run the solution in demo mode and reduce the Azure consumption.

  2. Disable the simulated devices created with the solution (Go to Devices>>Select the device>> on the device details menu on the right, clich on Disable Device. Repeat with all the simulated devices).

  3. Stop your remote monitoring solution while you are working on the next steps. (See: Troubleshooting)


1.4 Connect the DHT22 Sensor Module to your Device

  • Using this image as a reference, connect your DHT22 and SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the breadboard

Note: Column on the left corresponds to sensor and on the Right to board. On the image, the board is place between 10 and 30 and sensor between 1 and 9.


  • For sensor pins, we will use the following wiring:
Start End Cable Color
VDD (Pin 1G) Pin 24J Red cable
DATA (Pin 2G) Pin 23J White cable
GND (Pin 4G) Pin 25A Black cable
Start End Connector
DHT22 (Pin 1I) DHT22 (Pin 4I) DHT22
NULL (Pin 2H) Pin 1F 10k Ohm Resistor

At the end of your work, your SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit should be connected with a working sensor. We'll test it in the next sections.

1.5 Add the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the Arduino IDE

You will need to install the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit board extension for the Arduino IDE:


Note: Make sure that you select "SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev" and NOT "SparkFun ESP8266 Thing" in the Arduino IDE (under Tools -> Board)


  • After going through this, you should have a working sample with a blinking light on your board.
    • If you can’t upload the sample, reconnect the device, then the power switch to OFF. Press the upload button, and flip the switch back to ON.

1.6 Install Library Dependencies

For this project, we'll also need the following libraries:

  • DHT Sensor Library
  • Adafruit DHT Unified
  • AzureIoTHub
  • AzureIoTUtility
  • AzureIoTProtocol_MQTT

To install them, click on the Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries. Search for each library using the box in the upper-right to filter your search, click on the found library, and click the "Install" button.

The Adafruit Sensor library is also needed. This can be downloaded here. Instructions for manually installing a library can be found here.


Note: Starting on version 1.0.17, AzureIoTHub required the AzureIoTUtility and one of the available protocols. These samples use the AzureIoTProtocol_MQTT, but it is prepared to work with AzureIoTProtocol_HTTP too.


1.7 Modify the Remote Monitoring sample

  • Unzip the example code, and double-click the file remote_monitoring.ino to open the project in the Arduino IDE.
  • You will be prompted to creat a folder. Do this, and move the other files in the folder into the newly created child folder
  • In the project, edit the iot_configs.h, look for the following lines of code:
#define IOT_CONFIG_WIFI_SSID            "<Your WiFi network SSID or name>"
#define IOT_CONFIG_WIFI_PASSWORD        "<Your WiFi network WPA password or WEP key>"
  • Replace the placeholders with your WiFi name (SSID), WiFi password, and the device connection string you created at the beginning of this tutorial. 
  • Look for the following line of code and replace the placeholders connection information (this is the Device information that you obtained in the Remote Monitoring console):
#define IOT_CONFIG_CONNECTION_STRING    "HostName=<host_name>.azure-devices.net;DeviceId=<device_id>;SharedAccessKey=<device_key>"
  • Save with Control-s

1.8 Build Your Remote Monitoring Sample

  • On windows, the COM port will disconnect, and a new one will appear. Use Tools -> Port -> COM to re-select it.
  • Build and upload the code using Sketch ->  Upload.

Note: As of 1.6.8, the Arduino IDE doesn't properly show "Upload Completed", even when it succeeds.


  • There should now be a green LED on your SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit. Re-select the COM port if necessary, and then open the Serial Monitor. After 15 seconds you should see a measurements update.

Note: When first starting you will likely see a “Fetching NTP epoch time failed” error – This is normal, and it trying to sync with Azure. This can take even up to 30 seconds to find a NTP server to sync with. One it is synced, it should start transmitting from there.


1.9 View the Sensor Data from the Remote Monitoring Portal

  • Once you have the sample running, visit your dashboard by visiting azureiotsuite.com and clicking “Launch” on your solution
  • Make sure the “Device to View” in the upper right is set to your device
  • If the demo is running, you should see the graph change as your data updates in real time!

Note: Make sure you delete or stop your remote monitoring solution once you have completed this to avoid unnecessary Azure consumption! (See: Troubleshooting)


1.10 Next steps

Please visit our Azure IoT Dev Center for more samples and documentation on Azure IoT.

Using Microsoft Azure IoT Services to Identify Temperature Anomalies

This tutorial describes the process of taking your Microsoft Azure IoT Starter Kit for the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit, and using it to develop a temperature and humidity reader that can communicate with the cloud using the Microsoft Azure IoT SDK.

Table of Contents

2.1 Tutorial Overview

This tutorial has the following steps:

  • Provision an IoT Hub instance on Microsoft Azure and adding your device.
  • Prepare the device, get connected to the device, and set it up so that it can read sensor data.
  • Configure your Microsoft Azure IoT services by adding Event Hub, Storage Account, and Stream Analytics resources.
  • Prepare your local web solution for monitoring and sending commands to your device.
  • Update the sample code to respond to commands and include the data from our sensors, sending it to Microsoft Azure to be viewed remotely.

Here is a breakdown of the data flow:

  • The application running on the Adafruit Huzzah ESP8266 will get temperature data from the temperature sensor and it will send them to the IoT Hub
  • A Stream Analytics job will read the data from IoT Hub and write them to an Azure Storage Table. Also, if an anomaly is detected, then this job will write data to an Event Hub
  • The Node.js application that is running on your computers will read the data from the Azure Storage Table and the Event Hub and will present them to the user

The end result will be a functional command center where you can view the history of your device's sensor data, a history of alerts, and send commands back to the device.

2.2 Before Starting

2.2.1 Required Software

  • Git - For cloning the required repositories
  • Node.js - For the Node application, we will go over this later.
  • Arduino IDE, version 1.6.8. (Earlier versions will not work with the Azure IoT library)
  • Sensor interface from Adafruit

2.2.2 Required Hardware

  • SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit IoT kit
    • A microB USB cable
    • A desktop or laptop computer which can run Arduino IDE 1.6.8

2.3 Connect the Sensor Module to your Device

  • Using this image as a reference, connect your DHT22 and SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the breadboard

Note: Column on the left corresponds to sensor and on the Right to board. On the image, the board is place between 10 and 30 and sensor between 1 and 9. Additionally, when counting the - pins, start from the right and count in, as these do not align with the numbers indicated on the board.

Note: The resistors can change a little from one kit to another, e.g. it can be 330 Ohm (orange, orange, brown) or 560 Ohm (green, blue, brown). Both will work with success.


Start End Cable Color
VDD (Pin 1G) Pin 24J Red cable
Pin 19A Pin 6A Red cable
DATA (Pin 2G) Pin 23J White cable
GND (Pin 4G) Pin 1- Black cable
GND (Pin 25A) Pin 21- Black cable
Pin 20A Pin 3A Green cable
Start End Connector
DHT22 (Pin 1I) DHT22 (Pin 4I) DHT22
NULL (Pin 2H) Pin 1F 10k Ohm Resistor
GRN LED (Pin 2C) Pin 3C Green LED
RED LED (Pin 5C) Pin 6C Red LED

At the end of your work, your SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit should be connected with a working sensor. We'll test it in the next sections.

2.4 Create a New Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and Add Device


Note: Make sure to copy down the names and connection strings mentioned into a text document for reference later.


2.5 Create an Event Hub

Event Hub is an Azure IoT publish-subscribe service that can ingest millions of events per second and stream them into multiple applications, services or devices.

  • Log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal
  • Click on New -> Internet of Things-> Event Hub
  • Enter the following settings for the Event Hub Namespace (use a name of your choice for the event hub and the namespace):
    • Name: Your choice (we chose SparkFun2Suite)
    • Pricing Tier: Basic
    • Subscription: Your choice
    • Resource Group: Your choice
    • Location: Your choice
  • Click on Create
  • Wait until the Event Hub Namespace is created, and then create an Event Hub using the following steps:
    • Click on your SparkFun2Suite Event Hub Namespace (or pick any other name that you used)
    • Click the Add Event Hub
    • Name: thingdevEventHub
  • Click on Create
  • Wait until the new Event Bus is created
  • Click on the Event Hubs arrow in the Overview tab (might require a few clicks, until the UI is updated)
  • Select the thingdevEventHub eventhub and go in the Configure tab in the Shared Access Policies section, add a new policy:
    • Name = readwrite
    • Permissions = Send, Listen
  • Click Save at the bottom of the page, then click the Dashboard tab near the top and click on Connection Information at the bottom
  • Copy down the connection string for the readwrite policy you created.
  • From the your IoT Hub Settings (The Resource that has connected dots) on the Microsoft Azure Portal, click the Messaging blade (found in your settings), write down the Event Hub-compatible name
  • Look at the Event-hub-compatible Endpoint, and write down this part: sb://thispart.servicebus.windows.net/ we will call this one the IoTHub EventHub-compatible namespace

2.6 Create a Storage Account for Table Storage

Now we will create a service to store our data in the cloud.

  • Log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal
  • In the menu, click New and select Data + Storage then Storage Account
    • Name: Your choice (we chose thingdevstorage)
    • Deployment model: Classic
    • Performance: Standard
    • Replication: Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
    • Subscription: Your choice
    • Resource Group: Your choice
    • Location: Your choice
  • Once the account is created, find it in the resources blade or click on the pinned tile, go to Settings, Keys, and write down the primary connection string.

2.7 Create a Stream Analytics job to Save IoT Data in Table Storage and Raise Alerts

Stream Analytics is an Azure IoT service that streams and analyzes data in the cloud. We'll use it to process data coming from your device.

  • Log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal

  • In the menu, click New, then click Internet of Things, and then click Stream Analytics Job

  • Enter a name for the job (We chose “SparkFunStorageJob”), a preferred region, then choose your subscription. At this stage you are also offered to create a new or to use an existing resource group. Choose the resource group you created earlier.

  • Once the job is created, open your Job’s blade or click on the pinned tile, and find the section titled “Job Topology” and click the Inputs tile. In the Inputs blade, click on Add

  • Enter the following settings:

    • Input Alias = TempSensors
    • Source Type = Data Stream
    • Source = IoT Hub
    • IoT Hub = SparkFun2Suite (use the name for the IoT Hub you create before)
    • Shared Access Policy Name = iothubowner
    • Shared Access Policy Key = The iothubowner primary key can be found in your IoT Hub Settings -> Shared access policies
    • IoT Hub Consumer Group = "" (leave it to the default empty value)
    • Event serialization format = JSON
    • Encoding = UTF-8
  • Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Query tile (next to the Inputs tile). In the Query settings blade, type in the below query and click Save:

SELECT
    DeviceId,
    EventTime,
    MTemperature as TemperatureReading
INTO
    TemperatureTableStorage
from TempSensors
WHERE
   DeviceId is not null
   and EventTime is not null

SELECT
    DeviceId,
    EventTime,
    MTemperature as TemperatureReading
INTO   
    TemperatureAlertToEventHub
FROM
    TempSensors
WHERE MTemperature>25

Note: You can change the 25 to 0 when you're ready to generate alerts to look at. This number represents the temperature in degrees celsius to check for when creating alerts. 25 degrees celsius is 77 degrees fahrenheit.


  • Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Outputs tile and in the Outputs blade, click on Add
  • Enter the following settings then click on Create:
    • Output Alias = TemperatureTableStorage
    • Sink = Table Storage
    • Subscription = Provide table settings storage manually
    • Storage account = thingdevstorage (The storage account you created earlier)
    • Storage account key = (The primary key for the storage account made earlier, can be found in Settings -> Keys -> Primary Access Key)
    • Table Name = TemperatureRecords (Your choice - If the table doesn’t already exist, Local Storage will create it)
    • Partition Key = DeviceId
    • Row Key = EventTime
    • Batch size = 1
  • Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Outputs tile, and in the Outputs blade, click on Add
  • Enter the following settings then click on Create:
    • Output Alias = TemperatureAlertToEventHub
    • Sink = Event Hub
    • Subscription = Provide table settings storage manually
    • Service Bus Namespace = SparkFun2Suite
    • Event Hub Name = thingdeveventhub (The Event Hub you made earlier)
    • Event Hub Policy Name = readwrite
    • Event Hub Policy Key = Primary Key for readwrite Policy name (That's the one you wrote down after creating the event hub)
    • Partition Key Column = 0
    • Event Serialization format = JSON
    • Encoding = UTF-8
    • Format = Line separated
  • Back in the** Stream Analytics blade**, start the job by clicking on the **Start **button at the top

Note: Make sure to stop your Command Center jobs once you have when you take a break or finish to avoid unnecessary Azure consumption! (See: Troubleshooting)


2.8 Node Application Setup

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm
  • Additionally, make sure you have cloned the project repository locally by issuing the following command in your desired directory:
git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/iot-hub-c-thingdev-getstartedkit.git
  • Open the command_center_node folder in your command prompt (cd <path to locally cloned repro>/command_center_node) and install the required modules by running the following:
npm install -g bower
npm install
bower install
  • Open the config.json file and replace the information with your project. See the following for instructions on how to retrieve those values.

    • eventhubName:
      • Open the Classic Azure Management Portal
      • Open the Service Bus namespace you created earlier
      • Switch to the EVENT HUBS page
      • You can see and copy the name of your event hub from that page
    • ehConnString:
      • Click on the name of the event hub from above to open it
      • Click on the "CONNECTION INFORMATION" button along the bottom.
      • From there, click the button to copy the readwrite shared access policy connection string.
    • deviceConnString:
      • Use the information on the Manage IoT Hub to retrieve your device connection string using either the Device Explorer or iothub-explorer tools.
    • iotHubConnString:
      • In the Azure Portal
      • Open the IoT Hub you created previously.
      • Open the "Settings" blade
      • Click on the "Shared access policies" setting
      • Click on the "service" policy
      • Copy the primary connection string for the policy
    • storageAccountName:
      • In the Azure Portal
      • Open the classic Storage Account you created previously to copy its name
    • storageAccountKey:
      • Click on the name of the storage account above to open it
      • Click the "Settings" button to open the Settings blade
      • Click on the "Keys" setting
      • Click the button next to the "PRIMARY ACCESS KEY" top copy it
    • storageTableName:
      • This must match the name of the table that was used in the Stream Analytics table storage output above.
      • If you used the instructions above, you would have named it TemperatureRecords
      • If you named it something else, enter the name you used instead.
{
    "port": "3000",
    "eventHubName": "event-hub-name",
    "ehConnString": "Endpoint=sb://name.servicebus.windows.net/;SharedAccessKeyName=readwrite;SharedAccessKey=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa=",
    "deviceId": "iot-hub-device-name",
    "iotHubConnString": "HostName=iot-hub-name.azure-devices.net;SharedAccessKeyName=service;SharedAccessKey=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa=",
    "storageAcountName": "aaaaaaaaaaa",
    "storageAccountKey": "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa==",
    "storageTable": "TemperatureRecords"
}
  • Now it is time to run it! Enter the following command:
node server.js
  • You should then see something similar to:
app running on http://localhost:3000
client connected
  • Visit the url in your browser and you will see the Node app running!

To deploy this project to the cloud using Azure, you can reference Creating a Node.js web app in Azure App Service.

Next, we will update your device so that it can interact with all the things you just created.

2.9 Add the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the Arduino IDE

You will need to install the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit board extension for the Arduino IDE:

  • Follow the instructions here: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/esp8266-thing-development-board-hookup-guide. There you will see how to add a URL pointing to Spark's repository of board extensions, how to make the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit board selectable under the Tools menu, and how to get the Blink sketch to run.
  • After going through this, you should have a working sample with a blinking light on your board.
    • If you can’t upload the sample, reconnect the device, then the power switch to OFF. Press the upload button, and flip the switch back to ON.

2.10 Install Library Dependencies

For this project, we'll also need the following libraries:

  • DHT Sensor Library
  • Adafruit DHT Unified
  • AzureIoTHub
  • AzureIoTUtility
  • AzureIoTProtocol_MQTT

To install them, click on the Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries. Search for each library using the box in the upper-right to filter your search, click on the found library, and click the "Install" button.

The Adafruit Sensor library is also needed. This can be downloaded here. Instructions for manually installing a library can be found here.

2.11 Modify the Command Center sample

  • Unzip the example code, and double-click the file command_center.ino to open the project in the Arduino IDE.
  • You will be prompted to creat a folder. Do this, and move the other files in the folder into the newly created child folder
  • Look for the following lines of code:
static const char ssid[] = "[Your WiFi network SSID or name]";
static const char pass[] = "[Your WiFi network WPA password or WEP key]";
static const char* connectionString = "[Device Connection String]";
  • Replace the placeholders with your WiFi name (SSID), WiFi password, and the device connection string you created at the beginning of this tutorial. 

  • Save with Control-s

  • In the same project, click on the command_center.c tab to see that file.

  • Look for the following lines of code:

static const char DeviceId[] = "[Device Name]";
static const char connectionString[] = "[Device Connection String]";
  • Replace the placeholders with your Device ID and connection string you created at the beginning of this tutorial. 
  • Save with Control-s

2.12 Build Your Command Center Sample

  • Build and upload the code using Sketch ->  Upload.

Note: As of 1.6.8, the Arduino IDE doesn't properly show "Upload Completed", even when it succeeds.


  • There should now be a green LED on your SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit. Re-select the COM port if necessary, and then open the Serial Monitor. After 15 seconds you should see a measurements update.
  • Data is now being sent off at regular intervals to Microsoft Azure. When it detects something out of range, you will see the LED you’ve set up turn from green to red!
  • You can click the green button (labeled "Turn on") and the red button (labeled "Turn off") in the application to toggle the green and red LEDs in your kit.

Head back to your Node application and you will have a fully functional command center, complete with a history of sensor data, alerts that display when the temperature got outside a certain range, and commands that you can send to your device remotely.


Note: Make sure to stop your Command Center jobs once you have when you finish to avoid unnecessary Azure consumption! (See: Troubleshooting)


2.13 Next steps

Please visit our Azure IoT Dev Center for more samples and documentation on Azure IoT.

Troubleshooting

Stopping Provisioned Services

  • In the Microsoft Azure Portal
    • Click on "All Resources"
    • For each Stream Analytics and Web App resource:
      • Click on the resource and click the "Stop" button in the new blade that appears
    • For each IoT Hub resource:
      • Click on the resource and click the "Devices" button in the new blade that appears
      • Click on each device in the list and click the "Disable" button that appears in the new blade at the bottom

Data is not showing up in the Node.js application

In this section we will explain how to see the data flowing from the Arduino application to the Node.js application:

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