Blues wireless asset tracker deployment process?

Notehub.io
1

Hi,

I am designing a requirement for a client for vehicle asset tracker project. I am going to interface the Blues Wireless Notecard Cellular and Notecarrier A to the OBD II port of a car. I am going to send OBD II data, GPS and other sensor data to Notehub.

I read the guide for best practices for production ready projects.

For example I need to install 100 asset tracker devices. Before I do that, I need to run a script to set the production uid to all 100 asset tracker devices. Doing that will send all tracker data to one Notehub project. For example, I am going to route all 100 asset tracker device data to Datacake or Blynk.

I understand each Blues wireless notecard has a specific device ID. What is the recommended part of the process do I associate the device id with the asset tracker. Because, I can not send any private information such as license plate number from the asset tracker.

Regards,
Markel

2

Hi @mtrobregado

There are two suggested ways to accomplish provisioning as you’ve described. Before I share that I want to clarify 3 definitions:

  • Asset Tracker ID - The identity of your asset tracker product, i.e. number 1 of 100 (set by you, either in firmware or during provisioning)
  • Device UID - The unique identifier for a Notecard (cannot be changed by the user)
  • Product UID - The unique identifier for a Notehub Project (set by the user at project creation, e.g. com.your-company.your-name:your_product)
  1. If you store the Asset Tracker ID in firmware, ensure your firmware is loaded onto the device and that it uses the sn field of hub.set to associate the device’s Asset Tracker ID with the notecard. You could have an “automatic default fleet” set up in your project for new devices. When they power on and connect, the notecards will upload all this data and you can associate the serial number with the notecard ID. For example, this might look like:
{
  "req": "hub.set",
  "product": "com.your-company.your-name:your_product",
  "sn": "asset-tracker-id" // set this in your firmware
}

In Notehub you’ll be able to see the Device UID alongside your specified Asset Tracker ID:

image
image854Ă—496 35.5 KB

Alternatively, if you wish to set the Asset Tracker ID during the provisioning process and store a record of the provisioned devices locally:

  1. You could use our notecard CLI. You’ll need to ensure the notecard’s USB interface is available during your manufacturing process, i.e. before the case is sealed. You could manually set the Asset Tracker ID with a command like this:
notecard -req '{"req":"hub.set","product":"com.your-company.your-name:your_product","sn":"asset_tracker_id_0"}'

The notecard CLI utility can then generate an “inventory file” as csv or json containing the association of your SN and DeviceUID:

notecard -scan config.json

This will give you a local record of all the Asset Tracker IDs along with their Device UIDs.

Where an example of what this might look like:

{
    "device": "dev:860264054673646",
    "factory": { ... },
    "hub": "a.notefile.net",
    "sn": "asset-tracker-1",
    "product": "com.your-company.your-name:your_product",
    "firmware": "notecard-8.1.3.17044",
    "activated": 1702482545,
    "bytes_used": 840824
},
{
    ...
}

Let me know if this helps!

Thanks,
Alex

1 Like