ThingsBoard is designed to monitor and control devices. A device in ThingsBoard is the digital representation of a physical or virtual device.
A device can connect to the ThingsBoard core using a variety of IOT protocols- HTTP, MQTT, COAP etc.
Devices send telemetry data e.g temperature, pressure etc to ThingsBoard.
Devices can also send optional attributes like version etc (client attributes) and can also be assigned attributes e.g. configuration settings (server attributes). See Attributes.
This data can be displayed on a dashboard, trigger alarms etc. see telemetry
A device can also act as a gateway. Gateway devices connects several physical devices to ThingsBoard over a single connection.
Device data is sent to predefined topics (MQTT) or URLs(HTTP and COAP) and the payload is JSON encoded key,value pairs e.g {“temperature”,20}.
Device profiles allow you to configure devices as a group. The profile can include alarm thresholds,rule chains etc.
Because ThingsBoard is a multi tenant system devices can be assigned to customers to manage.
Device Provisioning
Devices can be added
- manually one by one from the dashboard and can also
- imported using a CSV file -bulk provisioning
- automatically provisioning. devices self register on boot.
Manual Provisioning
Bulk provisioning
Device details are contained in an imported CSV File.
See bulk provisioning with a csv file
Automatically Provisioning
Devices automatically register themselves in ThingsBoard on boot. See automatic provisioning using MQTT
Device Control
Device control e.g turning a switch on/off is done using RPC commands.
!important – RPC Commands rely on the rules engine to work .See Device Control Using RPC
Device profiles allow you to configure devices as a group. The profile can include alarm thresholds,rule chains etc.
Organising devices
ThingsBoard offers several mechanisms for organising devices for management, visualisation and access control. They are:
- Customers
- groups
- assets
Customers
Customers allow a Tenant to delegate access to devices, assets, dashboards, and other entities while maintaining clear ownership boundaries. doc ref
Device Groups
Groups are another mechanism for organising devices for control and data visualisation. doc ref
Assets
Assets are abstract entities in ThingsBoard that represent physical objects, spaces, or organizational units — buildings, rooms, production areas, fields, streetlights, substations, or vehicles. Unlike devices, assets don’t generate telemetry on their own but can aggregate data from related devices and participate in rule chains, alarms, and dashboards. doc ref
Assets contain devices and are a way of grouping devices
Related resources and Tutorials: