Hi,
IoT, billions of devices connected to the internet, all sending and receiving messages, and hopefully doing something useful in the process. What's not to get excited about? The only problem is, I have zero experience (well almost zero) of doing this.
A few months ago, I saw a random tweet about someone who had just received their Azure IoT DevKit. I clicked, and a few minutes later, I had purchased my own IoT Devkit. I then promptly forgot about this until a few weeks later this arrived in the post. Cool, new toy. Let's learn.
my new IoT DevKit
You don't get much in the box, a USB cable, the device, 4 sticky pads to stick onto your device (to cushion it) and a very small instruction book with a QR Code and URL to https://aka.ms/iot-devkit
You get a lot on the board. Headphone jack, IrDA, Microphone, WiFi, LED's, buttons, OLED screen, and the following list of sensors.
Magnetometer
Pressure
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Humidity
Temperature
So for an approx €35 outlay, you get a bit of kit that appears to do a lot.
Setting it up
While the instruction booklet was small, the URL you are sent to is excellent. Loads of clear instructions on how to set up the device, connect it to an Azure IoT Hub, and start receiving some telemetry data. Right now it is 24.7999 C in my office and humidity of 58.4
Telemetry data from my office
I really don't feel there is any benefit to me repeating the instructions here, follow them along and you should be up and running in no time. In brief, what you have to do are;
Configure an IoT Hub in Azure
Set up your device to your WiFi and give it your IoT Hub connection string
Upload sample code & you should have telemetry data arriving
To set up the dev environment, there is a bit more to it, but again, excellent instructions. In brief, you have to;
Install Arduino IDE (which is an environment to program and flash devices)
Install VS Code
Install VS Code extensions (Arduino and Azure IoT)
Open Sample Code & complete a few exercises
In conclusion, I have loads to learn, but in the space of an hour, I have a piece of kit that is successfully sending messages to my IoT Hub. A good start and loads more to learn.
Talk to you the next time.
Mark