MQTT

Station Signals

Real-time data from stations is collected over MQTT, an open-source, lightweight messaging protocol designed for IoT.

The specific types of data accepted by Busroot are called 'Signals'. The following signals are currently supported:

Signal Key/Field	Description
production_count_good production_count (alias)	The number of new (good) production units created.
production_count_bad	The number of new bad/reject production units created.
line_speed	An arbitrary value indicating the control speed of the station.
productive	A binary value indicating if the station is currently engaged in production.
electrical_kwh	The total cumulative amount of kWh consumed. This is typically from a meter reading.
electrical_kwh_interval	The amount of kWh consumed since the last data point.
rssi	The signal strength of the IoT device.

These signals are accepted as a JSON string published to an MQTT topic for the station. e.g.

MQTT Topic: busroot/v2/[Account ID]/signals/[Station Code]

Payload:
{
  "production_count_good": 12.4,
  "electrical_kwh": 15774.45
}

MQTT Access

In order for IoT device to communicate with the Busroot MQTT broker, they must use valid credentials consisting of a Device ID and Access Token.

The Device ID is made up of the account ID followed by a / and a unique value for that device.

When using these credentials with the MQTT broker, a username, password and client ID must be provided as follows:

MQTT Field	Value
Username	Device ID
Password	Access Token
Client ID	Device ID + / + [optional string]

After MQTT authentication, the device is connected but can only publish and subscribe to specific topics:

Busroot Signals Topic: busroot/v1/ + Device ID Raw Data Topic: busroot/v1/dau/ + Device ID

Data published to the Busroot Signals topic will be processed directly by Busroot according to the signals mentioned at the top of this page.

Data published to the topic starting with busroot/v1/dau/ will not be processed by Busroot. The purpose of this topic is to allow raw data to be sent from the device and processed in a second stage (e.g. using Node-RED) which will then re-publish that data to the Busroot Signals topic.

Registering Devices

New Device

The 'Add New' button will create a new device with a unique Device ID and Access Token.

Removing Access for a Device

When it is required that a device no longer be able to send data to Busroot, the device ID should be deleted from Busroot. This will cause that device to be immediately disconnected from the MQTT broker.