Adafruit.IO MQTT LoRa Field Gateway

Back in April I started working on an MQTT LoRa Field gateway which was going to support a selection of different Software as a service(SaaS) Internet of Things(IoT) platforms.

After a long pause in development I have a working AdaFruit.IO client and have 3 proof of concept (PoC) integrations for AskSensors, Losant and Ubidots. I am also working on Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Central clients. The first iteration is focused on Device to Cloud (D2C) messaging in the next iteration I will add Cloud to Device where viable(C2D).

My applications use a lightweight, easy to implemented protocol which is intended for hobbyist and educational use rather than commercial applications (I have been working on a more secure version as yet another side project)

I have a number of sample Arduino with Dragino LoRa Shield for Arduino, MakerFabs Maduino, Dragino LoRa Mini Dev, M2M Low power Node and Netduino with Elecrow LoRa RFM95 Shield etc. clients. These work with both my platform specific (Adafruit.IO, Azure IoT Central) gateways and protocol specific field gateways.

Maduino client dashboard

When the application is first started it creates a minimal configuration file which should be downloaded, the missing information filled out, then uploaded using the File explorer in the Windows device portal.

{
  "MQTTUserName": "AdaFruitIO user",
  "MQTTPassword": "AIO Key",
  "MQTTClientID": "MQTTLoRaGateway",
  "MQTTServer": "io.adafruit.com",
  "Address": "LoRaIoT1",
  "Frequency": 915000000.0,
  "MessageHandlerAssembly": "Mqtt.IoTCore.FieldGateway.LoRa.Adafruit",
  "PlatformSpecificConfiguration": "mqttloragateway"
}

The application logs debugging information to the Windows 10 IoT Core ETW logging Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-LoggingChannel

MQTT LoRa Gateway with Adafruit.IO plug-in

The SaaS platform specific interface has gained an additional parameter for platform specific configuration.

namespace devMobile.Mqtt.IoTCore.FieldGateway
{
	using System;
	using Windows.Foundation.Diagnostics;

	using devMobile.IoT.Rfm9x;
	using MQTTnet;
	using MQTTnet.Client;

	public interface IMessageHandler
	{
		void Initialise(LoggingChannel logging, IMqttClient mqttClient, Rfm9XDevice rfm9XDevice,string platformSpecificConfiguration);

		void Rfm9XOnReceive(object sender, Rfm9XDevice.OnDataReceivedEventArgs e);

		void MqttApplicationMessageReceived(object sender, MqttApplicationMessageReceivedEventArgs e);

		void Rfm9xOnTransmit(object sender, Rfm9XDevice.OnDataTransmitedEventArgs e);
	}
}

This is used for the AdaFruit.IO GroupName so Adafruit.IO feed values are not all in a single group.

public class MessageHandler : IMessageHandler
	{
		private LoggingChannel Logging { get; set; }
		private IMqttClient MqttClient { get; set; }
		private Rfm9XDevice Rfm9XDevice { get; set; }
      private string PlatformSpecificConfiguration { get; set; }


      void IMessageHandler.Initialise(LoggingChannel logging, IMqttClient mqttClient, Rfm9XDevice rfm9XDevice, string platformSpecificConfiguration)
		{
			LoggingFields processInitialiseLoggingFields = new LoggingFields();

			this.Logging = logging;
			this.MqttClient = mqttClient;
			this.Rfm9XDevice = rfm9XDevice;
			this.PlatformSpecificConfiguration = platformSpecificConfiguration;
		}

		async void IMessageHandler.Rfm9XOnReceive(object sender, Rfm9XDevice.OnDataReceivedEventArgs e)
		{
			LoggingFields processReceiveLoggingFields = new LoggingFields();

			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("PacketSNR", e.PacketSnr.ToString("F1"));
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddInt32("PacketRSSI", e.PacketRssi);
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddInt32("RSSI", e.Rssi);

			string addressBcdText = BitConverter.ToString(e.Address);
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddInt32("DeviceAddressLength", e.Address.Length);
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("DeviceAddressBCD", addressBcdText);

			string payloadBcdText = BitConverter.ToString(e.Data);
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddInt32("PayloadLength", e.Data.Length);
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("DeviceAddressBCD", payloadBcdText);

			this.Logging.LogEvent("Rfm9XOnReceive", processReceiveLoggingFields, LoggingLevel.Information);
		}

		void IMessageHandler.MqttApplicationMessageReceived(object sender, MqttApplicationMessageReceivedEventArgs e)
		{
			LoggingFields processReceiveLoggingFields = new LoggingFields();

			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("ClientId", e.ClientId);
#if DEBUG
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("Payload", e.ApplicationMessage.ConvertPayloadToString());
#endif
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("QualityOfServiceLevel", e.ApplicationMessage.QualityOfServiceLevel.ToString());
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddBoolean("Retain", e.ApplicationMessage.Retain);
			processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("Topic", e.ApplicationMessage.Topic);

			this.Logging.LogEvent("MqttApplicationMessageReceived topic not processed", processReceiveLoggingFields, LoggingLevel.Error);
		}

		void IMessageHandler.Rfm9xOnTransmit(object sender, Rfm9XDevice.OnDataTransmitedEventArgs e)
		{
			this.Logging.LogMessage("Rfm9xOnTransmit", LoggingLevel.Information);
		}
	}
Adafruit.IO Group for a single field gateway
Group Setup

The message handler uploads all values in an inbound messages in one MQTT message using the AdaFruit.IO Group Feed format.

      async void IMessageHandler.Rfm9XOnReceive(object sender, Rfm9XDevice.OnDataReceivedEventArgs e)
      {
         LoggingFields processReceiveLoggingFields = new LoggingFields();
         char[] sensorReadingSeparators = { ',' };
         char[] sensorIdAndValueSeparators = { ' ' };

         processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("PacketSNR", e.PacketSnr.ToString("F1"));
         processReceiveLoggingFields.AddInt32("PacketRSSI", e.PacketRssi);
         processReceiveLoggingFields.AddInt32("RSSI", e.Rssi);

         string addressBcdText = BitConverter.ToString(e.Address);
         processReceiveLoggingFields.AddInt32("DeviceAddressLength", e.Address.Length);
         processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("DeviceAddressBCD", addressBcdText);

         string messageText;
         try
         {
            messageText = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetString(e.Data);
            processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("MessageText", messageText);
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
            processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("Exception", ex.ToString());
            this.Logging.LogEvent("PayloadProcess failure converting payload to text", processReceiveLoggingFields, LoggingLevel.Warning);
            return;
         }

         // Chop up the CSV text
         string[] sensorReadings = messageText.Split(sensorReadingSeparators, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
         if (sensorReadings.Length < 1)
         {
            this.Logging.LogEvent("PayloadProcess payload contains no sensor readings", processReceiveLoggingFields, LoggingLevel.Warning);
            return;
         }

         JObject payloadJObject = new JObject();

         JObject feeds = new JObject();

         // Chop up each sensor read into an ID & value
         foreach (string sensorReading in sensorReadings)
         {
            string[] sensorIdAndValue = sensorReading.Split(sensorIdAndValueSeparators, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

            // Check that there is an id & value
            if (sensorIdAndValue.Length != 2)
            {
               this.Logging.LogEvent("PayloadProcess payload invalid format", processReceiveLoggingFields, LoggingLevel.Warning);
               return;
            }

            string sensorId = string.Concat(addressBcdText, sensorIdAndValue[0]);
            string value = sensorIdAndValue[1];

            feeds.Add(sensorId.ToLower(), value);
         }
         payloadJObject.Add("feeds", feeds);

         string topic = $"{MqttClient.Options.Credentials.Username}/groups/{PlatformSpecificConfiguration}";

         try
         {
            var message = new MqttApplicationMessageBuilder()
               .WithTopic(topic)
               .WithPayload(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(payloadJObject))
               .WithAtLeastOnceQoS()
               .Build();
            Debug.WriteLine(" {0:HH:mm:ss} MQTT Client PublishAsync start", DateTime.UtcNow);
            await MqttClient.PublishAsync(message);
            Debug.WriteLine(" {0:HH:mm:ss} MQTT Client PublishAsync finish", DateTime.UtcNow);

            this.Logging.LogEvent("PublishAsync Adafruit payload", processReceiveLoggingFields, LoggingLevel.Information);
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
            processReceiveLoggingFields.AddString("Exception", ex.ToString());
            this.Logging.LogEvent("PublishAsync Adafruit payload", processReceiveLoggingFields, LoggingLevel.Error);
         }
      }

The casing of User names (Must match exactly) and Group/Feed names (must be lower case) tripped me up yet again. The “automagic” provisioning of feeds does make setting up small scale systems easier, though I’m not certain how well it would scale.

Adafruit MQTT Cloud to Device Messaging

After getting MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) Device to Cloud (D2C) messaging working for AdaFruit.IO I have also got Cloud to Device (C2D) messaging working as well.

The MQTT broker, username, API key, client ID, optional group name (to keep MQTT aligned with REST API terminology), command topic and feed name are command line options.

The Adafruit IO MQTT documentation suggests an approach for naming topics which allows a bit more structure for feed (D2C and C2D) names than the REST API (which only does D2C).

class Program
{
	private static IMqttClient mqttClient = null;
	private static IMqttClientOptions mqttOptions = null;
	private static string server;
	private static string username;
	private static string password;
	private static string clientId;
	private static string commandTopic;
	private static string groupname;
	private static string feedname;

	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		MqttFactory factory = new MqttFactory();
		mqttClient = factory.CreateMqttClient();

		if ((args.Length != 6) && (args.Length != 7))
		{
			Console.WriteLine("[MQTT Server] [UserName] [Password] [ClientID] [CommandTopic] [GroupName] [FeedName]");
			Console.WriteLine("[MQTT Server] [UserName] [Password] [ClientID] [CommandTopic] [FeedName]");
			Console.WriteLine("Press <enter> to exit");
			Console.ReadLine();
			return;
		}

		server = args[0];
		username = args[1];
		password = args[2];
		clientId = args[3];
		commandTopic = args[4];
		if (args.Length == 6)
		{
			feedname = args[5].ToLower();
			Console.WriteLine($"MQTT Server:{server} Username:{username} ClientID:{clientId} CommandTopic:{commandTopic} Feedname:{feedname}");
		}

		if (args.Length == 7)
		{
			groupname = args[5].ToLower();
			feedname = args[6].ToLower();
			Console.WriteLine($"MQTT Server:{server} Username:{username} ClientID:{clientId} CommandTopic:{commandTopic} Groupname:{groupname} Feedname:{feedname}");
		}

		mqttOptions = new MqttClientOptionsBuilder()
			.WithTcpServer(server)
			.WithCredentials(username, password)
			.WithClientId(clientId)
			.WithTls()
			.Build();

		mqttClient.Disconnected += MqttClient_Disconnected;
		mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions).Wait();
		mqttClient.ApplicationMessageReceived += MqttClient_ApplicationMessageReceived;

		// Adafruit.IO format for topics which are called feeds
		string topic = string.Empty;

		if (args.Length == 6)
		{
			topic = $"{username}/feeds/{feedname}";				
		}

		if (args.Length == 7)
		{
			topic = $"{username}/feeds/{groupname}.{feedname}";
		}

		mqttClient.SubscribeAsync(commandTopic, MQTTnet.Protocol.MqttQualityOfServiceLevel.AtLeastOnce).GetAwaiter().GetResult();

		while (true)
		{
			string value = "22." + DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond.ToString();
			Console.WriteLine($"Topic:{topic} Value:{value}");

			var message = new MqttApplicationMessageBuilder()
				.WithTopic(topic)
				.WithPayload(value)
				.WithQualityOfServiceLevel(MQTTnet.Protocol.MqttQualityOfServiceLevel.AtLeastOnce)
			.WithRetainFlag()
			.Build();

			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync start");
			mqttClient.PublishAsync(message).Wait();
			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync finish");

			Thread.Sleep(30100);
		}
	}

	private static void MqttClient_ApplicationMessageReceived(object sender, MqttApplicationMessageReceivedEventArgs e)
	{
		Console.WriteLine($"ClientId:{e.ClientId} Topic:{e.ApplicationMessage.Topic} Payload:{e.ApplicationMessage.ConvertPayloadToString()}");
	}

	private static async void MqttClient_Disconnected(object sender, MqttClientDisconnectedEventArgs e)
	{
		Debug.WriteLine("Disconnected");
		await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));

		try
		{
			await mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions);
		}
		catch (Exception ex)
		{
			Debug.WriteLine("Reconnect failed {0}", ex.Message);
		}
	}
}

I configured a slider on the dashboard for my home called “setpoint” (yet again I was tripped up “automatically” camel casing the name because I’m a C# developer) which my MQTT client subscribed to.

AdaFruit.IO Home monitoring dashboard
setpoint feed configuration

After figuring out the format of the command topic I found that when the slider was moved the MQTT client subscription event fired reliably.

AdaFruit Client showing the setpoint value change notifications

Overall the process went pretty well, though the manual configuration of the subscriptions to AdaFruit.IO feeds could become a bit of a problem at scale.

Ask Sensors with MQTTnet

After a 6 month pause I’m back working on my Message Queue Telemetry Transport(MQTT) LoRa gateway.

As I’m testing my Message Queue Telemetry Transport(MQTT) LoRa gateway I’m building a proof of concept(PoC) .Net core console application for each IoT platform I would like to support.

This PoC was to confirm that I could connect to the Ask Sensors MQTT API then format topics and payloads correctly.

Console test application

The MQTT broker, username, password, and client ID are command line options.

class Program
{
	private static IMqttClient mqttClient = null;
	private static IMqttClientOptions mqttOptions = null;
	private static string server;
	private static string username;
	private static string apiKey;
	private static string clientID;

	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		MqttFactory factory = new MqttFactory();
		mqttClient = factory.CreateMqttClient();
		bool heatPumpOn = false;

		if (args.Length != 4)
		{
			Console.WriteLine("[MQTT Server] [UserName] [APIKey] [ClientID]");
			Console.WriteLine("Press <enter> to exit");
			Console.ReadLine();
			return;
		}

		server = args[0];
		username = args[1];
		apiKey = args[2];
		clientID = args[3];

		Console.WriteLine($"MQTT Server:{server} Username:{username} ClientID:{clientID}");

		mqttOptions = new MqttClientOptionsBuilder()
			.WithTcpServer(server)
			.WithCredentials(username, "")
			.WithClientId(clientID)
			//.WithTls() // This is a bit of a worry
			.Build();

		mqttClient.ApplicationMessageReceived += MqttClient_ApplicationMessageReceived;
		mqttClient.Disconnected += MqttClient_Disconnected;
		mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions).Wait();

		// AskSensors formatted client state update topic
		string stateTopic = $"{username}/{apiKey}";

		while (true)
		{
			string payloadText;
			double temperature = 22.0 + (DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 1000.0);
			double humidity = 50 + (DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 100.0);
			double speed = 10 + (DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 100.0);
			Console.WriteLine($"Topic:{stateTopic} Temperature:{temperature:0.00} Humidity:{humidity:0} HeatPumpOn:{heatPumpOn}");

			// First JSON attempt didn't work
			payloadText = @"{""Humidity"":55}";

            // Second attempt worked
            payloadText = $"module1=22";

            // Third attempt with "real" values injected
            payloadText = $"module1={temperature}&m2={humidity}";

            var message = new MqttApplicationMessageBuilder()
					.WithTopic(stateTopic)
					.WithPayload(payloadText)
					.WithQualityOfServiceLevel(global::MQTTnet.Protocol.MqttQualityOfServiceLevel.AtLeastOnce)
				   .WithExactlyOnceQoS()
				   //.WithAtLeastOnceQoS()
				   //.WithRetainFlag()
				   .Build();

				Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync start");
				mqttClient.PublishAsync(message).Wait();
				Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync finish");

				Thread.Sleep(30100);
			}
		}

	private static async void MqttClient_Disconnected(object sender, MqttClientDisconnectedEventArgs e)
	{
		Debug.WriteLine("Disconnected");
		await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));

		try
		{
			await mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions);
		}
		catch (Exception ex)
		{
			Debug.WriteLine("Reconnect failed {0}", ex.Message);
		}
	}

The Ask Sensors screen designer has 8 different types of Graph (line, bar, scatter, gauge, table, binary. digital, map)

Ask sensors dashboard configuration was fairly simple, though sequential numbering of inputs (modules) might require some mapping code.

Overall the initial configuration went smoothly after I figured out the payload format (not JSON), though the functionality (of a free subscription) did appear to be quite limited.

Since I first started building my MQTT gateway there have been several breaking updates to the MQTTNet API which so I will have to refresh all the applications in my solution.

Ubidots with MQTTnet

As I’m testing my Message Queue Telemetry Transport(MQTT) LoRa gateway I’m building a proof of concept(PoC) .Net core console application for each IoT platform I would like to support.

This PoC was to confirm that I could connect to the ubidots MQTT API then format the topics and payloads correctly. The ubidots screen designer has “variables” (both actual sensors & synthetic calculated ones) which present as topics so I built a client which could subscribe to these.

.Net Core V2 MQTTnet client

The MQTT broker, username, password, and client ID are command line options.

class Program
{
	private static IMqttClient mqttClient = null;
	private static IMqttClientOptions mqttOptions = null;
	private static string server;
	private static string username;
	private static string deviceLabel;

	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		MqttFactory factory = new MqttFactory();
		mqttClient = factory.CreateMqttClient();
		bool heatPumpOn = false;

		if (args.Length != 3)
		{
			Console.WriteLine("[MQTT Server] [UserName] [Password] [ClientID]");
			Console.WriteLine("Press <enter> to exit");
			Console.ReadLine();
			return;
		}

		server = args[0];
		username = args[1];
		deviceLabel = args[2];

		Console.WriteLine($"MQTT Server:{server} Username:{username} DeviceLabel:{deviceLabel}");

		mqttOptions = new MqttClientOptionsBuilder()
			.WithTcpServer(server)
			.WithCredentials(username, "NotVerySecret")
			.WithClientId(deviceLabel)
			.WithTls()
			.Build();

		mqttClient.ApplicationMessageReceived += MqttClient_ApplicationMessageReceived;
		mqttClient.Disconnected += MqttClient_Disconnected;
		mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions).Wait();

		// Setup a subscription for commands sent to client
		string commandTopic = $"/v1.6/devices/{deviceLabel}/officetemperaturedesired/lv";
		mqttClient.SubscribeAsync(commandTopic).GetAwaiter().GetResult();

		//// Ubidots formatted client state update topic
		string stateTopic = $"/v1.6/devices/{deviceLabel}";

		while (true)
		{
			string payloadText;
			double temperature = 22.0 + (DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 1000.0);
			double humidity = 50 + (DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 100.0);
			double speed = 10 + (DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 100.0);
			Console.WriteLine($"Topic:{stateTopic} Temperature:{temperature:0.00} Humidity:{humidity:0} HeatPumpOn:{heatPumpOn}");

			// First attempt which worked
			//payloadText = @"{""OfficeTemperature"":22.5}";

			// Second attempt to work out data format with "real" values injected
			//payloadText = @"{ ""officetemperature"":"+ temperature.ToString("F2") + @",""officehumidity"":" + humidity.ToString("F0") + @"}";

			// Third attempt with Jobject which sort of worked but number serialisation was sub optimal
			JObject payloadJObject = new JObject(); 
			payloadJObject.Add("OfficeTemperature", temperature.ToString("F2"));
			payloadJObject.Add("OfficeHumidity", humidity.ToString("F0"));

			if (heatPumpOn)
			{
				payloadJObject.Add("HeatPumpOn", 1);
			}
			else
			{
				payloadJObject.Add("HeatPumpOn", 0);
			}
			heatPumpOn = !heatPumpOn;
			payloadText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(payloadJObject);

			/*
			// Forth attempt with JOBject, timestamps and gps 
			JObject payloadJObject = new JObject();
			JObject context = new JObject();
			context.Add("lat", "-43.5309325");
			context.Add("lng", "172.637119");// Christchurch Cathederal
			//context.Add("timestamp", ((DateTimeOffset)(DateTime.UtcNow)).ToUnixTimeSeconds()); // This field is optional and can be commented out
			JObject position = new JObject();
			position.Add("context", context);
			position.Add("value", "0");
			payloadJObject.Add("postion", position);
			payloadText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(payloadJObject);
			*/

			var message = new MqttApplicationMessageBuilder()
				.WithTopic(stateTopic)
				.WithPayload(payloadText)
				.WithQualityOfServiceLevel(global::MQTTnet.Protocol.MqttQualityOfServiceLevel.AtLeastOnce)
			//.WithExactlyOnceQoS()// With ubidots this caused the publish to hang
			.WithAtLeastOnceQoS()
			.WithRetainFlag() 
			.Build();

			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync start");
			mqttClient.PublishAsync(message).Wait();
			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync finish");

			Thread.Sleep(30100);
		}
	}

	private static void MqttClient_ApplicationMessageReceived(object sender, MqttApplicationMessageReceivedEventArgs e)
	{
		Console.WriteLine($"ClientId:{e.ClientId} Topic:{e.ApplicationMessage.Topic} Payload:{e.ApplicationMessage.ConvertPayloadToString()}");
	}

	private static async void MqttClient_Disconnected(object sender, MqttClientDisconnectedEventArgs e)
	{
		Debug.WriteLine("Disconnected");
		await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));

		try
		{
			await mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions);
		}
		catch (Exception ex)
		{
			Debug.WriteLine("Reconnect failed {0}", ex.Message);
		}
	}
}

For this PoC I used the MQTTnet package which is available via NuGet. It appeared to be reasonably well supported and has had recent updates.

Variable configuration with device location map

Overall the initial configuration went smoothly, I found the dragging of blocks onto the dashboard and configuring them worked as expected.

The configuration of a “synthetic” variable (converting a temperature to Fahrenheit for readers from the Unites States of America, Myanmar & Liberia ) took a couple of goes to get right.

I may have missed something (April 2019) but the lack of boolean datatype variables was a bit odd.

Synthetic (calculated) variable configuration

I put a slider control on my test dashboard, associated it with a variable and my client reliably received messages when the slider was moved.

Dashboard with slider for desired temperature

Overall the Ubidots experience was pretty good and I’m going to spend some more time working with the device, data, users configurations to see how well it works for a “real-world” project.

I found (April 2019) that to get MQTTS going I had to install a Ubidots provided certificate

MQTT with TLS guidance and certificate download link

When my .Net Core application didn’t work I tried one my MQTT debugging tools and they didn’t work either with the Ubitdots MQTT brokers. The Ubidots forum people were quite helpful, but making it not necessary to install a certificate or making it really obvious in the documentation that this was required would be a good thing.

Losant IoT with MQTTnet

As I’m testing my Message Queue Telemetry Transport(MQTT) LoRa gateway I’m building a proof of concept(PoC) .Net core console application for each IoT platform I would like to support.

This PoC was to confirm that I could connect to the Losant MQTT API then format the topics and payloads correctly. The Losant screen designer has “Blocks” which generate commands for devices so I extended the test client to see how well this worked.

The MQTT broker, username, password, and client ID are command line options.

class Program
{
	private static IMqttClient mqttClient = null;
	private static IMqttClientOptions mqttOptions = null;
	private static string server;
	private static string username;
	private static string password;
	private static string clientId;

	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		MqttFactory factory = new MqttFactory();
		mqttClient = factory.CreateMqttClient();
		bool heatPumpOn = false;

		if (args.Length != 4)
		{
			Console.WriteLine("[MQTT Server] [UserName] [Password] [ClientID]");
			Console.WriteLine("Press <enter> to exit");
			Console.ReadLine();
		}

		server = args[0];
		username = args[1];
		password = args[2];
		clientId = args[3];

		Console.WriteLine($"MQTT Server:{server} Username:{username} ClientID:{clientId}");

		mqttOptions = new MqttClientOptionsBuilder()
			.WithTcpServer(server)
			.WithCredentials(username, password)
			.WithClientId(clientId)
			.WithTls()
			.Build();

		mqttClient.ApplicationMessageReceived += MqttClient_ApplicationMessageReceived;
		mqttClient.Disconnected += MqttClient_Disconnected;
		mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions).Wait();

		// Setup a subscription for commands sent to client
		string commandTopic = $"losant/{clientId}/command";
		mqttClient.SubscribeAsync(commandTopic);

		// Losant formatted client state update topic
		string stateTopic = $"losant/{clientId}/state";

		while (true)
		{
			string payloadText;
			double temperature = 22.0 + +(DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 1000.0);
			double humidity = 50 + +(DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond / 1000.0);
			Console.WriteLine($"Topic:{stateTopic} Temperature:{temperature} Humidity:{humidity} HeatPumpOn:{heatPumpOn}");

			// First attempt which worked
			//payloadText = @"{""data"":{ ""OfficeTemperature"":22.5}}";

			// Second attempt to work out data format with "real" values injected
			payloadText = @"{""data"":{ ""OfficeTemperature"":"+ temperature.ToString("f1") + @",""OfficeHumidity"":" + humidity.ToString("F0") + @"}}";

			// Third attempt with Jobject which sort of worked but number serialisation is sub optimal
			//JObject payloadJObject = new JObject(); 
			//payloadJObject.Add("time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("u")); // This field is optional and can be commented out

			//JObject data = new JObject();
			//data.Add("OfficeTemperature", temperature.ToString("F1"));
			//data.Add("OfficeHumidity", humidity.ToString("F0"));

			//data.Add("HeatPumpOn", heatPumpOn);
			//heatPumpOn = !heatPumpOn;
			//payloadJObject.Add( "data", data);

			//payloadText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(payloadJObject);

			// Forth attempt with JOBject and gps info https://docs.losant.com/devices/state/
			//JObject payloadJObject = new JObject(); 
			//payloadJObject.Add("time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("u")); // This field is optional and can be commented out
			//JObject data = new JObject();
			//data.Add("GPS", "-43.5309325, 172.637119"); // Christchurch Cathederal
			//payloadJObject.Add("data", data);
			//payloadText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(payloadJObject);

			var message = new MqttApplicationMessageBuilder()
				.WithTopic(stateTopic)
				.WithPayload(payloadText)
				.WithQualityOfServiceLevel(global::MQTTnet.Protocol.MqttQualityOfServiceLevel.AtLeastOnce)
				//.WithExactlyOnceQoS() With Losant this caused the publish to hang
				.WithAtLeastOnceQoS()
				//.WithRetainFlag() Losant doesn't allow this flag
				.Build();

			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync start");
				mqttClient.PublishAsync(message).Wait();
			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync finish");

			Thread.Sleep(30100);
		}
	}

	private static void MqttClient_ApplicationMessageReceived(object sender, MqttApplicationMessageReceivedEventArgs e)
	{
		Console.WriteLine($"ClientId:{e.ClientId} Topic:{e.ApplicationMessage.Topic} Payload:{e.ApplicationMessage.ConvertPayloadToString()}");
	}

	private static async void MqttClient_Disconnected(object sender, MqttClientDisconnectedEventArgs e)
	{
		Debug.WriteLine("Disconnected");
		await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));

		try
		{
			await mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions);
		}
		catch (Exception ex)
		{
			Debug.WriteLine("Reconnect failed {0}", ex.Message);
		}
	}
}

For this PoC I used the MQTTnet package which is available via NuGet. It appeared to be reasonably well supported and has had recent updates.

Overall the initial configuration went really smoothly, I found the dragging of blocks onto the dashboard and configuring them worked well.

Losant device configuration screen with trace logging

Losant .Net Core V2 client uploading simulated sensor readings

The device log made bringing up a new device easy and the error messages displayed when I had badly formatted payloads were helpful (unlike many other packages I have used).

I put a button block on the overview screen, associated it with a command publication and my client reliably received messages when the button was pressed

Losant .Net Core V2 client processing command

Overall the Losant experience was pretty good and I’m going to spend some more time working with the application designer, devices recipes, webhooks, integrations and workflows etc. to see how well it works for a “real-world” project.

Adafruit MQTT with MQTTnet

Before building the Message Queue Telemetry Transport(MQTT) gateway I built a proof of concept(PoC) .Net core console application. This was to confirm that I could connect to the Adafruit.IO MQTT broker and format the topic (with and without group name) and payload correctly. The Adafruit IO MQTT documentation suggests an approach for naming topics which allows a bit more structure for feed names than the REST API.

The MQTT broker, username, API key, client ID, optional group name (to keep MQTT aligned with REST API terminology) and feed name are command line options.

class Program
{
	private static IMqttClient mqttClient = null;
	private static IMqttClientOptions mqttOptions = null;
	private static string server;
	private static string username;
	private static string password;
	private static string clientId;
	private static string groupname;
	private static string feedname;

	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		MqttFactory factory = new MqttFactory();
		mqttClient = factory.CreateMqttClient();

		if ((args.Length != 5) && (args.Length != 6))
		{
			Console.WriteLine("[MQTT Server] [UserName] [Password] [ClientID] [GroupName] [FeedName]");
			Console.WriteLine("[MQTT Server] [UserName] [Password] [ClientID] [FeedName]");
			Console.WriteLine("Press <enter> to exit");
			Console.ReadLine();
			return;
		}

		server = args[0];
		username = args[1];
		password = args[2];
		clientId = args[3];
		if (args.Length == 5)
		{
			feedname = args[4].ToLower();
			Console.WriteLine($"MQTT Server:{server} Username:{username} ClientID:{clientId} Feedname:{feedname}");
		}

		if (args.Length == 6)
		{
			groupname = args[4].ToLower();
			feedname = args[5].ToLower();
			Console.WriteLine($"MQTT Server:{server} Username:{username} ClientID:{clientId} Groupname:{groupname} Feedname:{feedname}");
		}

		mqttOptions = new MqttClientOptionsBuilder()
			.WithTcpServer(server)
			.WithCredentials(username, password)
			.WithClientId(clientId)
			.WithTls()
			.Build();

		mqttClient.Disconnected += MqttClient_Disconnected;
		mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions).Wait();

		// Adafruit.IO format for topics which are called feeds
		string topic = string.Empty;

		if (args.Length == 5)
		{
			topic = $"{args[1]}/feeds/{feedname}";
		}

		if (args.Length == 6)
		{
			topic = $"{args[1]}/feeds/{groupname}.{feedname}";
		}

		while (true)
		{
			string value = "22." + DateTime.UtcNow.Millisecond.ToString();
			Console.WriteLine($"Topic:{topic} Value:{value}");

			var message = new MqttApplicationMessageBuilder()
				.WithTopic(topic)
				.WithPayload(value)
				.WithQualityOfServiceLevel(MQTTnet.Protocol.MqttQualityOfServiceLevel.AtLeastOnce)
				.WithRetainFlag()
				.Build();

			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync start");
			mqttClient.PublishAsync(message).Wait();
			Console.WriteLine("PublishAsync finish");

			Thread.Sleep(30100);
		}
	}

	private static async void MqttClient_Disconnected(object sender, MqttClientDisconnectedEventArgs e)
	{
		Debug.WriteLine("Disconnected");
		await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));

		try
		{
			await mqttClient.ConnectAsync(mqttOptions);
		}
		catch (Exception ex)
		{
			Debug.WriteLine("Reconnect failed {0}", ex.Message);
		}
	}
}

For this PoC I used the MQTTnet package which is available via NuGet. It appeared to be reasonably well supported and has had recent updates.

Overall the process went pretty well, I found that looking at the topic names in the Adafruit IO feed setup screens helped a lot. A couple of times I was tripped up by mixed case in my text fields.

.Net Core 2 client with group name
Adafruit IO feed setup with group name
Console client without group name
Adafruit IO feed setup without group name

I am also going to try building some clients with the Eclipse Paho project .net client so I can compare a couple of different libraries.