Get Started with Microsoft Azure IoT Starter Kit - SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit (Arduino-compatible)

Note: this article has been archived and it is not longer updated. Instructions may not be totally up to date.

Looking for something simple? This tutorial is very complete and contains a lot of detail. If you want something quick and simple, try one of these:

• Azure IoT HTTP protocol sample
• Azure IoT MQTT protocol sample

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  This page contains technical information to help you get familiar with Azure IoT using the Azure IoT Starter Kit - SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit (Arduino-compatible). You will find two tutorials that will walk you through different scenarios. The first tutorial will show you how to connect your Azure IoT Starter kit to our Remote Monitoring preconfigured solution from Azure IoT Suite. In the second tutorial, you will leverage Azure IoT services to create your own IoT solution.

You can choose to start with whichever tutorial you want to. If you've never worked with Azure IoT services before, we encourage you to start with the Remote Monitoring solution tutorial, because all of the Azure services will be provisioned for you in a built-in preconfigured solution. Then you can explore how each of the services work by going through the second tutorial.

We hope you enjoy the tutorials! Please provide feedback if there's anything that we can improve.

Don't have a kit yet?: Click here

• Running a Simple Remote Monitoring Solution with the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit
• Using Microsoft Azure IoT to Process and Use Sensor Data to Indicate Abnormal Temperatures

• 1.1 Tutorial Overview
• 1.2 Before Starting
  • 1.2.1 Required Software
  • 1.2.2 Required Hardware
• 1.3 Create a New Azure IoT Suite Remote Monitoring solution and Add Device
• 1.4 Connect the DHT22 Sensor Module to your Device
• 1.5 Add the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the Arduino IDE
• 1.6 Install Library Dependencies
• 1.7 Modify the Remote Monitoring Sample
• 1.8 Build Your Remote Monitoring Sample
• 1.9 View the Sensor Data from the Remote Monitoring Portal
• 1.10 Next steps

• Log in to Azure IoT Suite with your Microsoft account and click Create a New Preconfigured Solution

Note: For first time users, click here to get your Azure free trial which gives you 200USD of credit to get started.

• Click select in the Remote Monitoring option
• Type in a solution name. For this tutorial we’ll be using “SparkFunSuite” (You will have to name it something else. Make it unique. I.E. "ContosoSample")

Note: Make sure to copy down the names and connection strings mentioned into a text document for reference later.

• Choose your subscription and desired region to deploy, then click Create Solution
• Wait for Azure to finish provisioning your IoT suite (this process may take up to 10 minutes), and then click Launch

Note: You may be asked to log back in. This is to ensure your solution has proper permissions associated with your account.

• Open the link to your IoT Suite’s “Solution Dashboard.” You may have been redirected there already.
• This opens your personal remote monitoring site at the URL <Your Azure IoT Hub suite name>.azurewebsites.net (e.g. SparkFunSuite.azurewebsites.net)
• Click Add a Device at the lower left hand corner of your screen
• Add a new custom device
• Enter your desired device ID. In this case we’ll use _“SparkFun_wDHT22”, and then click Check ID
• If Device ID is available, go ahead and click Create
• Make note of your device ID, Device Key, and IoT Hub Hostname to enter into the code you’ll run on your device later 

Warning: The Remote Monitoring solution provisions a set of Azure IoT Services in your Azure account. It is meant to reflect a real enterprise architecture and thus its Azure consumption is quite heavy. To avoid unnecessary Azure consumption, we recommend you delete the preconfigured solution in azureiotsuite.com once you are done with your work (since it is easy to recreate). Alternatively, if you want to keep it up and running you can do two things to reduce consumption:

1) Visit this guide to run the solution in demo mode and reduce the Azure consumption.

2) Disable the simulated devices created with the solution (Go to Devices>>Select the device>> on the device details menu on the right, clich on Disable Device. Repeat with all the simulated devices).

3) Stop your remote monitoring solution while you are working on the next steps. (See: Troubleshooting)

• For additional reference, refer to the following:
  • https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/iot-suite-remote-monitoring-sample-walkthrough/
  • https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/iot-suite-connecting-devices/

• Using this image as a reference, connect your DHT22 and SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the breadboard

Note: Column on the left corresponds to sensor and on the Right to board. On the image, the board is place between 10 and 30 and sensor between 1 and 9.

• For sensor pins, we will use the following wiring:

• For more information, see: Adafruit DHT22 sensor setup.

At the end of your work, your SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit should be connected with a working sensor. We'll test it in the next sections.

• Follow the instructions up to the end of "Setting Up Arduino" here. There you will see how to add a URL pointing to SparkFun's repository of board extensions, how to make the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit board selectable under the Tools menu, and how to get the Blink sketch to run.

Note: Make sure that you select "SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev" and NOT "SparkFun ESP8266 Thing" in the Arduino IDE (under Tools -> Board)

• After going through this, you should have a working sample with a blinking light on your board.
  • If you can’t upload the sample, reconnect the device, then the power switch to OFF. Press the upload button, and flip the switch back to ON.

The Adafruit Sensor library is also needed. This can be downloaded here. Instructions for manually installing a library can be found here.

Note: Starting on version 1.0.17, AzureIoTHub required the AzureIoTUtility and one of the available protocols. These samples use the AzureIoTProtocol_MQTT, but it is prepared to work with AzureIoTProtocol_HTTP too.

• Unzip the example code, and double-click the file remote_monitoring.ino to open the project in the Arduino IDE.
• You will be prompted to creat a folder. Do this, and move the other files in the folder into the newly created child folder
• In the project, edit the iot_configs.h, look for the following lines of code:

#define IOT_CONFIG_WIFI_SSID            "<Your WiFi network SSID or name>"
#define IOT_CONFIG_WIFI_PASSWORD        "<Your WiFi network WPA password or WEP key>"

• Replace the placeholders with your WiFi name (SSID), WiFi password, and the device connection string you created at the beginning of this tutorial. 
• Look for the following line of code and replace the placeholders connection information (this is the Device information that you obtained in the Remote Monitoring console):

#define IOT_CONFIG_CONNECTION_STRING    "HostName=<host_name>.azure-devices.net;DeviceId=<device_id>;SharedAccessKey=<device_key>"

• Save with Control-s

Note: Make sure you delete or stop your remote monitoring solution once you have completed this to avoid unnecessary Azure consumption! (See: Troubleshooting)

Please visit our Azure IoT Dev Center for more samples and documentation on Azure IoT.

• 2.1 Tutorial Overview
• 2.2 Before Starting
  • 2.2.1 Required Software
  • 2.2.2 Required Hardware
• 2.3 Connect the Sensor Module to your Device
• 2.4 Create a New Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and Add Device
• 2.5 Create an Event Hub
• 2.6 Create a Storage Account for Table Storage
• 2.7 Create a Stream Analytics job to Save IoT Data in Table Storage and Raise Alerts
• 2.8 Node Application Setup
• 2.9 Add the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the Arduino IDE
• 2.10 Install Library Dependencies
• 2.11 Modify the Command Center Sample
• 2.12 Build Your Command Center Sample
• 2.13 Next steps

• Git - For cloning the required repositories
• Node.js - For the Node application, we will go over this later.
• Arduino IDE, version 1.6.8. (Earlier versions will not work with the Azure IoT library)
• Sensor interface from Adafruit

• Using this image as a reference, connect your DHT22 and SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit to the breadboard

Note: Column on the left corresponds to sensor and on the Right to board. On the image, the board is place between 10 and 30 and sensor between 1 and 9. Additionally, when counting the - pins, start from the right and count in, as these do not align with the numbers indicated on the board.

Note: The resistors can change a little from one kit to another, e.g. it can be 330 Ohm (orange, orange, brown) or 560 Ohm (green, blue, brown). Both will work with success.

• For more information, see: Adafruit DHT22 sensor setup.

At the end of your work, your SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit should be connected with a working sensor. We'll test it in the next sections.

• To create your Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and add a device, follow the instructions outlined in the Setup IoT Hub Microsoft Azure Iot SDK page.
• After creating your device, make note of your connection string to enter into the code you’ll run on your device later

Note: Make sure to copy down the names and connection strings mentioned into a text document for reference later.

• Log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal
• Click on New -> Internet of Things-> Event Hub
• Enter the following settings for the Event Hub Namespace (use a name of your choice for the event hub and the namespace):
  • Name: Your choice (we chose SparkFun2Suite)
  • Pricing Tier: Basic
  • Subscription: Your choice
  • Resource Group: Your choice
  • Location: Your choice
• Click on Create
• Wait until the Event Hub Namespace is created, and then create an Event Hub using the following steps:
  • Click on your SparkFun2Suite Event Hub Namespace (or pick any other name that you used)
  • Click the Add Event Hub
  • Name: thingdevEventHub
• Click on Create
• Wait until the new Event Bus is created
• Click on the Event Hubs arrow in the Overview tab (might require a few clicks, until the UI is updated)
• Select the thingdevEventHub eventhub and go in the Configure tab in the Shared Access Policies section, add a new policy:
  • Name = readwrite
  • Permissions = Send, Listen
• Click Save at the bottom of the page, then click the Dashboard tab near the top and click on Connection Information at the bottom
• Copy down the connection string for the readwrite policy you created.
• From the your IoT Hub Settings (The Resource that has connected dots) on the Microsoft Azure Portal, click the Messaging blade (found in your settings), write down the Event Hub-compatible name
• Look at the Event-hub-compatible Endpoint, and write down this part: sb://thispart.servicebus.windows.net/ we will call this one the IoTHub EventHub-compatible namespace

• Log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal
• In the menu, click New and select Data + Storage then Storage Account
  • Name: Your choice (we chose thingdevstorage)
  • Deployment model: Classic
  • Performance: Standard
  • Replication: Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS)
  • Subscription: Your choice
  • Resource Group: Your choice
  • Location: Your choice
• Once the account is created, find it in the resources blade or click on the pinned tile, go to Settings, Keys, and write down the primary connection string.

• Log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal

• In the menu, click New, then click Internet of Things, and then click Stream Analytics Job

• Enter a name for the job (We chose “SparkFunStorageJob”), a preferred region, then choose your subscription. At this stage you are also offered to create a new or to use an existing resource group. Choose the resource group you created earlier.

• Once the job is created, open your Job’s blade or click on the pinned tile, and find the section titled “Job Topology” and click the Inputs tile. In the Inputs blade, click on Add

• Enter the following settings:

  • Input Alias = TempSensors
  • Source Type = Data Stream
  • Source = IoT Hub
  • IoT Hub = SparkFun2Suite (use the name for the IoT Hub you create before)
  • Shared Access Policy Name = iothubowner
  • Shared Access Policy Key = The iothubowner primary key can be found in your IoT Hub Settings -> Shared access policies
  • IoT Hub Consumer Group = "" (leave it to the default empty value)
  • Event serialization format = JSON
  • Encoding = UTF-8

• Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Query tile (next to the Inputs tile). In the Query settings blade, type in the below query and click Save:

SELECT
    DeviceId,
    EventTime,
    MTemperature as TemperatureReading
INTO
    TemperatureTableStorage
from TempSensors
WHERE
   DeviceId is not null
   and EventTime is not null

SELECT
    DeviceId,
    EventTime,
    MTemperature as TemperatureReading
INTO   
    TemperatureAlertToEventHub
FROM
    TempSensors
WHERE MTemperature>25

Note: You can change the 25 to 0 when you're ready to generate alerts to look at. This number represents the temperature in degrees celsius to check for when creating alerts. 25 degrees celsius is 77 degrees fahrenheit.

• Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Outputs tile and in the Outputs blade, click on Add
• Enter the following settings then click on Create:
  • Output Alias = TemperatureTableStorage
  • Sink = Table Storage
  • Subscription = Provide table settings storage manually
  • Storage account = thingdevstorage (The storage account you created earlier)
  • Storage account key = (The primary key for the storage account made earlier, can be found in Settings -> Keys -> Primary Access Key)
  • Table Name = TemperatureRecords (Your choice - If the table doesn’t already exist, Local Storage will create it)
  • Partition Key = DeviceId
  • Row Key = EventTime
  • Batch size = 1
• Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Outputs tile, and in the Outputs blade, click on Add
• Enter the following settings then click on Create:
  • Output Alias = TemperatureAlertToEventHub
  • Sink = Event Hub
  • Subscription = Provide table settings storage manually
  • Service Bus Namespace = SparkFun2Suite
  • Event Hub Name = thingdeveventhub (The Event Hub you made earlier)
  • Event Hub Policy Name = readwrite
  • Event Hub Policy Key = Primary Key for readwrite Policy name (That's the one you wrote down after creating the event hub)
  • Partition Key Column = 0
  • Event Serialization format = JSON
  • Encoding = UTF-8
  • Format = Line separated
• Back in the Stream Analytics blade, start the job by clicking on the Start button at the top

Note: Make sure to stop your Command Center jobs once you have when you take a break or finish to avoid unnecessary Azure consumption! (See: Troubleshooting)

• If you do not have it already, install Node.js and NPM.
  • Windows and Mac installers can be found here: https://nodejs.org/en/download/
    • Ensure that you select the options to install NPM and add to your PATH.
  • Linux users can use the commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm

• Additionally, make sure you have cloned the project repository locally by issuing the following command in your desired directory:

git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/iot-hub-c-thingdev-getstartedkit.git

• Open the command_center_node folder in your command prompt (cd <path to locally cloned repro>/command_center_node) and install the required modules by running the following:

npm install -g bower
npm install
bower install

• Open the config.json file and replace the information with your project. See the following for instructions on how to retrieve those values.

  • eventhubName:
    • Open the Classic Azure Management Portal
    • Open the Service Bus namespace you created earlier
    • Switch to the EVENT HUBS page
    • You can see and copy the name of your event hub from that page
  • ehConnString:
    • Click on the name of the event hub from above to open it
    • Click on the "CONNECTION INFORMATION" button along the bottom.
    • From there, click the button to copy the readwrite shared access policy connection string.
  • deviceConnString:
    • Use the information on the Manage IoT Hub to retrieve your device connection string using either the Device Explorer or iothub-explorer tools.
  • iotHubConnString:
    • In the Azure Portal
    • Open the IoT Hub you created previously.
    • Open the "Settings" blade
    • Click on the "Shared access policies" setting
    • Click on the "service" policy
    • Copy the primary connection string for the policy
  • storageAccountName:
    • In the Azure Portal
    • Open the classic Storage Account you created previously to copy its name
  • storageAccountKey:
    • Click on the name of the storage account above to open it
    • Click the "Settings" button to open the Settings blade
    • Click on the "Keys" setting
    • Click the button next to the "PRIMARY ACCESS KEY" top copy it
  • storageTableName:
    • This must match the name of the table that was used in the Stream Analytics table storage output above.
    • If you used the instructions above, you would have named it TemperatureRecords
    • If you named it something else, enter the name you used instead.

{
    "port": "3000",
    "eventHubName": "event-hub-name",
    "ehConnString": "Endpoint=sb://name.servicebus.windows.net/;SharedAccessKeyName=readwrite;SharedAccessKey=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa=",
    "deviceId": "iot-hub-device-name",
    "iotHubConnString": "HostName=iot-hub-name.azure-devices.net;SharedAccessKeyName=service;SharedAccessKey=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa=",
    "storageAcountName": "aaaaaaaaaaa",
    "storageAccountKey": "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa==",
    "storageTable": "TemperatureRecords"
}

• Now it is time to run it! Enter the following command:

node server.js

• You should then see something similar to:

app running on http://localhost:3000
client connected

• Visit the url in your browser and you will see the Node app running!

To deploy this project to the cloud using Azure, you can reference Creating a Node.js web app in Azure App Service.

Next, we will update your device so that it can interact with all the things you just created.

• Follow the instructions here: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/esp8266-thing-development-board-hookup-guide. There you will see how to add a URL pointing to Spark's repository of board extensions, how to make the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Kit board selectable under the Tools menu, and how to get the Blink sketch to run.
• After going through this, you should have a working sample with a blinking light on your board.
  • If you can’t upload the sample, reconnect the device, then the power switch to OFF. Press the upload button, and flip the switch back to ON.

The Adafruit Sensor library is also needed. This can be downloaded here. Instructions for manually installing a library can be found here.

static const char ssid[] = "[Your WiFi network SSID or name]";
static const char pass[] = "[Your WiFi network WPA password or WEP key]";
static const char* connectionString = "[Device Connection String]";

static const char DeviceId[] = "[Device Name]";
static const char connectionString[] = "[Device Connection String]";

Note: Make sure to stop your Command Center jobs once you have when you finish to avoid unnecessary Azure consumption! (See: Troubleshooting)

Please visit our Azure IoT Dev Center for more samples and documentation on Azure IoT.

Troubleshooting

Stopping Provisioned Services

• In the Microsoft Azure Portal
  • Click on "All Resources"
  • For each Stream Analytics and Web App resource:
    • Click on the resource and click the "Stop" button in the new blade that appears
  • For each IoT Hub resource:
    • Click on the resource and click the "Devices" button in the new blade that appears
    • Click on each device in the list and click the "Disable" button that appears in the new blade at the bottom

Data is not showing up in the Node.js application

In this section we will explain how to see the data flowing from the Arduino application to the Node.js application:

• Arduino application: In the Arduino IDE go to Tools -> Serial Monitor
• IoT Hub: Use Device Explorer
• Azure Storage Table: Use Azure Storage Explorer