Wiring), Adafruit Feather M4 Express, and Notecarrier-A

Get started with:

and

Don't see your favorite hardware here? Rest assured the Notecard works with virtually every MCU and SBC available. If you can't figure out how to complete this tutorial let us know in our forum and we can help you out.

Introduction

This tutorial should take approximately 40-50 minutes to complete.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to take sensor readings from a Device and send readings to your Notecard and the Blues Notehub. You'll use C/C++ (Arduino/Wiring) running on a Adafruit Feather M4 Express wired up to Notecarrier-A hardware. If you would like to use a different language, board, or Notecarrier, modify the dropdowns at the top of this guide. And if you get stuck at any point, the full source code for each example is available on GitHub.

The tutorial uses mock sensor readings for simplicity, but feel free to hook up a physical sensor of your choice and use that instead.

Set up Hardware

First, you'll need to get all of your hardware connected. Follow the instructions below to connect your Adafruit Feather M4 Express and Notecard mounted on a Notecarrier-A.

In order to complete this guide, you'll need the following:

Notecard mounted to Notecarrier-A.

Any Arduino-capable Microcontroller (MCU) with Feather headers. We'll be using the Adafruit Feather M4 Express, but any Feather that can be programmed with the Arduino IDE will do.

Micro USB to USB-A cable.

note

For this tutorial, you'll be powering the Notecard through the Micro USB connection of your Adafruit Feather M4 Express. Some Feather-compatible devices cannot handle 2 Amp pulses from the Notecard when connected to GSM, so if you experience resets or other power-related issues, we suggest powering your Notecard separately through the USB or LiPo connector on the Notecarrier.

Connect the MCU to your Notecard

Now, let's connect your Notecard using a Serial connection.

Connect V+ from the Notecarrier-A to the USB pin on your Adafruit Feather M4 Express.
Connect GND from the Notecarrier-A to a GND pin on your Adafruit Feather M4 Express.
Connect TX from the Notecarrier-A to the RX pin on your Adafruit Feather M4 Express.
Connect RX from the Notecarrier-A to the TX pin on your Adafruit Feather M4 Express.

Create a Notehub Project

Now that your hardware is all connected, let's create a new Notehub project to receive sensor readings from your Notecard.

Navigate to notehub.io and log-in, or create a new account.
Using the New Project card, give your project a name and ProductUID.

NOTE: The ProductUID must be globally unique, so we recommend a namespaced name like "com.your-company.your-name:your_product".

Take note of your ProductUID. This identifier is used by Notehub to associate your Notecard to your project.

Write Firmware

Configure the Arduino IDE

For this portion of the guide, we'll be using the Arduino IDE, so be sure to install version 2.0+ if you haven't already.

Once installed, we'll need to add support for your Adafruit Feather M4 Express Board.

Configure the Arduino Boards Manager to use the Feather M4 Express

Start the Arduino IDE and open the Preferences menu.
Copy the following path https://adafruit.github.io/arduino-board-index/package_adafruit_index.json into the "Additional Board Manager URLs" field. If there's already something in the box, then add a comma to separate the URLs.
Click OK, then open the Boards Manager from the Tools > Board: [board name] > Boards Manager... menu.
Before installing support for Adafruit SAMD boards (like the Feather M4), you'll need to install Arduino SAMD drivers. Search for "Arduino SAMD" and click the Install button to add Arduino SAMD Boards (32-bits ARM Cortex-M0+) support to the Arduino IDE.
Next, search for "Adafruit SAMD" and click the Install button to add Adafruit SAMD Boards to the Arduino IDE.
Once the installation is complete, click the Close button.
Plug Feather device in, select **Adafruit Feather M4 Express (SAMD51) ** from the Tools > Board menu, and select the appropriate Port for your device.

Communicating With Your Notecard

When communicating with the Notecard, you can manually send requests using the Serial.println function and passing-in JSON objects, or use the note-arduino library. The code snippets below show how to use note-arduino. You can refer to this article for more information on communicating with the Notecard without a library.

Install the Notecard Arduino Library

To use the note-arduino library, you'll need to add it to the Arduino IDE.
Click on Tools > Manage Libraries...
Search for "Blues" in the input box and click the "Install" button next to the "Blues Wireless Notecard" result.
Create a new sketch and select the Sketch > Include Library > Contributed Libraries > Blues Wireless Notecard menu option, to add the following include to your sketch:
Arduino
```
#include <Notecard.h>
```

Write Code

First, let's alias the Serial interfaces at the top of your program in the Arduino IDE. The first, Serial will be used to log information to the Serial Monitor of the Arduino IDE. The second, Serial1 represents the connection between your Arduino and Notecard. Paste the following code at the top of your sketch:
Arduino
```
#define usbSerial Serial
#define txRxPinsSerial Serial1
```
Next, add a definition for your ProductUID using the value you specified when creating your Notehub project.
Arduino
```
#define NOTE_PRODUCT_UID "com.your-company.your-name:your_product"
```
Above the setup() and loop() functions, declare a global object to represent the Notecard.
Arduino
```
Notecard notecard;
```

In the setup() function, initialize the usbSerial object.

Arduino

usbSerial.begin(115200);
while (!usbSerial) {
    ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB
}
usbSerial.println("Starting...");

Next, initialize the serial connection to the Notecard using the begin() function. Then, use setDebugOutputStream() link the debug output to usbSerial with the following code:
Arduino
```
notecard.begin(txRxPinsSerial, 9600);
notecard.setDebugOutputStream(usbSerial);
```
Now, we'll configure the Notecard. This one-time operation, also belongs in the setup() function. We will use the hub.set request to associate this Notecard with the ProductUID of your project, as well as set the Notecard to operate in continuous mode (indicating the device should immediately make a connection to Notehub and keep it active).
Arduino
```
J *req = notecard.newRequest("hub.set");
if (req != NULL) {
    JAddStringToObject(req, "product", NOTE_PRODUCT_UID);
    JAddStringToObject(req, "mode", "continuous");
    notecard.sendRequest(req);
}
```

The lines above build-up a JSON object by adding two string values for product and mode, and then fires the request off to the Notecard with the sendRequest() function.

Now, it's time to watch the logs and validate the firmware. Open the Serial Monitor, by selecting Tools > Serial Monitor from the menu. The default baud rate is 9600 baud, be sure to select 115200 baud from the drop down menu.
Click the upload button (right arrow icon) to save and flash the firmware to your device.

If you haven't saved your file yet, you will be prompted to do so. Name your sketch (for example, nano-with-library), and click Save. Once your device is flashed and comes back online, check the serial monitor to confirm your Notecard has been properly configured.

Read from the Sensor

Now that you've configured your Arduino to communicate with the Notecard, let's grab some pseudo sensor readings.

note

If you have your own sensor, feel free to hook it up and use your own values instead of this tutorial's mocked ones.

To generate mock sensor readings you'll use the NotecardPseudoSensor library.
Start by clicking on Tools > Manage Libraries...
Then, search for “NotecardPseudoSensor” in the input box and click the Install button next to the “Blues Wireless Notecard Pseudo Sensor” result.
Add the following include to the top of your sketch:
Arduino
```
#include <NotecardPseudoSensor.h>
```
Next, include the following namespace under your NotecardPseudoSensor includes.
Arduino
```
using namespace blues;
```
After that, create an instance of NotecardPseudoSensor with the lines of code below. Add it right under the Notecard notecard; line of code.
Arduino
```
Notecard notecard;
NotecardPseudoSensor sensor(notecard);
```

Finally, place the following code in your loop function, which generates mock temperature and humidity readings, prints them to the console, and then waits 15 seconds before exiting the loop.

Arduino

float temperature = sensor.temp();
float humidity = sensor.humidity();

usbSerial.print("Temperature = ");
usbSerial.print(temperature);
usbSerial.println(" *C");
usbSerial.print("Humidity = ");
usbSerial.print(humidity);
usbSerial.println(" %");

delay(15000);

Upload this code to your Adafruit Feather M4 Express. Open the Serial Monitor and you'll see temperature and humidity readings every 15 seconds.

Send Sensor Readings to the Notecard

Now that we're getting sensor readings, let's send these to our Notecard.

To send a sensor reading to the Notecard, we'll need to construct a new JSON request to the note.add API that includes a new Notefile name (sensors.qo), sets the sync field to true (to instruct the Notecard to sync to Notehub immediately), and finally, sets the body to the sampled temperature and humidity. Add the following to the loop() function, after the usbSerial commands used to print out the readings.
Arduino
```
J *req = notecard.newRequest("note.add");
if (req != NULL) {
   JAddStringToObject(req, "file", "sensors.qo");
   JAddBoolToObject(req, "sync", true);
   J *body = JAddObjectToObject(req, "body");
   if (body) {
      JAddNumberToObject(body, "temp", temperature);
      JAddNumberToObject(body, "humidity", humidity);
   }
   notecard.sendRequest(req);
}
```
Upload the code to your device. After rebooting, the Serial Monitor will update to display the response from the note.add request (the total number of Notes in the Notefile) each time you add a new reading.

note

Concerned about the size of note-arduino? You can communicate with the Notecard without using the library.

View Data in Notehub

Once you start capturing readings, your Notecard will initiate a connection to Notehub and will start transferring Notes. Depending on signal strength and coverage in your area, it may take a few minutes for your Notecard to connect to Notehub and transfer data.

Return to notehub.io and open your project. You should see your notecard in the Devices view.
Now, click on the Events left menu item. Once your sensor Notes start syncing, they'll show up here.

Use Environment Variables

Environment variables are a Notehub state and settings management feature that allow you to set variables in key-value pairs, and intelligently synchronize those values across devices and fleets of devices.

In this section you'll learn how environment variables work by creating a variable that determines how often your firmware should take sensor readings.

Setting an Environment Variable

Environment variables can be set in the Notehub UI or through the Notehub API. In this tutorial you'll learn how to set the values through the Notehub UI. If you'd like to instead set environment variables through the Notehub API, refer to the Environment Variable API.

Return to your Notehub project, go the the Devices page, and double click your device. You should see a screen that looks like this.
Click the Environment tab.
Under the Device environment variables header, define a new environment variable named reading_interval and set its value to 30.

Now that you have an environment variable set you're ready to use it in your app. Let's look at how that works.

Using Environment Variables in Firmware

The Notecard provides a set of requests for working with environment variables. The most common of these requests is env.get, which allows you to retrieve the value of an environment variable.

Complete the steps below to use the env.get request to retrieve and use the reading_interval environment variable you set in Notehub.

Place the following new function at the bottom of your sketch.

C/C++

// This function assumes you’ll set the reading_interval environment variable to
// a positive integer. If the variable is not set, set to 0, or set to an invalid
// type, this function returns a default value of 60.
int getSensorInterval() {
  int sensorIntervalSeconds = 60;
  J *req = notecard.newRequest("env.get");
  if (req != NULL) {
      JAddStringToObject(req, "name", "reading_interval");
      J* rsp = notecard.requestAndResponse(req);
      int readingIntervalEnvVar = atoi(JGetString(rsp, "text"));
      if (readingIntervalEnvVar > 0) {
        sensorIntervalSeconds = readingIntervalEnvVar;
      }
      notecard.deleteResponse(rsp);
  }
  return sensorIntervalSeconds;
}

Then, add this line after the #include lines at the top of the file.
C/C++
```
int getSensorInterval();
```

Next, find the delay(15000) line at the bottom of your loop() function, and replace it with the code below.

C/C++

int sensorIntervalSeconds = getSensorInterval();
usbSerial.print("Delaying ");
usbSerial.print(sensorIntervalSeconds);
usbSerial.println(" seconds");
delay(sensorIntervalSeconds * 1000);

Finally, back in setup(), adjust your existing hub.set configuration to set the sync argument to true. When sync is true, the Notecard synchronizes inbound environment variable changes as soon as they're made in Notehub.

C/C++

J *req = notecard.newRequest("hub.set");
JAddStringToObject(req, "product", productUID);
JAddStringToObject(req, "mode", "continuous");
JAddBoolToObject(req, "sync", true); // ADD THIS LINE
notecard.sendRequest(req);

With this code in place, your firmware now uses the reading_interval environment variable to determine how many seconds to delay in between sensor readings. If you flash this updated code to your device and open your serial monitor, you can see the device retrieving and using the reading_interval: 30 value you set in Notehub.

The environment screen with a new value set

And with that, you've used your first environment variable on your Notecard! To see the real power of environment variables in action, try returning to Notehub and updating your device's reading_interval with your serial monitor open. Your firmware will retrieve the updated value and start using it immediately.

note

This tutorial had you use several configuration settings are best used when you have your Notecard connected to mains power.

In the hub.set request, setting mode to "continuous" tells the Notecard to maintain an active network connection.
In the hub.set request, setting sync to true tells the Notecard to immediately synchronize inbound Notes and environment variables from Notehub.
In the note.add request, setting sync to true tells the Notecard to immediately synchronize all outbound Notes to Notehub.

Because each of these settings cause the Notecard to use more power, you may wish to disable them if you plan to transition your project to battery power. You can run the command below to put your Notecard into periodic mode with the sync argument turned off.

JSON

{
 "req": "hub.set",
 "mode": "periodic",
 "sync": false,
 "outbound": 60,
 "inbound": 120
}

Learn more about optimizing the Notecard for low-power scenarios in Low Power Design.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You've successfully connected your Adafruit Feather M4 Express to your Notecard and built a basic IoT project.

If you're following the Blues Quickstart, next we recommend learning how to send (and visualize) your data in a cloud application:

~~Use the Notecard to Send Data~~
~~Set Up Your Microcontroller~~
~~Build Your First IoT App With Blues~~
Send Data to Your Cloud

At any time, if you find yourself stuck, please reach out on the community forum.