Notecard Quickstart: Notecard Simulator

Introduction

This tutorial should take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

This guide will introduce you to the Blues ecosystem, including the Notecard, Notecarrier, and Notehub.

Throughout this guide you'll issue a series of requests to a simulated Notecard. The simulated Notecard has the same API as a physical Notecard, and completing this tutorial allows you to see how the Notecard works without having to purchase hardware. As part of this guide you'll learn how to configure a Notecard, how to simulate sending data from sensors, and how to synchronize that data with the cloud.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a basic understanding of the process for building connected solutions with Blues. The following video provides an overview of what you'll learn.

Key Concepts to Know

Before you dive in, it's important to understand a few key concepts:

• The Notecard is a device-to-cloud data pump that reduces the complexity of building connected solutions with a secure, reliable cellular or Wi-Fi connection. It's a System-on-Module (SOM) that's ready for embedding into any project.

• Notecarriers are development boards that help you get started quickly with the Notecard. There are a variety of Notecarriers designed to fit different needs, from prototyping with a Feather-based MCU to deploying a production solution.

• Notehub is the cloud service the Notecard uses to securely send and receive data. Notehub also provides a console for fleet management and secure connectors for routing data to 3rd-party cloud applications.

• A Note is a JSON object containing developer-provided content. A Note is the primary means of sending data to/from a Notecard.

Notecard and Notehub work together to provide bidirectional wireless communication capabilities, both outbound (from your microcontroller or single-board computer to the cloud):

And inbound (from the cloud to your microcontroller or single-board computer):

Before You Begin

To complete this quickstart, make sure you have access to the following:

• An internet connection that allows access to Notehub.

Connect Your Notecard and Notecarrier

The Notecard Simulator is available through the Notecard's in-browser terminal. If the terminal isn't open already, you may open it by clicking the terminal button in the top-right corner of your browser.

Within the terminal you'll see two options, connecting to a physical Notecard ("USB Notecard"), and trying a Notecard Simulator ("Sign In" or "Notecard Simulator", depending if you are signed into Notehub or not).

Using the Notecard Simulator allocates a new, cloud-based virtual Notecard, and allows you to send requests to the virtual Notecard directly in your web browser.

To use the simulator you must have an account on the Notecard's backing cloud service, Notehub.

Set up Notehub

Notehub is a secure proxy cloud service that communicates with the Notecard, provides tooling for managing fleets of devices, allows you to perform over-the-air Notecard and host MCU firmware updates, and makes it easy for you to route data to your own cloud applications.

In this section, you'll set up a Notehub Project and create your first ProductUID. A ProductUID is the unique identifier you will use to associate a Notecard with a Notehub Project, and ensure that data from the Notecard ends up in the right location.

Create a Notehub Project

1. Sign in or sign up for Notehub using the links below.

   Create a Notehub Account

   Sign up

   Already have an account? Sign in

2. Click "Create Project" on the dashboard. In the New Project card, give your project a name and ProductUID.

   

   NOTE: The ProductUID must be globally unique. To reduce collisions, Notehub prepends a generated namespace based on your account email, for instance com.your-company.your-name:. Enter any identifier you like in the input on the right.

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

   

Set up Notecard

Now that you have a Notehub account, you're ready to get started with the Notecard Simulator. If you haven't already, click the Simulate Notecard button within the in-browser terminal.

To send your first request, copy and paste the following JSON into the in-browser terminal (click the COPY button below).

Hit Enter and you'll see a response similar to the example output.

{"req":"card.version"}

{
 "body": {
  "org": "Blues Wireless",
  "product": "Notecard",
  "version": "notecard-3.4.1",
  "ver_major": 3,
  "ver_minor": 4,
  "ver_patch": 1,
  "ver_build": 15105,
  "built": "Jul 19 2022 21:58:21"
 },
 "version": "notecard-3.4.1.15105",
 "device": "dev:default",
 "name": "Blues Wireless Notecard",
 "sku": "NOTE-SOFTCARD",
 "board": "0.0",
 "api": 3
}

The JSON response above provides version information of the firmware on the Notecard Simulator.

Now that you know how to send requests to the Notecard, let's next configure the Notecard so it knows where to send data.

To associate the Notecard with your Project in Notehub you must assign the ProductUID you created to your Notecard. A Notecard can easily be moved between Projects over time, but it can only belong to one project at a time.

To set the ProductUID, you'll start by sending a hub.set JSON request to your Notecard. Once the Notecard has finished processing your request, it will send a JSON response back to your computer to let you know that the request is complete.

An empty JSON object ({}) from the Notecard indicates a successful request. If an error occurs, the Notecard will return a JSON object with an err key and a string describing the error that occurred.

Copy and paste the following Notecard request, making sure to replace com.your-company.your-name:your_product with the ProductUID you created in the last step (click the COPY button below).

{"req":"hub.set", "product":"com.your-company.your-name:your_product"}

{}

Validate Your ProductUID and Connection

In this section, you'll validate your Notecard configuration by performing a manual sync with Notehub and then request sync status updates from the Notecard.

Start a Sync

Initiate a synchronization between the Notecard and Notehub with a hub.sync request, as shown below.

{"req":"hub.sync"}

{}

Once a sync has started, you can optionally check on the state of the sync with a hub.sync.status request. When the sync is ongoing, the response will return a status field with the current progress of the sync and a requested field with the number of seconds since the sync was initiated. You can call hub.sync.status multiple times to follow the process of your first sync if you wish.

Depending on the timing of your hub.sync.status requests, your responses may differ from what is displayed here:

{"req":"hub.sync.status"}

{
  "status": "starting communications {wait-module} {connecting}",
  "requested": 2
}
...
{
  "status": "modem now ON {modem-on}",
  "requested": 6
}
...
{
  "status": "waiting for wireless service 6 sec [+---] {cell-registration-wait}",
  "requested": 12
}

Once the sync has completed, the response to hub.sync.status includes the UNIX Epoch time of the last sync, and the number of seconds since the last completed sync.

{"req":"hub.sync.status"}

{
 "time": 1615585299,
 "completed": 4
}

You should now be able to return to Notehub, refresh the Devices page, and see that a device has been added to your project:

{"req":"hub.sync.status"}

{
  "status": "opening notehub: no project was found with product UID product:com.your-company.your-name:your_product {product-noexist} {notehub-open-failure}",
  "requested": 10
}
...
{
  "status": "can't open notehub: opening notehub: no project was found with product UID product:com.your-company.your-name:your_product {product-noexist} {notehub-open-failure}",
  "requested": 11
}

You're doing great! You have now configured your Notecard and are ready to send Notes to your Notehub Project!

Queue Notes to Your Notecard

In this section, you will add Notes simulating sensor data to your Notecard. Imagine your Notecard is connected to a Host MCU that reads temperature and humidity information from a sensor. Your sample data might look like this: {"temp":35.5,"humid":56.23}.

Copy and paste the following request into the Notecard Terminal, then press Enter to send it to the Notecard.

{"req":"note.add","body":{"temp":35.5,"humid":56.23}}

{"total":1}

This request will create a Note that includes your JSON body and additional metadata like creation time and location. In response, the Notecard returns a JSON object indicating the total number of Notes ready to sync to Notehub. You won't see your Note in Notehub just yet, because the Notecard queues your Notes until it is time to sync them to the cloud.

Excellent work! You have queued your first Note to the Notecard!

Send Notes from Notecard to Notehub

In this section, you'll perform another sync to send your Note to Notehub. As before, you can manually initiate a sync by entering the following JSON request in the in-browser terminal:

{"req":"hub.sync"}

{}

Behind the scenes, your Notecard will again search for a network connection and connect to Notehub. Once the connection is made, the Notecard uploads your Note and closes the connection. As before, you can use hub.sync.status to monitor your in-progress sync:

{"req":"hub.sync.status"}

{
  "status": "begin (anything pending) {sync-begin}",
  "requested": 1
}
...
{
  "status": "upload data.qo (1 changes) {sync-get-local-changes}",
  "requested": 2
}
...
{
  "status": "completed {sync-end}",
  "requested": 4
}

By default, the Notecard places Notes in a Notefile called data.qo. The .qo extension means that the file is an "outbound queue," or a queue that originates on the Notecard and is synchronized with Notehub.

Great work! Your Note has now been transferred from the Notecard to the cloud and stored in your Notehub project!

note

The Notecard is a low-power device (consuming only ~8uA when idle) and is built to be continuously powered. This is important to know because certain features of the Notecard require the current time, which is established upon the Notecard successfully connecting to a cellular network upon startup.

View Notes on Notehub

In this section, you'll learn how to view and interact with your Note on Notehub.

Navigate to Notehub.io.

You will see your project dashboard:

Click on the card with your Project, and the device dashboard for your Project will load. You'll see your Notecard in the Devices list.

Click Events in the left-side navigation. In the Events list, you should see your Note in the list with a simulated sensor reading body. Your Note will be listed in the table, along with other session and environment-specific events sent automatically by the Notecard.

It's that simple, your product and data are now online!

Send Notes from Notehub to Notecard

It's important to remember that communication between the Notecard and Notehub is bi-directional, both outbound (from the Notecard to the cloud, as documented above) and inbound (from the cloud to the Notecard).

While not part of the quickstart, you can learn more about inbound data syncing in the Notehub Walkthrough.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You've now queued sensor data on a Notecard and sent that data to the cloud!

If you're ready to get started with a physical Notecard, check out the Blues Starter Kits in our shop.

If you're following the Blues Quickstart, next we recommend setting up your microcontroller:

1. Use the Notecard to Send Data
2. Set Up Your Microcontroller
3. Build Your First IoT App With Blues
4. Send Data to Your Cloud

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