Telemetry2U - Helium Integration Guide
This document is intended as a walk-through guide to connect a Dragino LHT65 Temperature and Humidity sensor to Telemetry2U over the Helium Network on the AU915 frequency plan. The LHT65 is used in this example, but the same steps will work for just about any LoRaWAN device.
Prerequisites
- A Telemetry2U account on a 14-day free trial or a paid subscription. Refer to the T2U Quick Guide to help get up and running.
- An active account on the Helium Console.
- A Dragino LHT65 (or any other LoRaWAN device) running the latest firmware with a USB-Serial converter required to configure the device.
- You are within range of the Helium Network.
Configuring the Dragino LHT65
Before we can begin, you’ll need to manually connect to the LHT65 via a terminal program such as RealTerm or PuTTy. There’s plenty of information already available in the LHT65 user manual on how to do this so it will not be covered in detail here. In summary, connect the LHT65 to your PC via a USB-Serial converter and start a connection with the device at 9600bps. Once connected, you need to send the password 123456. If everything has been successful so far, you should be able to send the command AT+CFG to retrieve all the device settings.
The Helium network uses 8 channels on sub band 2 (SB2) on the AU915 frequency plan. By default, the LHT65 uses all 64 channels and must be configured manually to use SB2 or the connection will be intermittent. To do so, send the command AT+CHE=2. You’ll be prompted to reset the device which can be done with the command ATZ or by holding in the button for 5-seconds. You may like to take the opportunity to change some other settings like the ADR and message confirmations. By default, ADR is turned on and confirmations turned off.
Once you have configured the settings, send the command AT+CFG and confirm that all the settings have been set correctly. Take a copy of the DEUI, APPEUI and APPKEY as these settings will be required to add the device to both the Helium Console as well as Telemetry2U. Dragino give these details on the devices box label but it’s easier to take a digital copy here.
Adding the device to Telemetry2U
Log in to Telemetry2U and navigate to Admin >> Node Maintenance and hit the Create New link in the top left corner. Give the device a unique name in the Description field and select AU915 as the Profile (or what every best matches your local helium network). Enter the Device EUI retrieved from the device earlier (or from the box sticker) and select Helium as the Network Provider. Lastly, select the Device Configuration, in this case, Dragino LHT65 Temperature Sensor V1.5.
Note:
If the Device Configuration required isn’t in the Device Configuration list, create your own Payload Decoder and Downlink Commands as described in Sections 6.4.4 – 5 in our comprehensive user giude.
Click the Create button at the bottom of the page when complete.
Adding LoRaWAN device to the Helium Console
Before adding a LoRaWAN device to the Helium Console, it’s a good idea to first create a profile since it's required when setting up a device. The profile ultimately determines if the device will use an Adaptive Date Rate (ADR) as well as the Rx1 window.
Keep the Telemetry2U tab open and log into the Helium Console on a new tab. Use the side menu to navigate to Profiles and click the button to Add New Profile. Give the profile a unique Profile Name. If you left ADR turned on when you configured the device, check the Allow ADR box. Unless you’re using the US915 band, leave the Enable Join Request turned Off. By default, the Set Delay before Rx1 Window is set to 1 second. Telemetry2U recommends changing this to 2-seconds to improve downlink reliability.
From the Helium Console, use the side menu to navigate to Devices and click the Add New Device button. Give the new device a unique Name and enter the Dev EUI, APP EUI and App Key that you captured in terminal earlier (or from the devices box sticker). All keys must be entered with no spaces in between. Click the Save Device button at the bottom of the page when complete. It takes about 15-30 minutes for Helium to verify the device during which time you will notice that the device is "Pending".
Creating an integration between Helium and Telemetry2U
Go back to the Telemetry2U tab and navigate to Admin >> Setup Integration. Select Helium as the Network Provider and hit the Add Integration button.
From the Helium tab, use the side menu to navigate to Integrations and click the New Integration button at the top of the page. From the Add A Custom Integration options at the bottom, select HTTP. The Endpoint URL must be entered and can be found on the Telemetry2U integration page (https://telemetry2u.com/api/Helium).
A single HTTP Header must be added. Use Authorization as the Key and copy the Value from Telemetry2U integration page, it will start with the word Basic followed by around 100 characters. Hit the Add Header button when complete. Name your Integration and hit the Add Integration button.
You'll be taken to a new page with the integration details.
Copy the Downlink URL from Helium into the Downlink URL section on Telemetry2U and hit the Save button.
Configuring a Flow in Helium
In order for the data to be displayed in Telemetry2U, you will need to configure a Flow in Helium.
Use the side menu to Navigate to the Flows page. Use the top menu to add both a Device and an Integration. Simply drag them on to the main screen. The device(s) can be linked to the integration by pressing the mouse button on the round connector on the device and dragging it across to the connector circle on the integration while holding the mouse button.
Confirm the Helium Integration is working
Congratulations. The Helium integration with Telemetry2U is now complete.
If all has been successful, you should be able to navigate to the Reports page in Telemetry2U to check if you are receiving any data.
Note:
You can select the Raw Data option if you want to check the Data Rate. It usually takes around 10 records for the ADR to kick in. Raw Data can also be used to confirm that a sensor is sending in OK if no profile was selected during the device setup on Telemetry2U.
Alternatively, navigate to the Devices page in the Helium Console and view the device statistics. Check the Helium Documentation for more details on how to do this.
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