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Getting Started with a Raspberry PI

Zerynth Device Manager can be used for managing both microcontroller and microprocessor based devices. Let's see how to use a microprocessor based device like the Raspberry PI with the ZDM.

ZDM Client Python Library

If your device is powerful enough to run the standard Python distribution, the ZDM Client Python Library is what you need.

The latest stable version of the ZDM-Client Python Library is available on PyPI.

This step requires that you have the latest Python version with pip.

In order to install the ZDM-Client Python Library, type the following command in a shell

pip install zdm-client-py

Note

If you have an old version of the ZDM-Client Python Library, type the command to update to the latest version

Create an account

Register or login to the ZDM. The first time you access the ZDM, a default workspace and a default fleet are created for you. Workspaces and fleets are ways of organizing your devices in the ZDM. Open the workspace by clicking on it.

Create a device

Having accessed the workspace, it's time to create your first device! Go to the Devices tab in the workspace page, then click on the Add device button. In the popup you can provide a human readable name for the device and choose the fleet it will live in. For now, just accept the default by clicking on the Add button.

Once the device is created, it needs a set of credentials to access the ZDM endpoints in a secure way. Choosing credentials types and the security level can be a daunting task. Luckily the ZDM presents you a popup with sensible defaults. Just press the OK button and you get a medium level of security just out of the box.

Once credentials are ready, you can download them into a zdevice.json file. Keep it around, you will need it shortly.

Publish data

You can now use the ZDM-Client Python libraty for connecting your CPU based device to the ZDM and stream your data.

Create a new Python project with your preferred editor and paste the zdevice.json file inside it. Create a Python file zdm_basic.py and paste this simple code into it:

import zdm
import random
import time

def pub_temp_hum():
    # this function publish into the tag weather two random values: the temperature and the humidity
    tag = 'weather'
    temp = random.randint(19, 38)
    hum = random.randint(50, 70)
    payload = {'temp': temp, 'hum': hum}
    device.publish(payload, tag)
    print('Published: ', payload)


# connect to the ZDM using credentials in zdevice.json file
device = zdm.ZDMClient()
device.connect()

# infinite loop
while True:
    pub_temp_hum()
    time.sleep(5)

To run the above code, just type the command:

python zdm_basic.py

It will connect to the ZDM and start publishing data!

Inspect the device

You can now go back to the ZDM and check the incoming data stream. Open the device page by clicking on the my_new_device. There is a lot of information on this page but you can ignore most of it for now and just check the incoming messages in the data widget.

...and we are done!

Click here if you want to see more examples like this one.