Adding the RS40 Occupancy Sensor to an IoT Central Dashboard

This article describes how to add your RS40 Occupancy Sensor to an IoT Central Dashboard.

Prerequisites:

1. Verify the RS40 is online

First we will confirm your RS-40 is online and paired with the gateway. Make sure it is near the Cascade-500W (within 50 feet). From your IoT Central application, select Devices from the left menu, and select "Flic Button". This will bring up a list of devices.

 

Click on the RS40 Occupancy Sensor that appears in the list. If no devices appear in the list, try repairing it with the gateway and verify it is within range. By default, a chart will appear showing the history of count, average motion events, and occupancy status:

 

You should see some data beginning to populate the chart, and you can also rename the device here.

Tip: if you paired multiple RS40 occupancy sensors before renaming them and can't tell them apart, simply place one of them in a box or drawer and match it to the chart that shows zero counts.

Once you verify the RS40 is online, you are ready to add the device to your dashboard.

2. Add the RS40 to your IoT Central application dashboard

Start by selecting Dashboard on the left menu. When you provisioned your IoT Central Application, a sample dashboard was created with placeholders for your sensor data. It may look something like this:

The tile placement and contents are very customizable.  For more information about adding and customizing IoT Central dashboard tiles, see this article.

Example - Traffic Counting

In this example, we want to use the RS40 to track the number of people that pass through an area. To do this, click "edit" at the top of the dashboard window. This will make the dashboard editable, allowing you to move/remove/add tiles:

Now, you can remove unwanted tiles and add the RS40:

  • In the left menu, under Device template select "RS40 Occupancy Sensor"
  • Under Device instance, select the particular sensor you saw in step 1.
  • Under Telemetry, check the "Motion Count" box.
  • Click "Add Tile" at the bottom of the menu and it will add the tile to the dashboard.
  • The default chart type is a Line chart, which works well for displaying movement event counts. Alternatively, Heatmap is a useful view as well.  The default time view is 30 minutes, which you may wish to change. Within the tile, click the small ruler icon to bring up visualization options for alternate views.  To change the time view click the small gear and change the time range in the drop down.  Change the Title to "Traffic Count" and click "Update".
  • Finally, click "Save" at the top of the dashboard. You should now see the button press tile in the body of the dashboard.

This tile will now update the number of motion detected events detected over a 30 second time interval.

Example - Occupancy Detection

In this example, we want to use the RS40 to track the occupancy of a space.  This could be used for real time status or historical utilization metrics. To do this, click "edit" at the top of the dashboard window like we did above for the traffic counting example. This will make the dashboard editable, allowing you to move and add tiles:

Now, you can and add a new RS40 tile:

  • In the left menu, under Device template select "RS40 Occupancy Sensor"
  • Under Device instance, select the particular sensor you saw in step 1.
  • Under Telemetry, check the "Occupancy State" box.
  • Click "Add Tile" at the bottom of the menu and it will add the tile to the dashboard.
  • The default chart type is a line chart, but for Occupancy State it is more helpful to see the actual state. Within the tile, click the small ruler icon to bring up visualization options and select "Last Known Value."  Change the Title to "Occupancy State" and click "Update".  Alternatively, a pie chart works well for utilization visualization.  You can change the time view in the properties view of that tile if desired.
  • Finally, click "Save" at the top of the dashboard. You should now see the button press tile in the body of the dashboard.

Next up: Creating Alerts for the RS40 Occupancy Sensor.