If there is no internet connection available for the StrideLinx router, your data is not lost. The StrideLinx router will then continue logging data and can store it locally for months at a time, depending on how much data you log. This data is locally not accessible. Once the internet connection has been restored, the logged data will be sent to your MQTT broker.

• Add an MQTT broker
• Read machine data
• Log machine data
• Troubleshooting
• Frequently asked questions

Add an MQTT broker

First you'll need to set up an MQTT broker for the StrideLinx router to send data to.

2. Set up an MQTT broker.
   • You can host one yourself or run it at an online service like Azure or AWS. For instructions, please consult the service provider's documentation.
   • The MQTT broker needs to support encrypted connections. Unencrypted connections are not supported by Datalogging to MQTT broker.
   • With Azure IoT Hub, Azure Event Grid, and AWS IoT Core, the MQTT Client ID in the MQTT broker (sometimes called Device ID) needs to be equal to the StrideLinx router's public ID. You can find the StrideLinx router's public ID in the URL by going to the device in the StrideLinx Cloud Fleet Manager. For example: stridelinx.com/fleet-manager/device-configurator/mxLCEyXfR5Lx/....

Once you have an MQTT broker available, it needs to be added to the StrideLinx Cloud.

3. Go to Admin > MQTT and add a custom broker.
4. Enter the requested information (details below) and click on Confirm.

   Field	Description / instructions
   Name	Enter a name for the MQTT broker.
   Host	Enter the hostname or IP address of your MQTT broker.
   Port	Enter the port of your MQTT broker.
   CA certificate	(optional) If your MQTT broker provider also provides a CA certificate or if you added one yourself, upload it here. Publicly trusted certificates generally don't need to be uploaded manually.
   Message format	The message format determines the format of the data message sent to your MQTT broker. JSON (default) The JSON representation of the Sparkplug B payload format (example below, details in chapters 6.4.5 and 6.4.6 of the Sparkplug B specification). Less data efficient, but human readable. Note that "alias" is the "tag ID" number, which is unique for every tag. { "timestamp": 1697611645, "metrics": [{ "name": "Machine state", "alias": 124, "timestamp": 1697611511, "dataType": 13, "value": "Emergency stop" }], "seq": 2 } Sparkplug B A binary encoded message format that uses protocol buffers to (de)serialize data. More data efficient and recommended for cellular connections. The data message will need to be decoded using protocol buffers (see chapter 6.4.1 of the Sparkplug B specification below). Alternatively, online service providers may also provide a specific Sparkplug B message decoder. However, it is important to note that the actual data message format slightly deviates from the official Sparkplug B message format. More details below. The technical implementation is a variation on the payload format of the Sparkplug B specification (chapter 6.4). The main differences are that no separate birth message is sent and instead each data message includes the metrics' name and data type, as per the example above.
   Clients	The MQTT client is the authorization to communicate with your MQTT broker. Multiple clients can be added to a single MQTT broker. Supported authorization methods: no authentication (leave all fields empty), username/password, certificate, key file. Azure IoT Hub With Azure IoT Hub, the username needs to be the following format. The API version is optional, but recommended for long-term stability. Replace {IOT_HUB_HOSTNAME} and {IOT_HUB_DEVICE_ID} with your IoT Hub Hostname and Device ID. {IOT_HUB_HOSTNAME}/{IOT_HUB_DEVICE_ID}/?api-version=2021-04-12 With Azure IoT Hub, the password needs to be a SAS token, which you can generate within Azure IoT Hub. For more instructions, please consult the Azure documentation.

You have now made the changes in the StrideLinx Cloud, but these are not yet active in your device. These will automatically be applied to your device later at step 9.

If you make any changes to the MQTT broker and client configuration afterwards, these will need to be manually applied by rebooting the device (either locally or remotely in the StrideLinx Cloud) or pushing a configuration to the device (if available).

Read machine data

The machine will need to be added as a data source in the StrideLinx Cloud and its variables will also need to be added.

Several communication protocols are supported. This is the protocol that the StrideLinx router will use to locally communicate with your machine. If you're unsure whether your machine supports one of these protocols, please check with the manufacturer.

1. Add a new data source with variables, or use an existing one. Follow the instructions in one of the articles below to create a new one and come back here once you have.
   • BACnet/IP
   • Digital Input (GPIO)
   • EtherNet/IP
   • MELSEC
   • Modbus TCP
   • OPC UA
   • Plain-text TCP
   • Siemens S7-300/400/1200/1500
   • SMTP
   • Universal Robots

Send machine data to the MQTT broker

Now that your data source is configured and your MQTT broker has been added to the StrideLinx Cloud, you can start sending your machine data to your MQTT broker.

5. Go to Fleet Manager > Devices and click on your device name.
6. In the left menu, under Services, click on the data source you previously created.
7. At the bottom, under MQTT, enable Use custom broker.
8. Select your MQTT broker and client, and enter a topic.
   • Don't see your MQTT broker and client? Go to Admin > MQTT and make sure that a client is added to your MQTT broker. A client is required. More information at step 4.
   • Some MQTT broker providers require data to be sent to a specific topic. If you're unsure, please consult the service provider's documentation.
     • With Azure IoT Hub, the topic needs to be the following format. Replace {IOT_HUB_DEVICE_ID} with your IoT Hub Device ID.
       

       devices/{IOT_HUB_DEVICE_ID}/messages/events/

You have now made the changes in the StrideLinx Cloud, but these are not yet active in your device. You will need to push your changes to your device for them to take effect.

Log machine data

Now that the data source and variables have been set up, you can configure when you effectively want to log data. You can log data on interval (every 100ms - 1h), when the value in the machine changes, or on custom triggers. This is configured in tags.

9. Add a tag for every variable that you want to log. Follow the instructions in the article below and come back here once you have.
   • Configure tags

Your Edge Gateway will now start sending machine data to your MQTT broker, according to how you configured the tags in the data source. Please note that only Historical data is sent to your MQTT broker. The Run test feature, Live data, and Alarming still work via the StrideLinx Cloud.

Troubleshooting

This chapter contains information and tips to help troubleshooting if Datalogging to MQTT broker doesn't work.

• Double check the instructions in this article. Do not skip this step, because the instructions may contain the solution to your problem. Some examples:
  • The MQTT broker needs to support encrypted connections. Unencrypted connections are not supported by Datalogging to MQTT broker.
  • With Azure IoT Hub, Azure Event Grid, and AWS IoT Core, the MQTT Client ID (sometimes called Device ID) in the MQTT broker needs to be equal to the StrideLinx router's public ID. You can find the StrideLinx router's public ID in the URL by going to the device in the StrideLinx Cloud Fleet Manager. For example: stridelinx.com/fleet-manager/device-configurator/mxLCEyXfR5Lx/....
  • When selecting the MQTT broker and client at your data source: Don't see your MQTT broker and client? Go to Admin > MQTT and make sure that a client is added to your MQTT broker. A client is required. More information at step 4 of this article.
  • Some MQTT broker providers require data to be sent to a specific topic. If you're unsure, please consult the service provider's documentation.
• Test if your MQTT broker is accessible and working.
  • There are numerous MQTT client applications available for testing (e.g. MQTT Explorer). Have a look under "Tools and Applications" at mqtt.org/software for a complete list.
• Unsure what the status is of the MQTT connection?
  
  • In your MQTT broker (environment) you should be able to see if there is an active MQTT connection and also if data is being received.

Frequently asked questions