NRF9160 AssetTracker and NRFCloud MCELL

[crotberg]

Hello

We are using NRF9160 AssetTracker 1 and MQTT to AWS. We have a AWS Certificate, Root Certificate and Public and Private Keys on the device.

We want to start testing NRFCloud MCELL and wanted to know the simplest way to start testing without MQTT (We are going to add MQTT later)

How can we test the device with the Evaluation Key and REST API to start? 

Do we need to register the device on the NRFCloud with these Requests?

ProvisionDevices

RegisterPublicKeys

 

What is the minimal update we need to do to the device to be able to send Postman REST API requests?

Thank You

[Charlie]

Hi Christopher,

We are using NRF9160 AssetTracker 1 and MQTT to AWS. We have a AWS Certificate, Root Certificate and Public and Private Keys on the device.

We want to start testing NRFCloud MCELL and wanted to know the simplest way to start testing without MQTT (We are going to add MQTT later)

nRF9160 AssertTracker application does not support nRFCloud multi-cell location service now and it operates mainly on top of MQTT, so it is not an easy job to satisfy this need.

How can we test the device with the Evaluation Key and REST API to start? 

Do we need to register the device on the NRFCloud with these Requests?

If you want to just test nrfcloud multicell location service with rest API. We have nRF9160: nRF Cloud REST cellular positioning — nRF Connect SDK 2.0.0 documentation (nordicsemi.com) is designed exactly for this purpose.

What is the minimal update we need to do to the device to be able to send Postman REST API requests?

If you want to use the nRFCloud location service with REST API on Postman, you can refer to Finding device location using cell towers | nRF Cloud Docs.

Best regards,

Charlie

[crotberg]

Hello Charlie

I have read those links. The samples use Asset Tracker 2 we don't use that version. I still do not understand what we need to do to have the NRFCloud recognize our hardware. What do we need to add to our hardware (certificate?) so that we can just use Postman alone without any other tools to test the locate?

The Evaluation token is supposed to be used to test

Thank You

[Charlie]

Hi Christopher,

I feel confused with your description. Let me simply explain the document and sample I referred to before. and how this API works from my understanding.

The basic workflow of nRF Cloud REST API is that you send a REST message from a device(normally has IP connection) with cell information to nRFCloud and it sends your the position information calculated from the cell information input.

1) On Finding device location using cell towers | nRF Cloud Docs, you get the cell information manually from the log of the Asset Tracker V2 application, and then you send the REST message with Postman to get the location result for this device running Asset Tracker V2 application.
2) In nRF9160: nRF Cloud REST cellular positioning — nRF Connect SDK 2.0.0 documentation (nordicsemi.com), the device read cell information and send REST message to request location all by itself automatically.

REST API | nRF Cloud Docs Authentication section has a detailed explanation of how to choose proper Tokens and keys for the REST message.

Let me know which setup you have decided to try. Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

Best regards,

Charlie

[crotberg]

Hello Charlie

I was confused because we don't use Asset Tracker 2 yet, so you are saying I have to install that and test to be able to get the cell information manually from the log of the Asset Tracker V2 application.

Is there a way to get this information besides loading and testing Asset Tracker 2? We use Asset Tracker 1 now and don't plan on updating to 2 for a while as that requires changes to the backed code

I want to get this cell information and then try to do a Rest Locate from a PC to a device running Asset Tracker 1 to test the accuracy

Thank You

[Charlie]

Hi Christopher,

1) Assert Tracker v1 cannot print such log file, but you should be able to get a single cell location from the LTE link monitor. We do not have a plan to update this application further.

2)You may realise that Assert Tracker( v1) has been removed since the NCS1.9.0 release because Assert Tracker v2 has been designed with better performance and advanced features for the similar application. I encourage you to switch to Assert Tracker v2, but it also does not use nRFcloud REST API right now. You need to refer nRF9160: nRF Cloud REST cellular positioning — nRF Connect SDK 2.0.0 documentation (nordicsemi.com) for how to use REST API for location service.

crotberg said:

I want to get this cell information and then try to do a Rest Locate from a PC to a device running Asset Tracker 1 to test the accuracy

I think this kind of GPS accuracy test does not need to run PC+Assert Tracker v1 and this actually makes the test complex. You can just use nRF9160: nRF Cloud REST cellular positioning — nRF Connect SDK 2.0.0 documentation (nordicsemi.com) to do the test, and then you can compare its position output with "the real device position" you got from the map or other device. 

In summary, I think nRF9160: nRF Cloud REST cellular positioning — nRF Connect SDK 2.0.0 documentation (nordicsemi.com) is your best start point for nRFCloud cell location service with REST API.

Best regards,

Charlie