Best practices: Getting started

1. Device Addition

Product definition

Initiating your journey with the 'Product' definition is fundamental. This approach is the cornerstone of easy fleet management. By using Products, you ensure that all devices on one kind inherit essential characteristics, creating a uniform yet flexible operating environment.

All Devices belonging to one same Product have the same Payload Decoder, Fields and Dashboard. If you modify one device, all of them will reflect those changes. This enables you to manage fleets of hundreds of devices, maintaining the integrity ensuring that your whole IoT fleet stays up to date.

In the following video you will learn how to add a device to an existing product.

Learn more about Products.

Configuration Fields

Configuration fields introduce a layer of customisation for the individuality of each device and offer flexibility when using the Product definition. This is important when devices require unique operational parameters, ensuring they perform their roles effectively.

If, for example, your gas tank filling measuring devices are all of the same type, however, they are installed in tanks of different heights. In this case the configuration fields allow you to define a different height value for each tank. These can be used in the payload decoder to make calculations, or they can be called within the new rule engine to trigger notifications.

Learn more about Configuration Fields.

Batch addition of devices

Utilising the CSV drag-and-drop feature for adding devices is more than an operational shortcut; it's a growth strategy. By integrating multiple devices simultaneously, you maintain a rhythm and coherence to your expanding network. This strategic addition ensures your system scales with purpose, keeping complexity at bay.

There is not known limit to the amount of devices you can add at once to Datacake. Make sure all DevEUIs are unique, otherwise you will get an error No valid DevEUIs were found in the CSV file.

Make sure that the order of the columns on the CSV file is correct and that there are no empty rows or columns. The order must be DevEUI, Name, Location, Tags. The tags must be separated by commas in the same column of the document.

Here an example:

49 54 95 75 56 55 65 66	Device 1	First Floor	Office01, Temperature
49 23 47 30 94 74 38 24	Device 2	Second Floor	Office02, CO2

2. Workspace management

Implementing separate workspaces for different tenants is a practice of meaningful delegation. You can manage who gets access to what in an easy way.

If you have multiple customers/locations/departments, the easiest way to grant access to specific devices is to have different workspaces for each one of them.

When having control over the devices is important, Datacake recommends you to create a master workspace, to which you will add all of your devices, while having sub-workspaces for each one of your customers. You can use the Pincode claiming functionality to claim specific devices to those sub-workspaces.

This structure safeguards your devices, ensuring it remains a hub for all devices, while subsidiary workspaces function as dedicated environments tailored to specific tasks or teams. This clear delineation promotes responsible access and efficient management.

An additional advantage of employing this structure is that it ensures the receipt of a unified invoice including all devices in the master workspace, due to the fact that the billing procedure is conducted on a per-workspace basis.

3. Application of Tags

By applying tags, you facilitate targeted reporting, efficient rule-setting, and effective device visualisation.

You can set/create tags when adding the devices to the platform. You can also add them once the devices are on the platform using the Actions/Add Tags button or by navigating to each device's configuration section.

You can manage devices and sort them by type/location/owner, among others. Tags can be used to generate reports in device batches, create custom notifications in the new rules system or add them to the map widget.

The following video shows you some uses of implementing tags to your device administration.

4. List and Grid Views

Choosing between List and Grid views is a decision rooted in your information needs. This choice influences how you interact with your fleet data, prioritising the most critical metrics front and center. By customising these views, you are making a conscious decision about what metrics drive your decisions daily.

You can select the fields that are displayed under Columns (Online status, name, primary, secondary, device battery, device signal, tags, product, etc.).

Keep in mind that the selected columns are stored in the caché memory of your browser, so your customers or users within the platform will have the possibility to select the columns that are important to them. This facilitates customisation, therefore if you want your customers to see certain parameters then you will have to create custom views using global dashboards.