6 Reasons WisToolBox Can Speed up The Development Process of IoT Projects
LoRaWAN® has become the most popular network in the IoT industry. Networks like The Things Network or Helium are taking advantage of it and increasing their coverage. These networks allow the connection of a large number of end nodes to the Internet, and these devices require increasingly rapid development, configuration, and programming.
RAKwireless offers hardware solutions to develop end nodes. You can use WisBlock to develop your devices from proof of concept to mass production, or if you are already in the production phase, you can use WisDuo to empower your PCB with capabilities to connect to LoRaWAN.
We are constantly innovating software tools to make our devices faster. We talked about RUI3, and we even have a complete introductory tutorial about it, and now we have the new programming tool: WisToolBox. In this article, we will talk about how WisToolBox can help you in device development and deployment.
Imagine that you are developing a complete project to detect variables in the gas industry. You need to measure temperature, humidity, air quality, and liquid levels, among others. Plus, sending them to a gateway using LoRaWAN. These sensors will be installed in many parts of the plant, and even other plants. After developing your code using RUI3, you need to load and test it and even modify it on many devices, let's see how WisToolBox can help you make this job easier:
- If you are going to install devices in several places, you probably need to connect them to different gateways or even different networks, in this case, the parameters like Application EUI and Device EUI will change. With WisToolBox, you can test different configurations of devices, you can save a configuration as a template, and can quickly upload it to different devices. Not only this, but you can also deploy common firmware for many devices and program them in a couple of clicks one by one, without the need to compromise the integrity of the code.
- As we mentioned before, we are always updating and innovating our software tools to make IoT easier. Using WisToolBox in addition to programming your devices you can also update them with the latest available firmware. Not only that, you can do it using Bluetooth. This function is available in the mobile version for the devices RAK4631-R, RAK4630, and Sensor Hub, which have the BLE function.
- With the above features, you can manage and configure your device without the need for AT commands, but that doesn't mean that this feature is not available. You can send AT commands to your device and now WisToolBox has Custom AT command support: create your own custom AT commands using RUI3, then, read and send custom AT commands using the dynamic user interface or the console terminal.
- Now that you know what you can do with WisToolBox, the best news is coming! This tool is free for you and is available to download on any OS, including desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) and mobile (Android, iOS).
- You can install it on your computer and your phone, and using RAK-ID you can sync all your templates and custom firmware, these will be saved on all machines, just in case you need to make tests or changes, and you don't have your computer on site.
- Finally, if you have RAK devices for LoRaWAN® that are not updated with RUI3 firmware, such as the RAK4631, WisToolBox supports connecting these devices with limited functionalities, which are: upgrading to RUI3, switch to AT mode, and use the terminal of the console.
We trust we've given you enough reasons to utilize this tool. We encourage you to check the official page of WisToolBox and download the version for your favorite operating system. Do you need more information about it? Visit the official documentation. Lastly, if you want to start developing and using RUI3 and WisToolBox, you can try the WisBlock Core or the WisDuo RAK3172 and RAK3172-SiP cores to add to your custom project.
