KPN Things offers flexible building blocks with which you can easily build complete IoT solutions. You can build a solution for virtually any use case. Do you want to know how full a waste container is, or where it is physically located? You can connect your Solution with our KPN Things platform.

Building blocks are available for each part of the chain that can easily be used together.

Thanks to standard connections, you can also use your own Device or Data platform. And with the KPN Things Portal, you have full control over your solutions.

KPN Things Portal Introduction

Learn why we built Things Portal and how it will benefit your IoT business

Quick reference instructional videos

For a kickstart, watch our instructional videos. They say more than a thousand words!

Flexible Building Blocks

KPN Things offers you a flexible package of building blocks that you put together yourself. This allows you to set up and manage all your IoT solutions quickly and easily. You manage these building blocks in our KPN Things Portal.

Device Management

With KPN Things Device Management you have the insights and control over all your devices. ​

• Manage all your devices in one overview - From sensors to complex IP gateways and routers

• Device Twin - Insight in the status of every device

• Bulk actions - Manage solutions in bulk to control solution of any size​

• Firmware over the air - Update your devices remotely

Connectivity Management

Manage all your LoRa, LTE-M and M2M connectivity in a single platform.

• All your connectivity in one view - Manage LoRa, LTE-M and M2M connectivity in one view

• Manage connectivity for your device - Provide your devices with a connection

• Extensive network information - Have insights in your solutions all the time

• HTTP and MQTT protocols for M2M devices - You decide how to connect your devices

Destinations

A seamless integration of IoT data with any platform for maximum value.

• Platform Independence - Easily connect any data platform to the KPN Things environment, regardless of which platform you use or want to use

• Easy-to-Use Tools - We provide simple tools and extensive documentation to help customers create links and modify data.

• Extensive Functionalities - Access to a wide range of functionalities and additional services, allowing customers to use a platform that directly suits their specific use case

Customer and User Management

Provide your customers and users with a easy access to IoT solutions.

• Customer Management ​​- Manage IoT solutions of your customers

• Data Segregation - We provide in secure separation of data between your customers

• Customer Insight Overview - Have an overview of the different IoT solutions per customer

• Self Service - Provide your customers access to the Things Portal to manage their own solutions

• User Management - ​​Decide which users have access and to what functionality

1. Check contents of the delivery

First, let us check if you received everything correctly. There should be two KPN Things SIM cards in the package.

2. Check KPN Things Portal

Then, the SIM cards should be visible in your KPN Things Portal on the All Connectivity page.

3. Obtain a Device

You now have a KPN Things SIM card in your possession, a SIM card that can be put in a programmable device to grant it direct access to KPN Things through a secure channel.

This SIM card supports connection to the following networks of KPN:

• LTE-M

• 2G

• 3G

• 4G

• 5G

Don't you have a programmable M2M Device yet? You should get one! We have some tips for you:

2. Other SODAQ SARA devices, like the SFF R412M or devices with a different modem should also work with our developer kit guide. You should only take into account some different settings.

   • For instance for SARA SFF devices, you should use Board type SODAQ SFF.

Our KPN Things platform is your environment to start working on IoT Solutions and manage in a single environment. This guide will help you get started. Before we dive in, make sure you have a subscription and you're able to sign in.

Account types

There are two types of accounts. For both types the authentication is managed in our GRIP platform developed by KPN. This provides you with a secure and easy access to your KPN applications. With the GRIP portal you can manage your subscriptions and perform user management.

KPN Things Freemium

Once you have registered you have a developer account. With this account you get a Freemium project. Here you can test LoRa and M2M connectivity for a limited number of devices for free.

Follow our step-by-step guide to further set up the environment.

KPN Things Explorer

You can easily upgrade this registration to a paid subscription later. This is our low threshold Explorer solution and suitable for even a couple of devices.

KPN Things Modular

An account will be created for you and you will receive an email to create a password. This is out dynamic solutions based on standard building blocks suitable for high-volumes.

KPN Things or Tailored

Accounts will be created for you and you will receive an email to create a password. This is our customized connectivity focussed solutions suitable for high-volumes.

Want to learn more about our propositions

KPN Things is available in four distinct propositions.

Features

• Mobile as a device - Easily add the app as a Device in your KPN Things account.

• Choose sensors - The app allows you to choose which phone metrics to use as Device data

• Choos your interval - Send the data once or at a regular interval

Requirements

Add your phone

Follow the steps to add your mobile as a device.

Or connect your own test devices with out other device templates.

Choose one of the below device types to continue setting up your IoT solution.

Sim card

Device simulator app

We recommend starting with connecting the KPN Things device simulator app. You can use this app to simulate a device and send messages whenever your want.

Supported devices & KPN devices

Developer devices

Start experimenting and discover the wide range of possibilities with these developer devices.​

Old developer devices

These development boards are no longer available for purchase and should not be used for new designs.​

Other devices

Continue to the next step:

Follow the steps to create your Freemium account.

This is an old development board which is no longer available for purchase and should not be used for new designs.

A nifty, industry standard IoT developer board that allows you to utilize LTE-M networks with integrated GPS, Accelerometer and Magnetometers, Grove Connectors, JST connectors and Arduino compatible open source software that allows for low-power applications.

This getting started will give you step by step instructions to get your KPN Things M2M developer kit connected to KPN Things!

1. Get everything you need

Before we start, you should check if have all necessary components:

1. KPN Things SIM card

2. SODAQ SARA AFF R412M Board

3. PCB Antenna

4. LiPo Battery

Request test SIM cards

After registration there is another step in order to receive test SIM cards, since we don't know your home address yet to send them to! After registering and logging in for the first time, click on the link in the M2M is now available in KPN Things! notification box on the home page and follow the directions.

You will receive your test SIM cards in a couple of days. The SIM cards will be added to your Portal account already, ready to go!

2. Prepare your development environment (Arduino IDE)

Setup your Arduino IDE

With the Arduino IDE we will write our code and program it on the Device.

• Open your freshly installed Arduino IDE.

Download the board configuration files for Sodaq boards

When your IDE is all started, execute the following steps to install the Sodaq board configuration files.

• Click on File > Preferences

• At the bottom you should see Additional Boards Manager URLs. This is where you need to paste the following URL:

After adding the URL, your preferences screen should look like this:

• Close the preferences screen with OK

• Click on Tools > Board:… > Boards Manager…

• Search for SODAQ.

• Click on SODAQ SAMD Boards and an install button will appear.

• Click Install to install the latest version of your selected board collection.

• When the installation is done, click Close.

3. Prepare your Device

Assemble your Device

Step 1: Insert the KPN Things SIM card.

Step 2: Connect the antenna. Push the connector straight on the board.

Step 3: Connect the battery to the right terminal on the board, the one stating BATT.

Step 4: Connect the USB cable to the left USB port, the one next to the SIM card slot.

Configure your Arduino IDE

• From the Tools menu, under Board, select the correct board type:

• Also from the Tools menu, under Port, make sure the correct COM port is selected. If you have multiple options, select the one stating SODAQ SARA.

Upload test sketch

With this test sketch we are going to check whether your Device works.

• Copy the passthrough example code from the following SODAQ documentation page:

• Paste the passthrough example code in you Arduino IDE.

• Uncomment the third line, since you have a u-blox R4xx module

• From the Sketch menu, click Upload to send the software to your SODAQ.

If all went well it will say the following in the bottom of the Arduino IDE:

• Meanwhile, from the Tools menu, open the Serial Monitor

• In the Serial Monitor, select Both NL & CR and set the baud rate to 115200 baud (#1 in the screenshot below).

  • #2 in the screenshot above illustrates where you can enter commands to be sent to the u-blox module that sits on your Development board.

  • #3 shows where you will see the responses from the module.

• Use the command AT+GSN to get the IMEI of your module.

  • You will be needing this value when registering your Device in the next step of this getting started.

• Additionally, with the command ATI9 you can check your firmware version.

The latest firmware version for the R412 is M0.10.00,A.02.14 (as of November 2020)

Available commands

4. Register your Device to KPN Things

Open the KPN Things Portal

Fill in your device information

1. Select the Own M2M device device type.

2. Enter a name for your SODAQ device.

3. Click Add Device to continue.

Provide Network Information

Now enter the M2M specific information of your Device.

1. IMEI of your Device. This value is printed on your u-blox module:

2. ICCID of your SIM card. This value is printed on your SIM card. Select the correct SIM card from the drop down.

If you have an Early access SIM, you choose the option "Add early access SIM" and enter the ICCID of the SIM manually in the newly appeared input field.

3. Shared secret - a kind of password for the future data coming from your Device. Here you should come up with a unique password containing at least:

• One lower case character.

• One upper case character.

• One number.

• One special character.

• 32 characters in total.

The shared secret should also be programmed into your Device in step 5.

4. Click Add Network Info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.

5. Program your device to send a message

In this step we are going to flash the Device with a program to send data to KPN Things.

Download the ThingsML and Sodaq libraries

The ThingsML library will provide code for your Device to communicate with KPN Things. The SODAQ libraries will provide code to interface with the components on the development board.

• From the Tools menu in your Arduino IDE click on Manage Libraries...

• Now, in the Library Manager, wait for all libraries to load.

• Then search and install the following libraries:

  • ThingsML

  • Sodaq_LSM303AGR

  • Sodaq_R4X

  • Sodaq_wdt

• When the installations are finished, click Close.

Upload the example sketch

This example will read the board temperature from the onboard thermometer and send it to KPN Things every 60 seconds.

From the File menu, click on Examples. Now find ThingsML, then select sodaq, and within that choose sara_aff_temperature.

Fill device identifiers in example code

Look for the following part in the example code and fill in the missing values:

• Device URN should be completed with the IMEI of your Device.

  • Make sure you leave the trailing colon : in place in the DEVICE_URN variable!

• Device Key should be filled with the Shared secret of your Device.

• APN should be filled with one the following value two values. Your SIM card is one of two types, which you can see in the Connectivity list in KPN Things.

  1. For M2M Easy use kpnthings.iot

  2. For M2M Advantage use kpnthings2.m2m

Roughly: If you received your SIM card after June 2023, it's most likely an M2M Advantage.

Run the sketch

• Upload the sketch to your Device and open the Serial Monitor. The device will report some of the setup steps it will perform:

This means your Device is trying to connect to our LTE-M network. After some seconds the following lines will appear:

This means your Device has join our network and has sent its first uplink message to KPN Things!

Check incoming data in the Portal

In the connectivity block, you should see that the last message time indicates that KPN Things just received a message from your Device!

6. Setup data flow in KPN Things

You now successfully connected your M2M device to KPN Things! To further setup your data flow in KPN Things, you should can go to the next step:

More information

Interested in expanding the example sketch to make the Device do exactly what you want? Use the following references to find more information on Things code and SODAQ code:

• The ThingsML library contains another SODAQ example that reads out the GPS module and sends latitude and longitude to KPN Things.

We are happy to help you on your way as best as possible. Nothing is more fun than seeing a visible result in your account quick. Follow our tutorials to get of to a good start.

This is an old development board which is no longer available for purchase and should not be used for new designs.

Marvin is the fastest start with LoRa and the Internet of Things. It’s the perfect introduction to IoT for your organization, and is also used in education. Marvin uses its LoRa connectivity to connect to the internet from anywhere in the world where there is LoRa coverage.

1. Setup your Marvin

Setup your Arduino environment

• Connect your Marvin to your computer.

Test your Marvin device

We will now test whether the Marvin device is working by letting a LED blink.

• From the Tools menu, under Board, select Arduino Leonardo

• Also from the Tools menu, under Port, make sure the correct COM port is selected. If you have multiple options, select the one stating Arduino Leonardo. If non of your ports is labelled that way, disconnect your Marvin, reopen the menu, check which COM port disappeared, reconnect the Marvin and choose the previously identified COM port.

• From the Sketch menu, click Upload to send the software to the Marvin. If all went well it will say Uploading complete in the bottom of the Arduino IDE and the second LED on the Marvin board will blink!

Test the LoRa module on the Marvin

The LoRa connectivity on your Marvin device is managed by the Microchip RN2483 module. With the following steps we check whether this module works correctly.

• Upload the sketch to your Marvin.

• Meanwhile, from the Tools menu, open the Serial Monitor

• In the Serial Monitor, set the baud rate to 57600 baud (same as detailed in the sketch) and select Both NL & CR (#1 in the screenshot below).

Now you can directly speak to the LoRa module and get a response! #2 in the screenshot above shows you where to enter commands you want to send, and #3 highlights where answers from the module will be shown.

• If you for instance send sys get ver, the module will return its firmware version back. This will be 1.0.1 with some historic date.

• Now execute the command sys get hweui to retrieve the DevEUI that is stored in the module. Store the value in a text file. You'll need it when adding the device to KPN Things.

2. Register your Marvin to KPN Things

Open the KPN Things Portal

Fill in your device information

1. Select the Own LoRa device (preset connectivity) device type

2. Enter a name for your Marvin device

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide Network Information

2. AppEUI: you can use the following value: 0059AC00000FFFFF

Store these three values somewhere, because you will be needing them to program your device later on.

4. Click Add Network Info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.

Check your newly created Device

You are now on the Device Detail Page. In the LoRa tab you will see the network status. This can temporarily be Pending creation, but if you refresh the page it should switch to Active. This means your device is correctly registered to the network.

3. Program your device to send a LoRa message

Download the ThingsML library

• From the Tools menu in your Arduino IDE click on Manage Libraries...

• Now, in the Library Manager, search for ThingsML and click Install. When the installation is finished, click Close.

Make a sketch

From the File menu, click on Examples.

• Now find ThingsML, then select marvin, and within that choose marvin_example, as such:

• A sketch will open. Now update the values for the variables DevEUI, AppEUI, and AppKey in the code with the values you entered earlier in the Portal.

Run the sketch

• Upload the sketch to your Marvin and open the Serial Monitor. You will see a lot of commands being send to the LoRa module to configure it and to join the network. At some point you will see the following:

> mac join otaa
< ok

This means your Marvin is trying to join the network. After some seconds the following line will appear

< accepted

This means the device has joined our network!

If you see denied instead of accepted , move closer to your window or walk out into the garden to improve reception from the LoRa network. Then disconnect and reconnect the Marvin to your computer. You probably need some more coverage to be able to join the network.

After joining, your Marvin will send a message every 30 seconds containing an empty temperature measurement in ThingsML format. Read more about ThingsML.

4. Check incoming data in the Portal

Now your Marvin has joined and is sending data, you could visit the LoRa Data tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see your Join request and Join accept appear like in the screenshot below and at this point you will see more data as well. Learn more about LoRa data history.

Setup data flow in KPN Things

You now successfully connected your Marvin device to KPN Things! To further setup your data flow in KPN Things, you can go to the next step:

The Smartrak M2M GPS tracker is a device produced by Streamline and used for demo purposes. When you push the button the device will send its location to KPN Things.

Check contents of the test device box

The first step is to check if everything is present in the box:

Contents:

• Battery (1)

• Logic board (2)

• Bottom part of the casing (3)

• Top part of the casing (4)

• KPN M2M SIM card (5)

• Wireless Charger (not shown)

1. Insert SIM and assemble device

Assemble the device

Step 1: Insert the SIM-card and write down the IMEI (1), we need that later.

Step 2: Connect the battery.

Step 3: Connect the vibration motor. This can be a bit of challenge, but you can do this. The connector has to be pushed on the terminal from above instead of sliding

Step 4: Connect the bottom part. This is the wireless charging circuit.

Step 5: Put everything together.

Step 6: Rotate the two parts as shown. The on/off button has to be on the side of the vibration motor.

Step 7: Click two parts of the casing together.

Charge the device

1. Plug in your QI charging device.

2. Place the device on the QI charging device and allow it to charge for a few hours.

3. You should hear a beep when the device starts charging.

2. Configure the device in the KPN Things Portal

Open the KPN Things Portal

Fill in your device information

1. Select the Streamline M2M device device type

2. Enter a name for your test device

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide Network Information

Now enter the Streamline M2M specific information of your Device.​‌

2. ICCID of your SIM card. This value is printed on your SIM card. Select the correct SIM card from the drop down.‌

3. Click Add Network Info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.‌

Check incoming data in the Portal

Push the button on the device and it will send its location to KPN Things! After the push the LEDs start blinking:

1. Lightning icon: GPS location is being searched

2. Battery icon: Device is turned on / charging

3. Waving person icon: indicates the button is pressed

The first time after connecting the battery it can take up to 5 minutes to receive a message. If the LEDs do not start blinking try to push and hold the on / off button for 10 seconds. The battery LED in the middle should start blinking. If still nothing happens, try to charge the device for at least 2 hours.

Continue to the next step:

1. Add new Device

Head to the Devices in the left menu. Click the Add new device button in the left top corner. This is the place where you register new Devices and add them to KPN Things and our networks.

If you have more than one Project, you will have to select to which Project you would like to add your Device.

2. Select your Device type

3. Fill in Device Information

• Name: Typically can be a Device ID or the name of a physical asset which the device is linked to.

• Barcode (optional): Barcode or serial number used to identify a device.

• Description (optional): Any additional device information.

When done, click Add Device to continue.

4. Provide or get Network information

This step will look differently, depending on the type of network information.

Generated LoRa network information (programmable device)

If you selected Own LoRa device (programmable) device type in the previous step, the Portal will give you the OTAA join information (DevEUI, AppEUI and AppKey). Make sure to copy-paste or write down the provided identifiers. For security reasons the secret values will not be retrievable through the Portal after closing this page.

Click Finish to continue.

Provided LoRa network information (device with preset connectivity)

If you selected Own LoRa device (preset connectivity) or a supported device type, you should provide the LoRa network information for your device in this step.

Click Add network info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.

M2M network information

1. IMEI of your Device.

2. ICCID of your SIM-card - select the correct SIM card from the drop down. If you have an Early access SIM, you choose the option "Add early access SIM" and enter the ICCID of the SIM manually in the newly appeared input field (see A in the screenshot below).

3. Shared secret

After entering the values, click Add network info to save the information, or click Finish without adding Network to continue without adding network information to your Device object.

Internet network information

1. DvnUUID - the unique number to identify incoming data from your Device. Your Device UUID is prefilled, but you can enter any UUID you like.

2. Shared secret

5. Check incoming data in the Portal

You can visit the LoRa data or M2M data tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see messages here as soon as the device has activity on the network.

You're ready for the next step:

Arduino MKR WAN 1300/1310 is the fastest start with LoRa and the Internet of Things. It’s the perfect introduction to IoT for your organization, and is also used in education. Arduino MKR WAN 1300/1310 uses its LoRa connectivity to connect to the internet from anywhere in the world where there is LoRa coverage.

1. Setup your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0

To connect the Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 to the computer you must use a USB cable.

Setup your Arduino environment

• Connect your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 to your computer.

• From the Tools menu, under Board, under Arduino SAMD boards (32-bits ARM Cortex M0+), select Arduino MKR WAN 1300 or 1310.

• If the board is not available go to Tool menu, under Board select Board Manager and search for the Arduino SAMD boards (32-bits ARM Cortex M0+). Click install to install the board.

• Also from the Tools menu, under Port, make sure the correct COM port is selected. If you have multiple options, select the one stating Arduino MKR WAN 13X0. If nonee of your ports is labelled that way, disconnect your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0, reopen the menu, check which COM port disappeared, reconnect the Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 and choose the previously identified COM port.

Test your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 device

We will now test whether the Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 device is working by letting a LED blink.

• In the Arduino IDE go to File, under Examples, under 01. Basics, select Blink

• From the Sketch menu, click Upload or select the big arrow on the left of the Arduio IDE to send the software to the Arduino MKR WAN 13X0. If all went well it will say Uploading complete in the bottom of the Arduino IDE and the LED on the Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 board will blink!

Test the LoRa module on the Arduino MKR WAN 13X0

The LoRa connectivity on your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 device is managed by the Murata CMWX1ZZABZ module. With the following steps we check whether this module works correctly.

• In the Arduino IDE select from the sketch menu, under Include Library select Manage Libraries. Search for MKRWAN and select the 1.1.0 version.

• After the library is downloaded go to File, under Examples, under MKRWAN select FirstConfiguration.

• Upload the sketch to the Arduio MKR WAN 13X0

• Meanwhile, from the Tools menu, open the Serial Monitor. Here we will find the unique Device EUI. Store the value in a text file. You'll need it when adding the device to KPN Things.

• If your device has not the latest firmware version you can load the MKRWANFWUpdate_standalone.ino sketch via File, under Examples, MKRWAN to update the device firmware.

2. Register your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 to KPN Things

Add device

1. Select the Own LoRa device (preset connectivity) device type
2. Enter a name for your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 device

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide network information

1. DevEUI: the value you retrieved from the LoRa module in the step Test your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 device

2. AppEUI: you can use the following value: 0059AC00000FFFFF

4. Click Add Network Info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.

Check your newly created Device

You are now on the Device Detail Page. In the LoRa tab you will see the network status. This can temporarily be Pending creation, but if you refresh the page it should switch to Active. This means your device is correctly registered to the network.

If the network status sticks to Pending creation, you could try to delete the Device and and provision again (Restart at step Add device)

If the Network Status ended up in Failed, something has gone wrong. Most likely the DevEUI is already registered through another application or account. Please make sure you remove the device registration from the other application or account and re-add the device in the Things Portal.

3. Program your device to send a LoRa message

Download the ThingsML library

• From the Sketch menu in your Arduino IDE click on Include Library, Manage Libraries...

• Now, in the Library Manager, search for ThingsML and click Install. When the installation is finished, click on the Library manager icon to close the left window.

Make a sketch

From the File menu, click on Examples.

• Now find ThingsML, then select Arduino, MKR_WAN_1300, and within that choose Arduino_mkr_wan_1300_example.

• A sketch will open. Now update the values for the variables AppEUI, and AppKey in the code with the values you entered earlier in the Portal. The DevEUI is automatically filled in on the background.

Run the sketch

Upload the sketch to your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 and open the Serial Monitor. You will see your module version and if your device is successfully connected and joined the network. At some point you will see the following:

Your module version is: ARD-078 1.2.3
Your device EUI is: a8610a………….
Connected!
Sending message...
Message sent correctly!
Sending message...
Message sent correctly!

If you see something else instead of connected , move closer to your window or walk out into the garden to improve reception from the LoRa network. Then disconnect and reconnect the Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 to your computer. You probably need some more coverage to be able to join the network.

After joining, your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 will send a message every 300 seconds containing a fixed temperature “measurement” in ThingsML format. Read more about ThingsML.

4. Check incoming data in the Portal

Now your Arduino MKR WAN 13X0 has joined and is sending data, you could visit the LoRa Data tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see your Join request and Join accept appear like in the screenshot below and at this point you will see more data as well.

You now successfully connected your Arduino MKR WAN 1

This is an old development board which is no longer available for purchase and should not be used for new designs.

The LoPy4 is a quadruple bearer MicroPython enabled development board (LoRa, Sigfox, WiFi, Bluetooth) perfect enterprise grade IoT platform for your connected Things. With the latest Espressif chipset the LoPy4 offers a perfect combination of power, friendliness and flexibility.

1. Setup your LoPy4 device

2. Determine device identifiers

3. Register your LoPy4 to KPN Things

Open the KPN Things Portal

Fill in your device information

1. Select the Own LoRa device (preset connectivity) device type

2. Enter a name for your LoPy4

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide Network Information

Check your newly created Device

You are now on the Device Detail Page. In the LoRa tab you will see the network status. This can temporarily be Pending creation, but if you refresh the page it should switch to Active. This means your device is correctly registered to the network.

If the network status sticks to Pending creation, you could try to delete the Device and register the device again.

5. Program your device

Check incoming data in the Portal

Now your LoPy4 has joined and is sending data, you could visit the LoRa data tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see your Join request and Join accept appear like in the screenshot below and at this point you will see more data as well.

Setup data flow in KPN Things

You now successfully connected your LoPy5 device to KPN Things! To further setup your data flow in KPN Things, you can go to the next step:

KPN Things Portal Introduction

Learn why we built Things Portal and how it will benefit your IoT Business

User interface

This video explains how the User Interface and main navigation works.

Tables

This video explains how Tables work.

Bulk by multiselect

This video explains how Bulk by multiselect works in the User Interface.

Bulk by file

This video explains how Bulk by file works in the User Interface.

Arduino MKR NB 1500 is the fastest start with LTE-M and the Internet of Things. It’s the perfect introduction to IoT for your organization, and is also used in education. Arduino MKR NB 1500 uses its LTE-M connectivity to connect to the internet from anywhere in the world where there is LTE-M coverage.

On this page you will find the window below to order a simcard.

1. Setup your Arduino MKR NB 1500

To connect the Arduino MKR NB 1500 to the computer you must use a USB cable.

Setup your Arduino environment

• Connect your Arduino MKR NB 1500 to your computer.

• From the Tools menu, under Board, under Arduino SAMD boards (32-bits ARM Cortex M0+), select Arduino MKR NB 1500.

• If the board is not available go to Tool menu, under Board select Board Manager and search for the Arduino SAMD boards (32-bits ARM Cortex M0+). Click install to install the board.

• Also from the Tools menu, under Port, make sure the correct COM port is selected. If you have multiple options, select the one stating Arduino MKR NB 1500. If non of your ports is labelled that way, disconnect your Arduino MKR NB 1500, reopen the menu, check which COM port disappeared, reconnect the Arduino MKR NB 1500 and choose the previously identified COM port.

Test your Arduino MKR NB 1500 device

We will now test whether the Arduino MKR NB 1500 device is working by letting a LED blink.

• In the Arduino IDE go to File, under Examples, under 01. Basics, select Blink.

• From the Sketch menu, click Upload or select the big arrow on de left of the Arduio IDE to send the software to the Arduino MKR NB 1500. If all went well it will say Uploading complete in the bottom of the Arduino IDE and the LED on the Arduino MKR NB 1500 board will blink!

Test the LTE-M module on the Arduino MKR NB 1500

The LTE-M connectivity on your Arduino MKR NB 1500 device is managed by the uBlox SARA-R410M-02B module. With the following steps we check whether this module works correctly.

• In the Arduino IDE select from the sketch menu, under Include Library select Manage Libraries or click on the library icon on the left side of the IDE. Search for MKRNB and select the 1.6.0 version.

• After the library is downloaded go to File, under Examples, under MKRNB select Tools and select TestModem.

• Upload the sketch to the Arduio MKR NB 1500.

• Meanwhile, from the Tools menu, open the Serial Monitor. Here we will find the unique IMEI. Store the value in a text file. You'll need it when adding the device to KPN Things.

2. Register your Arduino MKR NB 1500 to KPN Things

Add device

1. Select the Own M2M device device type
2. Enter a name for your Arduino MKR NB 1500 device

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide network information

1. IMEI: the value you retrieved from the Ublox module in the step Test the LTE-M module on the Arduino MKR NB 1500

2. ICCID: you must use the ICCID form the simcard you ordered via KPNThings:

3. Shared secret: Every device should have its own unique shared secret You can generate a unique secret by pressing Generate:

Check your newly created Device

You are now on the Device Detail Page. On this page you can see the network status. If everything is done the status should be Activated. This means your device is correctly registered to the network.

Create a flow

To receive data in the KPNThings portal you must create a flow. Click on Flows and then on Link to another Flow.

Select My first Flow.

Enable the ThingsML decoder

The flow is now created and you must add a decoder to the flow to decode the payloads from the device.

Click on My first flow.

Click on Data Processing

Enable the switch Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data (v2).

The decoder is now enabled and device data send by the Arduino MKR NB 1500 will be decoded and visible in the Device twin.

Add a destination

The decoded data can be send to a destination. For testing you can use the KPN Test Endpoint destination.

Click on Destination on the left side on the screen, next click on Add new Destination in the upper right side of the screen.

Select the Test Endpoint destination. Give it a name and click on Create Test Endpoint. The endpoint is created and there is a button and link to view the destination. Later the endpoint can always be accessed via the destination menu option on the left side of the main screen.

Program your device to send a message

Install the ThingsML and TemperatureZero library

· From the Sketch menu in your Arduino IDE click on Include Library, Manage Libraries... or click on the library icon on the left side of the IDE.

Now, in the Library Manager, search for ThingsML and click Install.

Search for TemperatureZero and click install. When the installation is finished, click on the Library manager icon to close the left window.

Upload a sketch

From the File menu, click on Examples.

Now find ThingsML, then select Arduino, MKR_NB_1500, and within that choose mkr_nb_1500_uplink_example.

A sketch will open. Now update the values for the variables IMEI, and shared secret in the code with the values you get earlier from the device and the KPNThings.

Run the sketch

Upload the sketch to your Arduino MKR NB 1500 and open the Serial Monitor. You will see the AT commands and some other information. Check incoming data in the Portal.

Now your Arduino MKR NB 1500 is sending data, you could visit the Device twin tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see the measured temperature.

If the Test endpoint was setup the data from de device is also visible there.

As an optional step the IoT web application can be deployed to Azure Web App.

1. Install the IoT web application

2. Go to the folder 'c3y' and install: npm i

3. Build: npm run build

4. Start server in production mode: npm start

5. (optional) Seed with dummy data: ./postDummyData.sh

2. Redirect your webhook to localhost

Enable XHR Redirect in your webhook (tested in Firefox & Chrome, does NOT work in Safari):

• Content Type: application/json

• HTTP Method: POST

3. Test connection with test message

1. Send a location message using the device simulator.

You should see the location update with the location you have sent via the device simulator.

4. (optional) Deploy as Azure web application

2. Log into Azure, where ??? is the tenant ID from Azure Active Directory: az login --tenant ???

3. Deploy: az webapp up --sku B1 --location westeurope (takes about 5 minutes)

4. After deployment the URL is logged

6. Inspect logs: az webapp log tail

7. Open [generated URL] in the browser to see the web app

1. Create test HTTPS endpoint

2. Create your first Destination

Go to the Flows > My first flow and click Link destination

Choose Create a new Destination.

Select HTTPS endpoint as destination type.

3. Fill in your Destination Information

After selecting HTTPS Endpoint, fill in the following information:

• Destination name: you can think of a good recognisable name for your first destination, like My First Destination.

• URL: this should be the URL you just copied from webhook.site.

• Shared secret: this is a kind of password that an application should use to verify that KPN Things sent the data to the endpoint. It should be at least 32 characters long and should contain at least an uppercase character, lowercase character, digit, and special character.

4. Test connection with test message

Congratulations! 🎉

You successfully set up your first IoT solution!

To continue learning you can continue with:

In this QuickStart you’ll learn how to:

• Create and configure the necessary Azure resources

  • Create and configure Azure Eventhub

  • Create an Azure SQL database with appropriate data tables

  • Create and configure a Stream Analytics job

Prerequisites

• KPN Things Account with active device
• Azure subscription

Step 1: Setting up the Azure environment

In this section you’ll be guided through the creation and configuration of an Azure event hub, a stream analytics job and an Azure SQL database. It’s advised to create a new resource group in which to bundle these newly created resources.

Creating and configuring Azure event hub

The Azure EventHub is used for the ingestion of data. Don't have an Azure Event Hub yet? Head on over to the Microsoft documentation to learn to create an Azure Event Hub:

From this point, when following the link, you’ve created everything to ingest data to Azure. You have created a resource group, an Event Hubs namespace, and an event hub.

Create an Azure SQL database with appropriate data tables

Now we have prepared the input data by creating the Event Hub. We can now proceed to the creation of the Azure SQL database for the data output. Don't have an Azure SQL database yet? Head on over to the Microsoft documentation to learn how to create an Azure SQL database:

At creation, remember to select the resource group created earlier. This way all resources for this quick start will be grouped together. Furthermore, make sure to write down the ‘Server admin login’ and ‘Password’. Under additional settings don’t select sample as we want to create our own data table later on.

Query the database

When the creation of the database is complete we can create the necessary table. Go to the query editor in the Azure portal as described in the documentation link:

In the query window run the query underneath to create a new data table in the database:

When completed a new data table called eventhub will be created. Additionally, two indexes will be created to enable quick searches on ‘bn’ and ‘bt’. These columns will hold the KPN Things device identifier and measurement timestamp. The newly created data table will be visible in the left view under tables.

At this point you’ve created the data input and the data output by leveraging an Event Hub and an Azure SQL database. In the next step we’ll set up the data stream from input to output by using Azure Streamanalytics.

Create and configure a Stream Analytics job

Now we have prepared the input data by creating the Event Hub and the data output by creating an Azure SQL data store. Now let’s set up Streamanalytics to tie it all together.

The following Microsoft quickstart will guide you through the creation of an streamanalytics job. The entire article describes the usage of an iothub for input data and blob storage for output. Remember in this quickstart we will be using Eventhub for input and Azure SQL database as output.

At ‘Configure job input’ select Event Hub and point to the Eventhub created earlier. Use ‘eventhubinput’ as alias.

At ‘Configure job output’ select SQL database and point to the Azure SQL database created earlier. Set the database table to ‘eventhub’ to match the table created during the previous step. Use ‘sqloutput’ as alias.

At ‘Define the transformation query’ select Query and update with the query underneath. Make sure you are using the input and output aliases as created under input and output

Now Save your input and start the Stream Analytics job.

At this point you’ve created a data ingestion point (Event Hub) a streaming data processor (Stream analytics job) and data storage (Azure SQL database) . In the next step we’ll connect KPN Things to Azure!

Step 2: Setup a KPN Things Flow with Azure Event Hub destination

Let’s put things together! Now everything is set up in Azure all we need to do is setup a data flow in KPN Things. This Flow will send device data towards an Azure Event Hub destination.

• Go to KPN Things and add a flow and give it a name and description

• Link new or existing device(s)

• Now go back to the flow and set up the data processing by enabling the decoders for the selected device

• Add a destination for the flow. Select ‘Create new Destination’. Fill in all necessary details related to the Azure event hub created in Step 1. Don’t know where to find all the required parameters? Follow the instructions below:

When all parameters are set the destination should be active. You should now have a working KPN Things Flow towards Azure Event hub.

Congratulations!

You’ve created your first flow towards Azure. All Data produced by the devices in the flow will now be sent to Azure, get processed by the Stream Analytics Job and will be stored in the Azure SQL database.

Note that for this tutorial you need to use a LoRa device.

1. Request downlink

Go to the All Devices page and click on the device you want to send a downlink to.

Open the Send Instruction tab. There you will find the input fields to send a downlink to your LoRa device:

• FPort: is the LoRa application port on which to send the data. If you don't use application ports on your device, you can just use 1.

• Payload: is the data you want to send to your device, written in hexadecimal characters. You could use for instance 010203.

Click Submit to request the downlink to be sent to the device.

2. Check status of downlink

After requesting the downlink, under Status Downlink your downlink will have appeared. Maybe you first see your downlink with the PENDING status, meaning it is still being processed, but if you hit the refresh button (#2 in the screenshot) you should see it switching to EXECUTING.

Queuing At most one downlink can be in EXECUTING at a time. When you submit more downlinks, they will stay in the PENDING state and they will be processed "first in first out". You can have at most 5 downlinks in PENDING. As long as a downlink is in PENDING mode, you can cancel it. If you do so, it will not be send anymore and the status will change to CANCELLED.

Click on the refresh button (#1 in the screenshot) to refresh your Data History table. There should now be an uplink record following your downlink record that contains an ACK (#2 in the screenshot).

• If the uplink containing the ACK was not received by the network, you will see your downlink is still in EXECUTING. When a next uplink is received we conclude the downlink as FAILED, since we do not know for sure whether the downlink has been received. You could state that the quality of service for downlinks through KPN Things is "at least once".

If you switch back to the Send Instruction tab, you should see that the status of your requested downlink has switched to DELIVERED. That means the acknowledgement has been received by the network.

Optional: send your data to Azure SQL

Now your Device is linked to the Flow!

1. Your first Flow

We have already created a first empty flow for you named My first flow. You can create new flows using the Add flow button on the top right.

2. Link Device to Flow

Click on Add Devices in the Flow overview page.

Now you see all Devices you can add to this Flow. Click on your Device to link it to the Flow.

Now your Device is linked to the Flow!

3. Activate a Decoder

Open your Project, open your Flow, and then click Data Processing.

Click on the Device type for which you want to activate a decoder (#1 in the screenshot below). At this moment you probably have only one type of device linked to the Flow, so open that one. All available decoders are now shown (#2 in the screenshot below).

Here you can toggle on and off what (decoded) data you want to receive in your application (like indicated with #3 in the screenshot below). If you want to know more about the decoder, click on the link in the description.

KPN Things Data Management is a data processing platform that enables you to connect all your KPN Things devices to all supported destinations through one standard way of data processing. This principle is visualized in the diagram below:

Device support

Read more on device support:

Network support

KPN Things Data Management supports multiple forms of connectivity to receive data from devices. When you have a KPN Things device it is already configured to work with KPN Things Data Management.

Read more on connectivity support here:

Processing

Decode

Enrich

In future releases KPN will introduce data enrichment functionality in KPN Things Data Management.

Destination support

After processing your data will be forwarded to one or more Destinations you have configured.

The network (and the device) will report feedback about the delivery of the downlink to the Actuator API. This information can be retrieved by the application, or the Things Connector fetches this information into your system.

Actuator API

Using the KPN Things Portal, you can request downlinks, and check their progress.

Encoder

Using our encoders the downlink request is translated to a device specific message. All available encoders are listed on the Supported devices page.

Network support

Currently the following networks are supported for downlink communication:

• LoRa downlink

• HTTP response downlink for M2M devices

• HTTP response downlink for Internet-connected devices

Downlink via Destinations

• Green bordered blocks are objects provided to you.

• Green filled blocks are objects you can create and manage.

• Grey bordered blocks are objects globally managed by the system.

Customer

If you have an account on KPN Things Data Management, it belongs to a Customer account. All main objects in the KPN Things Data Management belong to a Customer: Projects, Devices, Destination and Network subscriptions.

A Network subscription contains information for network types for a specific client. Learn more about connectivity types.

Project

Each Project defines a solution you buy or build in KPN Things. Learn more about Projects.

Flow

With a Flow you link one or more devices to one or more plugs. So, if data is received from a device in a device group, its data will be forwarded to the plugs that are in the same device group.

A project has one or multiple activated decoders and encoders. These decoders prescribe which decoders should be used when data is received by a device that is in a device group that belongs to this project. Learn more about Flows.

Device

A Device represents a single physical device that can send data to the platform. When creating a device you tell the system the device specification it belongs to.

A Device specification has one or multiple supported network types. For all our supported device types, go to Devices.

For a device, you can create a Network info for each supported network type of the given device specification.

Destination

A Destination allows you to forward the data from your devices to an external system. For detailed information go to Destinations.

Manage your customers

One of the main use cases in the Internet of Things is tracking of assets. Therefore KPN Things has location data at the core of its design, especially if you take into account the wide variety of tracking hardware we sell.

We consider two different types of determining the location of your Device:

Localization

Using multiple measurements in a single domain to try to approximate the location of the device.

The following measurement values are outputted by KPN Things:

• latitude

• longitude

• radius (if available)

• source

GPS

The device determines location using GPS. An implementation works for a given device and decoder.

• Device: Should have a GPS module and send GPS location.

• Decoder: A decoder for each device type that sends GPS data (unless a Things protocol is used)

LoRa Geolocation

The LoRa network determines the approximate location of the device using three or more fine timestamps calculated by the gateways. An implementation works for all LoRa devices.

• Network: Should be KPN LoRa with a geo-enabled connectivity plan

• Decoder: LoRa Geolocation decoder should be enabled.

Wifi localization

There should be WiFi infrastructure, dense enough for a device to pick up multiple access points. A device should scan for available WiFi access points and send their MAC-address and received signal strength to Things DM. Things DM should then decode the payload whereafter an external service can be called to resolve the measurements to a latitude and longitude.

• Device: Device should be able to scan for WiFi access points

• Decoder: A decoder for each device type that scans for WiFi access points (unless a Things protocol is used)

• Processing: A WiFi Localization processor should translate incoming WiFi MAC+RSSI measurements to a latitude, longitude and radius using an external service.

Detection

Trying to detect another identifiable object with a known location and using the location of that object as approximate location of the device.

• detectedBeacon

• source

LoRa On Premises Gateway detection

The LoRa network forwards the identifier of the best receiving gateway. Using the user-administrated location of this gateway the general location of the device is determined.

• Network: Should be KPN LoRa.

• Decoder: Metadata embedded in the DevEUI_uplink message from Thingpark should be accepted as information to be processed in Things DM.

• Processing: One LoRa Metadata decoder for location detection using LoRa Gateway ID

Bluetooth beaconing

There should be managed infrastructure of Bluetooth beacons that transmit their identifier in a known manner. The locations of these beacons should be administrated in an (out-of-scope) application. There should be devices being able to detect the beacon and send the beacon identifier to Things.

• Device: There should be a beacon device transmitting a Bluetooth beacon. There should be another device picking up the beacon and sending its identifier to Things.

• Decoder: A decoder for each device type that sends a bluetooth beacon ID (unless a Things protocol is used)

• Processing: trancelate beacon to coordinates.

The KPN Things Platform is the bridge between IoT Devices and IoT Applications. It offers a unified way of connecting Devices at the one side, and applications at the other side, making Devices and applications completely interchangeable in every IoT solution that uses KPN Things.

Device integration

Application integration

KPN Things Portal

The KPN Things Portal is the visual interface with which you configure your solutions on the KPN Things Data Management platform.

IoT solution in KPN Things Portal

Users with an Explorer or Modular contract can view their contract and costs per billing cycle in the KPN Things Portal. To view the costs and contract, enable access by assigning the Finance Read-only role to your users in GRIP. See Roles and Access Levels on the Customer accounts & users page.

Starting point

To see an overview of the costs per billing cycle, click on your Customer name in the menu on the left. The Account card should show an item called Costs overview if at least one of your projects has an Explorer or Modular contract.

Costs overview

Click on the item Costs overview to navigate to the Costs Overview page. This page shows the costs that will end up on your invoices in a table and a chart. The costs are split per type; one time costs such as hardware, recurring costs, and usage. The costs are shown with any applicable discounts subtracted.

Costs details

Click on a row in the Costs table or on one of the bars in the chart to navigate to the Costs Details page of that billing cycle.

Under Base details, some information about the billing cycle is shown. The items and discounts are shown under Items and Discounts. The costs for the current month are a forecast of the next invoice and will be updated periodically during the billing cycle. Keep in mind that the actual invoice may contain additional costs and/or discounts not visible on this page.

The buttons Previous and Next above the card on the right allow you to navigate to the previous or next billing cycle.

Contract

Each project can have a contract linked by an operator of KPN. Navigating to the Project Overview page of that project shows the Project card with an item with the name of the contract.

Contract details

Click on the contract line to navigate to the Contract Details. Under Base details, some general information about the contract is shown.

Under Implementation, it is shown to which project the contract is linked. The items and discounts are shown per charge type, which can be one time, recurring, or usage. The items are subsequently grouped per product family. The regular price of each item is shown in the column Unit price in each row with a bold name. Optional tiered discounts is shown below each row to which it applies. The actual discount depends on the quantity, whose range is shown in the columns From and To. These columns are visible only if the contract has at least one item which has tiered discounts.

With Customer Management, you get the possibility to manage your own customers using separate customer environment in KPN Things. It is an extra administrative layer in the KPN Things Portal.

If you have Customer Management enabled in your KPN Things license, you will have an additional link in your side menu: All Customers (as indicated in the screenshot below). Click on it to open your customer list.

All Customers page

After clicking All Customers in the side menu, you will get an overview of all your customers.

In the screenshot the following elements are highlighted:

1. The number of Customers in your current view and your total number of Customers.

2. The company name of your Customer.

3. The name of the primary contact of your Customer.

4. The number of Projects your Customer has.

5. The number of Devices your Customer has.

6. The number of Destinations your Customer has.

7. A quick link to the All Devices page of your Customer.

9. A search bar to search for a specific Customer name.

Switching to Customer environment

After opening one of your Customers, your submenu will change. The top part will stay the same and will provide you a way back to your own Customer environment (#1 in the screenshot below). The bottom part of the side menu will now show you navigation for the environment of your Customer (#2 in the screenshot below), allowing you to open and/or manage the objects in the environment of your Customer.

Add new Customer

Customer overview

The Customer overview page provides you with a quick overview of the environment of your customer.

On this page you find:

1. A summary of the properties of your Customer.

3. The number of Projects of your Customer and a link to those Projects.

4. The number of Devices of your Customer and a link to those Devices.

5. The number of Destinations of your Customer and a link to those Destinations.

6. Quick links to add new objects to your Customer (buttons are disabled if you do not have rights)

Customer details

After switching to the Customer environment, you see the Customer details page. This page gives you a quick overview of the Customer details, like name and email address.

General questions

The Portal does not look very nice in my browser

For security reasons our platform uses the latest browser technologies for the KPN Things Portal. This means that the Portal will not work optimally in not-up-to-date browsers and underdeveloped browsers. Please use an up-to-date version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for the best user experience.

Registration and logging in

I get the error "Registration failed" when registering for a new KPN Developer account

When you get this error, first check whether you already have registered a KPN Developer account with the email address you are using. Do this by trying to login. If you reach a page where you can enter your password, you do already have an account. You can use the forgot password link to reset your password in case you forgot.

I have forgotten my password

To reset your password, execute the following steps:

2. Click Login

3. Enter your Email address and click Doorgaan

4. Click Wachtwoord vergeten

5. Enter your Email address again in the field for Gebruikersnaam and click Doorgaan

6. Choose E-mail naar ****@*****

7. Check your email for the authentication code, enter it in the field for Code in and click Doorgaan

8. Enter a new password and click Doorgaan

   1. It should be between 10 and 100 characters

   2. It should contain at least three of the following types of characters: capital letter, small letter, number, and special character

9. Your password has now been reset

Device administration

I get the error "The network identifier already exists for this network type" when adding a device.

When adding a device you can get the error "The network identifier already exists for this network type". This means the network identifier, DevEUI for LoRa or IMEI for M2M, you are using to register your device is already known in our systems.

You should delete the device record from the device table page using the three dot menu on the right side of the column.

I get the error "Device could not be created: The maximum amount of devices for this product has been reached"

After adding my LoRa device, the Network status of my LoRa Network Details says "FAILED"

This means your LoRa device could not be registered to our LoRa network. Probably the DevEUI is already in use in another application on our network like Thingpark or the LoRa Developer Portal. If you want to register your device in the Things Portal, first remove the device registration from the other application. Then you can re-add the devices in the Things Portal.

I get this error when I am trying to register my LoRa Developer Portal DevEUI's

Since the DevEUI's you are trying to register are still registered in the LoRa Developer Portal, they cannot be registered in the Things Portal. DevEUI's can only be registered once in our network.

What should I do when I lost the AppEUI or AppKey of my registered device?

If you have a device with pre-programmed identifiers and key that you cannot change, you should contact your supplier to get the information.

If you registered a device and got the identifiers from KPN Things, then there is no way to reset your AppEUI or AppKey for your device at the moment. You should delete your device from your account and add it again, get new identifiers and program the device with the new identifiers.

In time you will be able to view the AppEUI in the Portal and you will be able to generate a new AppKey for your device without having to delete and re-add it.

Device communication

My LoRa device won't join the network

I do not receive any data from my device in my application

The data from your device travels the following path to your application:

Device → Network → Processing (Decoder, etc.) → Destination (your endpoint or application)

You can check the following configuration items in the Portal to verify whether the path is correctly set up:

Device's connection to the Network

• Does your device have (the correct) connectivity information configured?

  → Visit the device detail page and go to the Connectivity tab. You can check the information and if necessary add connectivity information.

• Is the connectivity indeed activated?

• Can you see data coming in from your device in the Data History?

Destination's configuration

• Is your destination configuration correct? E.g. the URL, etc.

  → Visit, on the destination detail page, the Destination Specification tab to check your destination configuration.

  →We are working on giving you more insight into the logs of a destination, stay tuned!

• Is your destination status Active?

  → Visit the destination detail page. The Processing status in the top right card should say Active. If this is not the case, click the Activate button in the top right of the card to activate the destination again.

Flow's configuration

• Is your Device linked to the Flow?

• Is your Destination linked to the Flow?

Decoder activation

• Is the correct decoder activated?

  → If no correct Decoder is activated, click on the toggle of the desired Decoder(s) to enable it.

Other technisch in depth documentation

My question is not answered in the FAQ, how do I get an answer now?

User interface

This video explains how the User Interface and main navigation works.

Tables

This video explains how Tables work.

Bulk by multiselect

This video explains how Bulk by multiselect works in the User Interface.

Bulk by file

This video explains how Bulk by file works in the User Interface.

Customer account types

KPN Developer account

MijnKPN Zakelijk account

Delete account

Do you wish to delete your account? Please send an email to iot@kpn.com with the request to be deleted from the KPN Things Portal.

Please attach a screenshot of your Profile page so we have the right information to remove your credentials from our system.

Customer Account details

The Customer Details page can be reached through the account menu drop down (in the top right of the Portal interface).

This page shows you the details of the subscription you or your company has on KPN Things.

On this page you see the general details of your KPN Things account:

1. The customer details we have on you.

2. The unique Customer ID of your account. Useful when contacting support.

Users

Add a User in GRIP

Log into the GRIP Portal as administrator.

• If you have a KPN Developer account, you will be administrator in the GRIP Portal.

• If you have a MijnKPN Zakelijk account, you should ask your local administrator for access.

2.1. Go to User management

Then, open the Admin panel using the role drop down (#1 in the screenshot), click on Identity in the side menu (#2 in the screenshot) and click on Users (#3 in the screenshot). This brings you to the User management page. Now, click Add to add a new User (#4 in the screenshot).

2.2. Create new User

In the following pop-up, fill in the details of the new User. Then click Add to create your new User.

2.3. Give new User access to KPN Things

You need to give your newly created User access to the KPN Things service before you can use it. For this, click on Services and roles (#1 in the screenshot), and click on Add a service (#2 in the screenshot).

A modal will open. Click on the checkbox next to KPN Things (#1 in the screenshot), then select the desired role(s) and access level(s) (#2 in the screenshot) for your new User and hit Add (#3 in the screenshot).

Then, click Save to finally give your User access to KPN Things.

Roles and Access Levels

When adding new User or API key for KPN Things, one or more Roles must be selected to grant the User or API Key a set of permissions. The below list shows the available roles for KPN Things and describes what levels of access each of the roles gives to the user in KPN Things.

The Devices Landing Page in the KPN Things platform provides an overview and management interface for all your registered devices.

Device Management

• Search and Filter: At the top, there’s a search bar that allows you to quickly find specific devices by name or other attributes. You can also apply filters to narrow down the devices based on type, status, or other criteria.

• Add a New Device: You can manually add a new device by clicking on the "Add new Device" button. This will guide you through the process of registering a new device with details such as its type, unique ID, and configurations.

• Bulk Management Options:

  • Bulk by CSV File: This is a key feature that allows you to upload multiple devices at once using a CSV file. You can use this feature to save time when you need to add or manage large numbers of devices at once.

  • Firmware Management: This option lets you add new firmware version on your devices. Keeping firmware updated is important for security and functionality improvements.

Project types

The Project type determines what you can and may do in KPN Things Portal. Some KPN Things Projects provide you with more features in the Portal than others.

Depending on the subscription of your Project, one or more of the following restrictions can apply:

Project attributes

A project has the following attributes:

• UUID - the technical identifier of your project.

• Name - the name you give to your project.

• Description (optional) - further explanation of your project.

• Creation date - the moment your project was created.

• Subscription - the type of project you have, determined by what product you bought.

Freemium project

The Freemium Project gives you free limited access to the KPN Things Portal:

• One Project in KPN Things Portal.

• Access to our Device SDK to get you started with programming your Device.

• Integrated KPN LoRa functionality:

  • Free registration of up to 3 devices to KPN's nationwide LoRaWAN network.

  • Free use of LoRa Geolocation.

  • Insight in LoRaWAN network communication.

• Additionally, you can order KPN Things SIM cards to connect M2M devices to KPN Things:

  • Connect up to 2 M2M devices to KPN Things for free.

  • Data communication over HTTP (MQTT will be available in the future).

  • Access to our LTE-M, 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.

  • European roaming included.

• Optional payload decoding for supported device types.

• Forward your data to up to 3 different destinations.

• KPN Things access is subject to your Terms of Use.

Your Projects

You can find your Projects by clicking on your Customer name in the left menu. If you are a free user, you will get one project named My first project.

Do you want to upgrade one of your Projects? Click on Upgrade.

Project overview

When clicking a project you go to the Project overview page. It gives you an overview of a selected Project:

• You can see the name, description and type of subscription of the selected project.

• You can also see which Flows, Devices and Destinations are part of this project.

Project details

On this page you will find technical details of your project. At the project details page, you can edit the name and description of your project yourself.

How to read the graph

If data history is enabled for your account and device type, you can find a graph of the configured metrics on the Data graph tab of your devices details page. If available, two metrics can be selected to show 2 graphs simultaneously.

The "Zoom" button can be used to focus more on the range of the metric values. The "Table View" button gives access to the underlying data of the graph:

The displayed data can be filtered, sorted, and exported according to your needs, just like all other data tables in KPN Things.

The data-graph is configured for most device types to show battery related characteristics, like batteryVoltage and batteryLevel.

Typical Battery Voltage levels behavior

In the current portfolio KPN uses 2 types non rechargeable batteries, 3.0 Volt and 3.6 Volt. There is 1 type rechargeable battery, the 3.7 Volt.

Non rechargeable batteries 3.0V and 3.6V Both the 3.0 and 3.6 type battery will be around the voltage of 3.0V or 3.6 Volt for a long time during their lifespan.

The course has a stable behaviour during the discharge process.

Slight fluctuations in voltage are caused by changes in the internal impedance of the battery which arise when the battery is in rest and becomes active when transmitting data and the power consumption by sensor readings. The ambient temperature is also a factor of importance in these fluctuations.

In the final phase of the battery life, the fluctuations to lower values will be more severe because the battery has more difficulty recovering from the passive to active state when the internal impedance of the battery is increasing.

In the final phase also the stable character will disappear and once the decline has started, it will proceed relatively faster.

How long a device will be able to work on a battery at the end of its lifespan depends on the number and current use of messages and sensor readings initiated by the device per day.

And here too, the ambient temperature is an important factor. Rechargeable LiPo The rechargeable battery has a voltage range from 3.7 Volts to fully charged around 4.2 Volts.

During consumption, the voltage will decrease and with this rechargeable type the degree of discharge is also influenced by the load and the ambient temperature.

A rechargeable battery has a slightly greater drop in voltage in the first phase of the discharge process and more as the battery reaches the end of its lifespan. Between those two phases the drop will be gradual.

If the battery reaches a voltage below 3.6 Volts, it is advisable to charge the battery to ensure proper functioning of the device.

Next to the device list, you will see options for bulk actions, like activating or deactivating your M2M devices, or editing device settings in batches. These actions can be initiated by selecting multiple devices from the list or by uploading a CSV file that contains the necessary device information.

Exporting to CSV

You can easily download the Devices - Data result set by clicking the Download icon just below the Search icon.

This will generate CSV file, containing all devices in the current selection. The CSV file will contain the measurements accompanied with the timestamp of that specific measurement.

Click on the Bulk by CSV file button.

This step opens the process for uploading multiple devices at once via a CSV file. This saves time since you don’t need to add each device individually.

You are asked to upload a CSV file with the device data. Ensure that the structure of the file matches the template exactly, which you can download. Use a comma (,) as the CSV separator.

After uploading the CSV file, it will be validated.

This screen gives you feedback on the validation. All devices with valid data are displayed, and devices with errors won’t be processed. The system checks fields such as IMEI, ICCID, and other required fields.

After validation, choose the target project and flow where the new devices should be added. You can also specify the device details, such as the device type.

Here, you define the project and flow in which the new devices will be processed. You can also choose the type of devices being added, for example, M2M devices or another type.

Click on Add new M2M Devices to start adding the devices.

The system will now begin adding the devices. You can monitor the process by following the progress in the Bulk reports where you can see if all devices were successfully created.

The LoRa Connectivity configuration page gives you the opportunity to choose the connectivity profile that best suits your application.

The Devices overview provide you with a list of all devices als the connectivity used.

1. Click on Devices to show the device overview on the Things Manager tab

1. Click on the Connectivy Plan name to go to the LoRa Connectivity configuration section

2. Or open the LoRa tab and scroll down to the LoRa Connectivity configuration section

1. Click Edit LoRa Connectivity configuration

2. The page show an overview of the current connecivity settings for this device

Edit configuration

The connectivity plan can be updated here, by selecting the Connectivity plan selection box a new dialog opens In this dialog all available connectivity plans are shown, it shows per connectivity plan if it includes geolocation.

In the KPN Things Portal it is possible to perform certain actions in bulk, meaning a single actions is performed on multiple objects at the same time. The following operations are currently supported as bulk action:

All Bulk reports page

All historical bulk operations can be found on the Bulk Report page, directly accessible through the side menu in the KPN Things Portal. This page shows you all executed bulk operations and their results.

By clicking on a specific Bulk report you open its details.

Bulk report detail page

The Bulk report detail page shows you every operation of the bulk action and whether the result was successful or not. This allows you to review past bulk operations and maybe fix some things if necessary.

Further reading

How Things API access works

The API Key

In GRIP there are API Keys. These are separate entities in a tenant (a customer environment). That means an API key is not user bound, but it is rather a separate entity.

The access token

Each time you want to access the KPN Things APIs, you need to request an access token from the GRIP API using your API Key. This access token you get is valid for one hour, and can be used as a bearer token to access KPN Things APIs directly. a

That means, for each API call you to to KPN Things. you need to add the following Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer {accessToken}

There is no refresh token. To regain access after the validity of your access token has expired, just request another access token through the GRIP API.

You can find more information about the access method we employ here on the Grip Knowledge Base website, linked below. The method is called Machine authentication.

Getting started

This is a step-by-step explanation to find all required information needed for requesting an access token from GRIP.