- Azure Farmbeats: Plant Monitoring System
- 📽️ Presentation + Demo
The project describes the real-time monitoring of various components of Plant such as Temperature, Sunlight, Humidity, and Moisture using Azure IoT Central which is a fully managed IoT Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that uses a model-based approach to build enterprise-grade IoT solutions without requiring expertise in cloud-solution development.
Several studies have demonstrated the need to significantly increase the world’s food production by 2050. However, there is a limited amount of additional arable land, and water levels have also been receding. Although technology could help the farmer, its adoption is limited because the farms usually do not have power or Internet connectivity, and the farmers are typically not technology savvy. I am working towards an end-to-end approach, from sensors to the cloud, to solve the problem.
- Raspberry Pi 4
- Grove Base Hat for Raspberry Pi
- Screwdriver, screws, and standoffs for Base Hat
- Grove Connectors
- SD Card USB Adapter
- SD Card 32GB
- Grove Temperature and
- Humidity Sensor Sunlight sensor
- Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensor
- This step can be completed using Windows, macOS, or Ubuntu
- Have a Micro SD Card with an adapter to be able to use it on our PC
- We will need to install the latest version of Raspbian Lite on a micro-SD card. An easy way to do this is to install the Raspberry Pi Imager
- Go to the Official Raspberry Pi Downloads Page.
- Select the correct version of the Raspberry Pi Imager for our OS.
- Install the Raspberry Pi Imager application and open it.
- Installing Raspberry Pi OS
- Insert the microSD card into the computer or laptop. We may need to use the SD card adapter and plug it into a USB port on our PC.
- Select CHOOSE OS to see a list of the available operating systems
- Select Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit)
- Next, select CHOOSE SD CARD and find the SD card that we would like to install the OS on
- Before hitting WRITE, press
Ctrl-Shift-Xto open a configuration menu like this. - It will display a window in which we will select the Enable SSH box, it will also request that we enter a password for the pi user, which is the user that comes by default in Raspberry pi, usually, the password is Raspberry for this user, but with this option, we can enter the one we like.
- Going down further in this window we can find the configure wifi box where we enter the network name and password
- Select WRITE and wait for the process to complete before removing the SD card.
Add the Grove Base Hat to our Raspberry Pi. Match the end pins up and press down firmly. Look at it from all angles to ensure that it is correctly connected.
On the bottom of the Raspberry Pi, there is a micro–SD card slot. Place the micro-SD card into this slot so that the printed side is visible. Push the card into the slot firmly. Always remember to unplug the Raspberry Pi when inserting or removing the SD card.
- Plug the Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensor into socket A2. If we have a second one plug it into A4.
- Plug the Light Sensor into socket A0.
- Plug the Temperature & Humidity into the bottom left I2C socket.
- Once all our sensors are plugged in, we should have something that looks like this.
- Plug the large end of the micro-USB cable into the power adapter and insert the power adapter into a power source
- Plug the small end of the micro-USB cable into the Raspberry Pi and Power Up! A red light should shine on the motherboard.
When powered on for the first time we need to do a few steps on the device. We will need to change our login password, set up or test our connection to the internet, and enable the I2C interface (required for using the grove sensors). Try SSHing into the Pi. From the computer connect to pi@raspberrypi.local.
ssh pi@raspberrypi.local
If the host cannot be found then if we know the IP address (for example by using our router's management software) then we can log in to pi@192.168.0.1, replacing 192.168.0.1 with the IP address of our Pi. This can be found by typing the following command into the terminal on our pi:
hostname -I
For the grove sensor to work, the I2C interface needs to be enabled.
- Launch the configuration tool on the Pi, found under Menu > Preferences > Raspberry Pi Configuration
- Select the Interfaces tab
- Set I2C to Enabled
- Select OK to confirm the changes
- Select Yes to reboot the system if prompted.
The SSH connection will be terminated, so we will need to reconnect. Once the Pi reboots the I2C interface will be enabled.
Azure IoT Central is an IoT application platform that allows us to interact with cloud services and interact with them. IoT central has a user-friendly UI that allows us to monitor device conditions, create rules, and manage millions of devices easily.
- Log in to the Azure Portal.
- Click on + Create a new resource.
- Search IoT Central and click on IoT Central Application. Then click on Create.
- Fill in the details for the IoT App.
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- Give our app a name such as lab1sensor.
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- Select the subscription.
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- Create a new resource group for the whole lab. In this case, I have named it Lab1.
Resource groups are logical groupings of Azure services, allowing us to manage all the services for a particular application or project together.
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- Select Standard 1 for the Pricing plan.
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- In this case, I am going to create the app from scratch, so I chose a custom application in Template.
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- Select our location.
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- Click on Create.
- After that, our IoT Central app will start the deployment. Once it is finished, just click on Go to Resource.
- To access the IoT Application Dashboard just press on the IoT Central Application URL hyperlink.
Azure IoT Central can work with multiple types of devices, and multiple devices per device type. Device types are defined using templates - these specify the capabilities of the device including the telemetry that can be received from the device and commands that can be sent to it. The environment sensor captures temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and light conditions. We will need to define a template that has these values on it, so they can be received from the Pi.
- From the left panel select Device Template. Then click on + New.
- Select the IoT Device template.
- Select the Next: Customize button.
- Select the Next: Review button.
- Select the Create button.
- Name the template
SensorMonitor.
Once the template is created, we need to add capabilities to it. These are defined using capability models, which define the capabilities of all devices that will use this template. Capability models are made up of three parts:
- Interfaces - these are reusable collections of capabilities and are grouped into three categories:
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- Telemetry - actual values detected and sent by the device, for example in a thermostat it could be the current detected temperature
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- Properties - settings on the device, for example in a thermostat it could be the desired temperature. These can be set by the device, or via Azure IoT Central and synced to the device.
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- Commands - calls that can be made on the device, optionally passing data. For example, in a thermostat, it could be called by a mobile app to send a request to change the desired temperature.
- Cloud properties - these are properties set in Azure IoT Central against a device, but not synced to the device. For example, a device could have a cloud property for the account name of the owner, the devices’ location, or the date it was last serviced.
- Views - these are dashboards for a device that can contain charts, data values, and other information allowing you to visualize telemetry or send commands. The environment sensor needs a capability model created, with an interface defined for the telemetry values being sent, a command to indicate that the plant needs watering, and a view to visualize these values.
- Select the Custom capability model Add an interface
- Add a new interface to the capability model by selecting the top-level Environment sensor item in the menu and selecting +Add interface
- Select Custom
- This interface needs 4 telemetry values added to it for the temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and sunlight level. Telemetry values have the following properties:
- Display name - this defines what is shown on a view to display the value
- Name - this map to the values being sent from the device
- Capability type - this defines what type of value this is, and includes some standard types such as temperature or pressure.
- Schema - this defines the data type for the value being received, such as an integer or a floating-point number
- Unit - this defines the unit, for now, telemetry types, for example, °C for temperatures.
- Select the + Add capability button to add new capabilities, and add the following five values:
| Display Name | Name | Capability Type | Semantic Type | Schema | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | temperature | Telemetry | Temperature | Double | °C |
| Humidity (%) | humidity | Telemetry | Humidity | Double | % |
| Soil Moisture (%) | soil_moisture | Telemetry | None | Double | % |
| Sunlight | light_level | Telemetry | None | Double | % |
- Select Views from the menu.
- Select Visualizing the device
- Set the view name to Overview. We will use this view to show the charts of the values recorded.
- Drag Temperature from the Telemetry section onto the dashboard. This will add a graph showing the temperature recorded over the past 30 minutes to the dashboard. We can configure this in multiple ways using the control buttons on the top of the panel:
- Change the visualization to be several different chart types or the last known value
- Change the size of the panel on the dashboard
- Configure the chart including legend, axis labels, and the time range
- Configure the chart or last know value to your liking.
- Repeat this for the other telemetry values. If we want to plot multiple telemetry values on the same chart use the checkboxes to select multiple values and drag them together. We can add telemetry values multiple times to get multiple views over the data.
- We can also customize the view with labels, markdowns, or images if desired.
- Select the Save button from the top menu
- We can create another view showing just the last value received if we want. Here is an example of what it can look like.
Before the device template can be assigned to a device, it needs to be published. Once published, any interfaces defined on it cannot be changed, instead, a new version of the device template needs to be created.
- Select the Publish button from the top-most menu.
- Click on Publish.
- Go to Devices > SensorMonitor.
- Select + New.
- Set the Device Name to
Raspberry piand the Device Id toraspberry_pi. Then click on Create.
A new device should appear in the devices list.
Each device has a set of connection details that will be used on the actual device to connect to Azure IoT Central and send telemetry.
- Click on the Raspberry pi device we have just created.
- Click on the Connect button located at the top right corner.
- Take note of the ID Scope, Device Id, and Primary key. We will need these values to send the data from the raspberry pi.
By default, Raspbian uses Python 2. However, versions 2 and 3 come installed by default. We just have to make 1 minor change so that the Pi uses Python 3 whenever we type python into a terminal. In a terminal window, enter the following command:
python --version
Raspbian Lite, the Python package manager, pip, does not come pre-installed. As a result, we will need to install it with the commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
Press y when prompted. Note that to use pip for Python 3, we will need to use the command pip3.
Python comes in various versions, and Python apps can use external code in packages installed via a tool called pip. This can lead to problems if different apps need different package versions or different Python versions. To make it easier to avoid issues with package or Python versions, it is best practice to use virtual environments, self-contained folder trees that contain a Python installation for a particular version of Python, plus several additional packages. Ensure that the Python 3 virtual environment tooling is installed by running the following commands in the terminal
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-venv
Create a new file inside the EnvironmentMonitor folder called app.py
- Name the new file app.py and press return
- Create a new virtual environment called .venv using Python 3 by running the following command in the terminal
python3 -m venv .venv
- A dialog will pop up asking if we want to activate this virtual environment. Select Yes.
Python has a package manager called pip that allows you to install code from other developers in packages called pip packages. We can read more about pip and see the available packages at pypi.org. Packages can either be installed into the virtual environment one at a time using the pip command, or multiple packages can be listed in a file called requirements.txt and installed together. The advantage of using a requirements.txt file is that this can be checked into source code control so that other developers can configure their environment the same way by installing the same packages from this file.
- Create a new file inside the EnvironmentMonitorIoT folder called
requirements.txt - Add the following to this file
azure-iot-device
python-dotenv
RPi.bme280
grove.py
smbus2
From the terminal, run the following command to install these packages:
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
The packages installed are:
| Package | Description | Capability Type | Semantic Type | Schema | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| azure-iot-device | Allows communication with Azure IoT services including Visual Studio Code | Telemetry | Temperature | Double | °C |
| python-dotenv | Allows loading of environment variables from .env files | Telemetry | Humidity | Double | % |
| RPi.bme280 | Provides access to the BME280 temperature/pressure/humidity sensor | Telemetry | None | Double | % |
| grove.py | Provides access to the grove sensors including the Grove capacitive moisture sensor and the Light sensor | Telemetry | None | Double | % |
Also, install the seeed-dht package with the following command.
!pip3 install seeed-python-dht
The connection details for the device ideally should not be stored in the source code. They should be saved on the device and loaded as required. This is to avoid checking these details into source code control or sharing them publicly accidentally.
Python has a concept of .env files to store secrets such as connection details. These files are managed by the python-dotenv pip package and are usually ignored when checking into git.
Create a new file inside the EnvironmentMonitorIoT folder called .env
- Add the following entries to this file:
- ID_SCOPE=
DEVICE_ID=
raspberry_piPRIMARY_KEY= - Set to be the value of the ID Scope from the Connect dialog in Azure IoT Central. Set to be the Primary key value from this dialog.
- Open the app.py file
- Add the following code to the file:
from azure.iot.device.aio import IoTHubDeviceClient, ProvisioningDeviceClient
from datetime import datetime, date
import os, asyncio, json, time
from dotenv import load_dotenv
#temperature and humidity
import seeed_dht
#moisture
import math
import sys
import time
from grove.adc import ADC
__all__ = ["GroveMoistureSensor"]
class GroveMoistureSensor:
'''
Grove Moisture Sensor class
Args:
pin(int): number of analog pin/channel the sensor connected.
'''
def __init__(self, channel):
self.channel = channel
self.adc = ADC()
@property
def moisture(self):
'''
Get the moisture strength value/voltage
Returns:
(int): voltage, in mV
'''
value = self.adc.read_voltage(self.channel)
return value
#sunlight
import seeed_si114x
import time
import signal
# Configuration parameters
bme_pin = 1
bme_address = 0x76
moisture_pin = 0
light_pin = 0
# Create the sensors
sensor = seeed_dht.DHT("11", 16)
moisture_sensor = GroveMoistureSensor(moisture_pin)
#light_sensor = GroveLightSensor(light_pin)
load_dotenv()
id_scope = os.getenv('0ne0036E38B')
device_id = os.getenv('Raspberry_pi')
primary_key = os.getenv('gymeiFeFoNwg2BV28flilg8slBwW6jbOq6oo96I2LJQ=')
def getTemperaturePressureHumidity():
# for DHT11/DHT22
humi, temp = sensor.read()
if not humi is None:
print('DHT{0}, humidity {1:.1f}%, temperature {2:.1f}*'.format(sensor.dht_type, humi, temp))
else:
print('DHT{0}, humidity & temperature: {1}'.format(sensor.dht_type, temp))
time.sleep(2)
#return bme280.sample(bus, bme_address, calibration_params)
return(humi, temp)
def getMoisture():
Grove = GroveMoistureSensor
from grove.helper import SlotHelper
sh = SlotHelper(SlotHelper.ADC)
pin = 0
sensor = GroveMoistureSensor(pin)
print('Detecting moisture...')
m = sensor.moisture
if 0 <= m and m < 2000:
result = 'Dry'
elif 2000 <= m and m < 3000:
result = 'Moist'
else:
result = 'Wet'
print('Moisture value: {0}, {1}'.format(m, result))
time.sleep(1)
#return round(moisture_sensor.moisture, 2)
return round(m, 2)
def getLight():
SI1145 = seeed_si114x.grove_si114x()
print("Please use Ctrl C to quit")
light_data=SI1145.ReadVisible
return (light_data)
def getTelemetryData():
temp = getTemperaturePressureHumidity() # degrees Celsius
moisture = getMoisture() # voltage in mV
#pressure = round(getTemperaturePressureHumidity().pressure, 2)/1000 # kPa
#humidity = round(getTemperaturePressureHumidity().humidity, 2) # % relative Humidity
light = getLight() # % Light Strength
data = {
"temperature": temp[1],
"humidity":temp[0],
"soil_moisture": moisture,
"sunlight": light
}
return json.dumps(data)
async def main():
# provision the device
async def register_device():
provisioning_device_client = ProvisioningDeviceClient.create_from_symmetric_key(
provisioning_host='global.azure-devices-provisioning.net',
registration_id='Raspberry_pi',
id_scope='#########', #hidden due to security
symmetric_key='###gymeiFeFoNwg2BV28flilg8slBwW6jbOq6oo96I2LJQ=###')
return await provisioning_device_client.register()
results = await asyncio.gather(register_device())
registration_result = results[0]
# build the connection string
conn_str='HostName=' + registration_result.registration_state.assigned_hub + \
';DeviceId=' + 'Raspberry_pi' + \
';SharedAccessKey=' + 'gymeiFeFoNwg2BV28flilg8slBwW6jbOq6oo96I2LJQ='
# The client object is used to interact with Azure IoT Central.
device_client = IoTHubDeviceClient.create_from_connection_string(conn_str)
# connect the client.
print('Connecting')
await device_client.connect()
print('Connected')
# async loop that sends the telemetry
async def main_loop():
while True:
telemetry = getTelemetryData()
print(telemetry)
await device_client.send_message(telemetry)
await asyncio.sleep(5)
await main_loop()
# Finally, disconnect
await device_client.disconnect()
if __name__ == '__main__':
asyncio.run(main())- This code connects to Azure IoT Central, and every 5-15 seconds will poll for data from the sensors and send it as a telemetry message.
- Save the file
- From the terminal, run the following command to start the app
python3 app.py
The app should start, connect to Azure IoT Hub, and send data. The data being sent will be printed to the terminal
- Open the app in Azure IoT Central
- From the Devices tab, select the Raspberry Pi device
- The view will load, and there should be data visible that matches the data being sent
