Install the Arduino Create Agent

Arduino Create Agent is a background program to listen to our local Arduino devices. This agent program acts as a bridge between local Arduino devices and Arduino IoT Cloud.

The Arduino Create Agent program is available for Windows, Linux, and the macOS platform. You can download this program at this link, https://github.com/arduino/arduino-create-agent. After installed, you should allow this program to run in the background. On the Windows platform, you can see a tray icon for the Arduino Create Agent on the taskbar, as shown in Figure 5-2.

You can open the Debug Console menu by clicking this in the Arduino Create Agent. If your Arduino devices are attached on local computer, a debug console from the Arduino Create Agent will show our device status. Figure 5-3 shows my Arduino Nano 33 IoT is detected.

If you don’t see your Arduino device, make sure your Arduino is attached to your computer properly. After completed, you can register your Arduino Nano 33 IoT.

Add New Arduino Device

Once we have set up the Arduino Create Agent program on a local computer, we can add a new Arduino device. You can open the Arduino IoT Cloud website. Then, click the DEVICES menu. You can see a list of Arduino devices.

Now you can add a new Arduino Nano 33 IoT. You can plug in your Arduino Nano 33 IoT. You should see a dialog, as shown in Figure 5-4. Click Set up in the Arduino device menu.

After clicking this option, you should see Arduino Nano 33 IoT, as shown in Figure 5-5. If you don’t see your Arduino Nano 33 IoT, make sure your Arduino Nano 33 IoT is attached and Arduino Create Agent is running.

Set your device name for Arduino Nano 33 IoT. If done, you can click the CONFIGURE button. Arduino IoT Cloud will configure your Arduino Nano 33 IoT, as shown in Figure 5-6. It will take several minutes to complete this task. After completing configuration , you should see your Arduino Nano 33 IoT listed on the Arduino IoT Cloud list, as shown in Figure 5-7.

Adding a New Thing

A feature of the Arduino IoT Cloud is a program to interact with Arduino devices. With a free membership, we can only create one thing. In this demo, we build a remote for the LED from the Arduino IoT Cloud dashboard.

Open the Arduino IoT Cloud website. Click the Things menu. Then, you can obtain a form, as shown in Figure 5-8. Enter your Thing name and Arduino device. Each Thing is connected by one Arduino device.

After you set the Thing name, you can click the CREATE button. After that, you will see a form, as shown in Figure 5-9. We will configure Properties for Arduino Nano 33 IoT in the next section.

Adding a Property

We can expose I/O from Arduino Nano 33 IoT through the Thing property. For instance, we want to expose sensor data to the Arduino IoT Cloud. In this scenario, we want to expose our built-in LED in Arduino Nano 33 IoT. We can set I/O on LED so we can turn on/off the LED over the web.

You can start by opening a Thing on the Arduino IoT Cloud. Figure 5-9 shows our Thing that we already created. Click the Add Property button to add a new property. After clicking, you will obtain a form, as shown in Figure 5-10.

My entry is shown in Figure 5-10. After filled all fields, you can click the ADD PROPERTY button. You will come back to the Things form. You should see LED1 property on the Thing form, as shown in Figure 5-11.

You have created a Thing. Next, we can modify the Sketch program in order to connect to this LED1 property.

Editing the Sketch Program

Now we can edit our Sketch program. On the property form from the Thing dashboard (see Figure 5-11), you can click the EDIT SKETCH button. After clicking, you will obtain the Arduino web editor, as shown in Figure 5-12.

First, we modify the Secret program to configure the WiFi network on Arduino Nano 33 IoT. Fill in SSID ID and SSID key on the Secret tab. Now we modify codes on our main Sketch.

Save this program. You can compile and upload this program to Arduino Nano 33 IoT. Click Verify and Upload icons for compiling and uploading program.

Build a Dashboard

Now we can build a dashboard that is used to create interaction between Arduino IoT Cloud and Arduino Nano 33 IoT. We can create many dashboards for a Thing project. In our scenario, we create a dashboard with a button. First, click the DASHBOARD menu. Create a new dashboard so you will obtain a form, as shown in Figure 5-13.

We can add a new switch on our dashboard editor. Click the ADD button and select Switch widget. You can see the Switch widget option in Figure 5-14.

Click Switch widget and then drag it to the dashboard editor. After dragging the Switch widget, you should see Switch widget, as shown in Figure 5-15.

Click Example Data to link the Switch widget to the Thing property. After clicking, you will obtain a form as shown in Figure 5-16.

Click the Linked Property button to link with the Thing property. We will obtain a form, as shown in Figure 5-17. Select our Thing name, and select Property (LED1). If done, click the LINK PROPERTY button. Then, we will back to our dashboard editor.

You also can rename our dashboard program—for instance, LED Demo. Now we can test our dashboard program.

Testing

To test our program, we need to activate our dashboard program on running mode. You can click the USE DASHBORD button to activate the dashboard program.

You can attempt to toggle the Switch to ON mode. Then, you should see the built-in LED on Arduino Nano 33 IoT lights up. You also can turn off the LED by toggling the Switch to OFF mode.

You can customize this program by adding some LEDs. Then, you can add some properties on the Things program.

Add a New Thing

You can create a new Thing on Arduino IoT Cloud. If you have a free membership, you should delete the existing Thing on Arduino IoT Cloud because you can only create one Thing.

Now you can create a new Thing. For instance, we set the Thing name as GyroscropeThing. Then, we can add some properties to GyroscopeThing.

Add Property

After creating a Thing, we can add properties. For this demo, we create three properties to monitor the Gyroscope sensor from Arduino Nano 33 IoT. These properties will be linked to X, Y, and Z degrees from the Gyroscope sensor. When we can add a new property, we have a form, as shown in Figure 5-20. We add three properties with property parameters as shown in Table 5-1.

Table 5-1

Input Paramters for Three Thing Properties

Parameters	Property 1	Property 2	Property 3
Name	xDegree	yDegree	zDegree
Variable	xDegree	yDegree	zDegree
Type	Float	Float	Float
Minimum/Maximum	-4/-4	-4/-4	-4/-4
Permission	Read-only	Read-only	Read-only
Update
Delta	0.05	0.05	0.05
Show history visualization	Checked	Checked	Checked

After we creat three Thing properties, we will return to our Things dashboard. You can see three properties in Figure 5-21.

Editing the Sketch Program

After we add three properties on GyroscopeThing, we can edit the Sketch program. We will read the gyroscope sensor and then update sensor data to property variables.

Click the EDIT SKETCH button to edit our program on Arduino IoT Cloud. Then, we have the Sketch web editor. We modify this Sketch program to enable us to read the Gyroscope sensor and update three Thing properties.

Save this program. Now you can compile this Sketch program and upload to Arduino Nano 33 IoT device.

Build a Dashboard

Last, we can set dashboard name. Now we can test our widgets on the dashboard.

Testing

We can test our Arduino IoT Cloud program. You can navigate to the Arduino IoT Cloud dashboard. Click the dashboard form that we already created. Click the USE DASHBORD button to be in RUN mode.

You can see the widget output in Figure 5-23. Shake your Arduino Nano 33 IoT board to see sensor data changes on dashboard widgets.

You have created a dashboard on Arduino IoT Cloud to monitor sensors from Arduino Nano 33 IoT. You can practice by applying some sensors or actuators to integrate with Arduino IoT Cloud.