Use the Renesas AE-CLOUD2 to Send GPS Data to the Google Cloud IoT

The Renesas Synergy™ AE-CLOUD2 is an Internet of Things (IoT) development kit for prototyping cloud-connected sensor applications that can communicate through Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Category M1 (Cat-M1) or Category NB1 (Cat-NB1) cellular networks as well as Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The development kit features a programmable ARM® based microcontroller and several types of sensors, including a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Arduino-compatible expansion headers allow you to add other types of input/output (I/O) components. Software development is supported by the Renesas e2 studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) coupled with an automated code-generation tool .The automated code-generation tool creates ready-to-run projects containing the mix of hardware, software, and cloud connectivity required for your application. The board includes a built-in J-Link debugger interface for programming and debugging using a personal computer running Windows.

Google Cloud IoT

Google Cloud IoT is a cloud service on the Google Cloud Platform. It allows you to define registered IoT devices along with their device identifications (IDs) and security credentials. This cloud service creates publish and subscribe topics, which allow the secure exchange of messages between IoT devices and the Google Cloud. Other applications and Google Cloud services can subscribe to receive these messages to take further action on the data. IoT devices can also receive commands and configuration parameters by publishing messages to corresponding topics.

Cloud communications take place using the Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol or the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP). The Transport Layer Security (TLS) secures communications, and the JavaScript Object Notation [JSON] Web Tokens (JWT) perform authentications. Each device uses public and private key pairs for secure authentications within the Google Cloud IoT. Individual devices can be enabled, disabled, or blocked by adjusting their parameters in the Google Cloud IoT console. Connection metrics and logging can be enabled in the cloud for monitoring and debugging purposes when necessary. Cloud functionality can be configured and controlled through a web-based console, a command-line tool, or through the Google Cloud Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Google offers command-line tools and API packages for several programming languages as free downloads.

Synergy Enterprise Cloud Toolbox Demo Dashboard

The Renesas Synergy Enterprise Cloud Toolbox Demo Dashboard is a quick-start web and cloud application that allows you to quickly get your AE-CLOUD2 kit running and sending sensor data to the cloud where you can view it on a real-time dashboard. Example application projects illustrate end-to-end operation, and you can modify the source code to extend and adapt to your own applications.

Using Your Own Dev Kit

To use your own AE-CLOUD2 kit with the Google Cloud, check out our step-by-step article that walks you through the entire process of:

• Setting up the development tools

• Installing and running the necessary software components

• Building the code and downloading it to the board

• Configuring the board’s Wi-Fi and Google Cloud connection credentials

• Running the board to generate real-time sensor and GPS measurements that are sent to the cloud

There, we also show you how to observe the published data by subscribing to the message data topic using a Python program. A set of next steps gives you suggestions for how to extend and adapt the application for different IoT prototyping scenarios or to learn more.