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Activations

Use Activations to create and manage activation codes and provide easier and uniform device rollouts to your field engineers, customers or end users.

With activation codes your field engineers can do a hassle-free device rollout without having in-depth knowledge of device types and network specification.

To read more about available partner services, go to Get started for Partners.

  • If your device is connected over LPWAN, pre-provision devices on a network of your choice (you need your own account on the network service)
  • If your device has IP connectivity (WiFi/LAN/LTE-M) you can generate a registration secret (or use hardware identifier) so the device client can retrieve device resource credentials and start sending data once the customer rolls out the device
  • Use device type and connectivity details to generate an activation code
  • Give an end-user the activation code to rollout their device

Creating activation codes

From Activations menu, choose + NEW ACTIVATION.

Create an activation

Hardware ID

Hardware ID uniquely identifies the device chipset within your internal reference system, e.g. MAC address, Device EUI or IMSI number. One Hardware ID maps to exactly one activation code.

Hardware ID can be used to troubleshoot activations, e.g, when an end-user asks for support during rollout, the partner might ask for Hardware ID to lookup for the device.

Examples of how you can choose Hardware IDs

  • LoRa devices
    • Choose Device EUIs as Hardware ID
  • NB-IoT devices
    • Choose IMEI as Hardware ID

Options

You can configure the activation to allow different rollout options in regards to desired device type and/or a connectivity.

Activation options

For example, if you have a multi-network hardware device and you want to allow users to choose their preferred network, you can define multiple options. Each option will describe network-specific keys needed for proper provisioning.

  • Single option: a device type using a connectivity
  • Multiple options:
    • a device type using multiple connectivities
    • multiple device types using multiple connectivities

Device type

Choose a published device type version. If none, you can create and publish a new device type.
You can define multiple device types in different activation options.

  • Choose an existing device type, e.g. IoTmate/counter

Connectivity

These LPWAN networks that are supported so far:

  • The Things Network - thethingsnetwork
  • Loriot - loriot
  • Actility ThingPark - thingpark
  • Proximus MyThings - mythings
  • Lattelecom - lattelecom
  • Things Connected - tc
  • T-Mobile NL - tmobilenl
  • Orange BE - orangebe

If your device has IP connectivity (WiFi/LAN/LTE-M), you can select IP connected device option.

IP connected device

Read more in Let your users activate an IP device.

Connectivity details

For the device to be connected properly, you need to provide connectivity details.
This is a list of required fields for each connectivity we support:

  • For LoRa networks you need to provide a corresponding DEVICE EUI field
  • For The Things Network LoRa network specifically, you need to provide both DEVICE EUI and APPLICATION ID
  • For T-Mobile NL you need to provide IMEI
  • For Orange BE IoT you need to provide IMEI
  • For IP connected device you need to specify a registration Secret which will be used to retrieve device credentials once the device is rolled out

All other connectivity details are optional for the connection between an NSP and AllThingsTalk Maker, but might be required for the connection between the edge device and the NSP.
The benefit of including it in the activation is to make it accessible to the end-user.

Once you’ve configured the activation, click CREATE button to create your first activation.

Generated activation code

Managing activations

Activations page show all of your activations.

List activations

Here’s what you can do:

  • Filter by Activation code, Hardware Id, Description etc.
  • View each activation in detail
  • See if the activation has been used
  • See which option has been used to rollout the device
  • Update any activation that has not yet been used
  • Deactivate a device (e.g, troubleshooting, reselling of the device etc.)

Rolling out the device with the activation code

Once your end-user receives the device and the activation code, she can create Maker account, or sign in.
After she chooses a ground where she wants to rollout the device, she can choose + NEW DEVICE from Devices page.
When she provides the activation code, interface will show the available options. After she chooses an option to rollout the device, and confirms, the device will be created based on the specified device type and connectivity (if set).

Using Activation API

In case you need more flexibility in managing your activations, you can check out Activations API.

Get started for Partners
Device types