Helium Dashboard is a hosted web interface that allows you to visualize and manage your connected sensor deployments built on the Helium platform. Dashboard provides realtime visibility into the health of your IoT deployments and makes it easy to deploy and administer production Helium sensing applications at scale.
This guide covers the five major sections of the Helium Dashboard.
When you log in to Helium Dashboard, you'll be greeted wth a high-level snapshot of your deployment:
Atoms are are the basic unit of connectivity and security on the Helium platform. They allow an embedded device (e.g. mbed, Arduino, your custom sensor board) to connect and transmit sensor data to the Helium routing platform via a locally-deployed Helium Element.
The Helium Atom comes in two version: the Atom Prototyping Module and the Atom Surface Mount Module. Typically the Atom Prototyping Module is added to an adapter board then attached to an embedded device like a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or mbed board for prototyping (though it can be used in production deployments). When ready to scale, the Atom Surface Mount Module can be soldered directly to any board of your choice.
You need to activate each new Atom you deploy. Here's the quick process:
+
in the navigation menu).Deactivating and Reactivating Atoms
The Atom Details UI shows various pieces of Atom metadata.
Atom Details | Description |
---|---|
Atom Name | Name of the Atom |
Atom MAC | The complete MAC Address of the Atom. The MAC Address is a unique alpha-numeric identifier that is given by Helium and cannot be changed. |
Status & Signal | An icon that represents the Atom's signal strength. More bars are better, and the most is five. |
Last Reported | Date and time (in UTC) of the last message sent from the Atom. |
Connected To | The name of the Element the Atom is connected to. Click on the Element name to view its Details. |
Location | The location of the Atom (as derived from the Element to which it was last connected). |
Created | Date and time of the Atom's activation (in UTC). |
To make the prototyping process easier, Helium Dashboard provides a Realtime Packet visualization for each Atom you've deployed. If you have an Atom online and sending data, you should be able to quickly verify it using this interface.
y
axis shows a packet's RSSI
reading when it arrived at the Helium Dashboard. For RSSI
, which uses dBm
as units, higher is better. An RSSI
of 0
would be near perfect; -110
is very poor signal strength.Users can see a detailed history of an Atom's events in its Event Log. Logs can also be filtered via the search box in the top right corner.
Atom Event Types | Explanation |
---|---|
Activated | The Atom has been activated by a user. This will show the email address of the user along with the date and time of activation. |
Deactivated | The Atom has been deactivated by a user. This will show the email address of the user along with the date and time of deactivation. |
Data Sent to Channel | The Atom has sent data to a Channel. This will show the message size, date and time of transmission, the name of the Channel, and whether or not it was transmitted successfully to the target Channel. |
Channel does not exist | The Atom tried to send data to a Channel that does not exist. |
Helium provides a Debug Log for every Atom. Once enabled (via the Debug Mode toggle), Dashboard will inspect and display the contents of each packet.
Configuration Variables enable users to update and report on known key/value pairs in their sensor's running code entirely over the air (OTA). This OTA update mechanism is extremely powerful for things like building control pipelines that are part of your application's logic and reporting on general device state.
A Configuration Variable deployed via the Atom's UI in Dashboard is known as a Global Configuration Variable
. There are also Channal Configuration Variables
which let users tie together the device state management system for a given Cloud Channel (Device Twins in Azure IoT, for example) with the Configuration Variables deployed to a sensor in the field. (Please see the Configuration Variables documentation for full details on these two types of Configuration Variables.)
To interact with the Configuration Variables that are part of your sensor's application logic, log in to Dashboard, select your target Atom, and the click the Config menu option to be taken to the UI. Here you can do two things
To set a new value for one or several Configuration Variables, simply add them to the list of Key / Value pairs and click "Update Config". Once this is done, Helium will dispatch the updates over the air to the target devices. When the update is complete, the device will report its updated state and this will be reflected in the Reported Configuration section.
This graphs shows the total amount of data sent to and from and Atom over the last seven calendar days. Hover over a data point to see exact numbers.
Dashboard users with Admin
or Owner
permissions are allowed to move Atoms to another Team in which they're also an Admin
or Owner
. To perform a transfer, select the Team from the dropdown and click the Transfer button to complete the operation.
Helium Elements create local, bidirectional wireless coverage for any number of Helium Atoms in range. There are two variations of Elements: Helium Element (Cellular Version) and the Helium Element (Ethernet-only Version).
You need to activate each new Element you deploy. Here's the quick process:
+
in the navigation menu).Deactivating and Reactivating Elements
When you navigate to the Elements overview page in Dashboard, you're shown details for all your Elements in both a Info View and a Map View.
Atoms
column to be taken to a view of all the Atoms connected to that Element.The Element Details UI shows various pieces of Element metadata in one interface. To access an Element's details, click on its name anywhere it appears linked inside of Helium Dashboard.
Element Details | Description |
---|---|
Element Name | The name of the Element. You can change this by entering a new name in the text field and clicking Save Changes. |
Element MAC | The MAC Address of the Element. This is a unique alpha-numeric identifier that is given by Helium and cannot be changed. |
Status & Signal | Online or Offline . When Online , an icon representing the type of connectivity the Element is using will appear. |
Last Reported | The date and time (in UTC) of the last message sent via that Element. |
Atoms | The number of Atoms connected to this Element. Click on the number to view the full list. |
Created | The date and time (in UTC) the Element was activated. |
Helium Dashboard provides a Realtime Packet visualization for each Element routing traffic to and from Atoms. If you have an Element online and creating network coverage, this visualization will show you, in realtime, which Atoms are sending and receiving data through it. This is extremely useful for prototyping, debugging, and production.
y
axis shows a packet's RSSI
reading when it arrived at the Helium Dashboard. For RSSI
, which uses dBm
as units, higher is better. An RSSI
of 0
would be near perfect; -110
is very poor signal strength.Helium features two different ways to retrieve an Element’s location. Users can manually enter a physical address for their Element by editing its location or allow Helium to automatically geolocate the Element. By default, Helium will use the manually entered address. If no address is entered, Helium will attempt to automatically geolocate.
Here you can view a detailed history of an Element's logs. Logs can also be filtered by typing in the search box.
Element Events | Explanation |
---|---|
Activated | Element has been activated by a user. Shows the email address of the user and date/time. |
Deactivated | Element has been deactivated by a user. Shows the email address of the user and date/time. |
View a list of Atoms connected to an Element. Click on the name of an Atom to see full details.
Dashboard users with Admin
or Owner
permissions can move Elements to another team if they're also an Admin
or Owner
of that team. To transfer the ownership of an Element, select the name of the target team from the dropdown menu and click Transfer.
Channels are secure, prebuilt connectors that route your data from devices to any cloud or private server. Helium has partnered and integrated with the best-in-class Cloud platform like Azure, Google Cloud IoT Core, and AWS IoT. Helium is the only connectivity solution that includes both hardware security and software security out of the box. Helium uses hardware secured keys to authenticate your device with the Cloud platform solution so your data integrity is never compromised.
What To Know About Channels
The following list covers all the features and functionality shared across all Channels:
When you first access the Channels interface in Dashboard you'll be presented with a list of available Channels, your deployed Channels, and a list of view of all your deployed Channels.
All Channels Table | Description |
---|---|
Name | The unique name you gave the Channel when it was deployed. |
Type | The Channel Type (e.g. Azure IoT Hub , Google Cloud IoT Core ). |
Active | Either ACTIVE or PAUSED . |
Last Message Sent | The date and time (in UTC) of the last message sent through this channel. |
Status | OK or ERROR . OK means the Channel is online and ready to route data. ERROR means it's not operating as expected and needs maintenance. |
From the main Channels interface, click on a Channel name to view its details at a glance. Channel names are immutable to ensure client-side code linking the Atom to the Channel persists. In order to rename a Channel, create a new Channel with the new name and update the client-side code. Deactivate the old Channel if it’s no longer needed.
Channel Details Table | Description |
---|---|
Channel Name | The unique name you gave the Channel when it was deployed. |
Last Message Sent | The date and time (in UTC) of the last message sent through this channel. |
Status | OK means the Channel is online and ready to route data. |
Created | The date and time (in UTC) the Channel was created. |
Helium Dashboard provides a Realtime Packet visualization for all of your Channels ingesting traffic from Atoms. If you have a Channel deployed, this visualization will show you, in realtime, which Atoms are sending data to it.
y
axis shows a packet's RSSI
reading when it arrived at the Helium Dashboard. For RSSI
, which uses dBm
as units, higher is better. An RSSI
of 0
would be near perfect; -110
is very poor signal strength.The Channel Event Log shows all activity that is routed through the that specific Channel. Each log will indicate who originated the message, the size, the date and time (in UTC), and whether the message was successfully transmitted.
The list of available event types is as follows:
Event Type | Explanation |
---|---|
Sent to Channel Name |
Data was sent to that Channel. |
Channel Activated by user |
The Channel was activated by a user. |
Channel Deactivated by user |
The Channel was deactivated by a user |
When deploying a sensor to route data to a specific Channel, you must include the unique name of that Channel in the code that's deployed to the sensor. Helium Dashboard will generate the necessary code for you to include within the Channel Code
section of each Channel for the following hardware platforms:
For example, if you're deploying an Raspberry Pi-based sensor to route data to a Channel called Google Cloud IoT Core
, you'll include something like this in your sensor program.
from helium_client import Helium
helium = Helium("/dev/serial0")
helium.connect()
channel = helium.create_channel("Google Cloud IoT Core")
channel.send("hello from Python")
This graphs shows the total amount of data sent to and from a given Channel over the 24 hours. Hover over a data point to see exact numbers.
Dashboard users with Admin
or Owner
permissions are able to move Elements to another team of which they're also an Admin
or Owner
.
To Transfer a Channel to another Team, select the target team from the Drop Down and click the Transfer button to confirm the action.
Deleting a Channel hard deletes all event logs and credentials for the Channel. Deleting a Channel should only be done if you're confident the Channel is not used by any Atom and you no longer need the Channel's metadata. If you want to stop data from routing to the cloud platform but keep event logs and credentials, we recommend deactivating the Channel instead.
Admin
and Owner
permissions are allowed to delete Channels.
Teams are the top level organization for Atoms, Elements, Channels, and Users. Each Team has its own setting. Atoms, Elements, and Channels can only belong to one team.
When you first access the Team Setting interface, you'll be shown an overview of all the team members on a given team along with their roles, the date and time they joined (in UTC), and actions you can take (depending on your permissions).
Actions
list in the Access and confirm the action.Role
drop down next to their name in the Access view and select the desired level of permissions.Every Dashboard account comes with a Personal Team that contains only one user: you. To collaborate with others, you’ll need to create a new Team (or be invited to another team). To create a new team:
+
icon that appears at the bottom of this list.To invite a new member to your team, select the Invite Member option from the top right corner on your team's Access
overview. In the UI prompt, supply an email, select their permission level, and click Invite. They will then get an email with instructions on how to confirm their account and join your team.
Roles | Permission |
---|---|
Member Role | Cannot transfer Atoms, Elements, or Channels Cannot revoke access from any user Can invite members and assign as members |
Admin Role | Can transfer Atoms, Elements, and Channels from one team to another Can revoke member access Can invite members and assign members or admin Can add and edit Billing Settings |
Owner Role | Can transfer Atoms, Elements, and Channels from one team to another Can revoke admin and member access Can invite members and assign as members, admin, or owner Can add and edit Billing Settings |