Smart Building MeshCube Demo Kit

Smart Building MeshCube Demo Kit is the optimal solution if you want to test MeshCube platform for buildings (offices, hospitals, schools, …). The Demo Kit includes devices suitable for building installations and allows to test both asset tracking and personnel locating applications.

This guide refers to the Demo Kit with installed MeshCube v.6.0 provided with new features and functions.
If your Demo Kit is proided with MeshCube v.5.6 please refer to the user guide here.

Demo Kit Hardware components

In the table below are listed the Hardware Components that are included in the MeshCube Demo Kit.

Device Quantity Image
MeshCube Server with Power Supply Unit and 1-year license 1 image
TinyGateway WiFi Wirepas 1 image
Wirepas Ultra Anchors with holder 12 image
Wirepas Slim Tag Asset Tags 6 image
Wirepas SafeX Lite Wearable Tags 2 image

Prerequisites

Prerequisites for using MeshCube Demo Kit are:

  • LAN (Local Area Network). Your LAN should be provided with DHCP server to be able to retrieve the MeshCube Server IP address.
  • A PC/Laptop with LAN (or WLAN) interface and web browser (Google Chrome is suggested).

Setup

The following steps describe the complete setup of the MeshCube Demo Kit. Please follow each step as suggested.

Step 1: Setup of LAN connection

  1. Power-up MeshCube Server using provided Power Supply Unit (PSU) and connect it to your LAN.

  2. Power-up TinyGateway WiFi with USB-C cable or through internal 2-port connector, based on the TinyGateway WiFi version. Refer to the TinyGateway WiFi manual for TinyGateway installation and configuration.

  3. Connect PC/Laptop to your LAN.

  4. Find the local IP address of the MeshCube Server. On your router interface MeshCube Server is listed with hostname meshcube-XXXXXX, where XXXXXX is a number.
    Otherwise, if mDNS service is active in your network, you can reach the MeshCube interface at meshcube.local

LAN setup

Step 2: Mesh gateway setup

The following steps describe the process to connect BlueUp TinyGateway Mesh Gateway to MeshCube software.

On your PC/Laptop connected to the LAN, using the web browser, open local IP of the MeshCube Server (local IP found in the previous Step) or by typing meshcube.local, if the server is connected to the local network and installed on premises.

Login the MeshCube web interface using default password blueup. Login

Go to the section Gateways.
At the first start no gateway is connected to the system. Available Gateways

To connect the provided gateway to the system ther are 2 possible ways:

  1. Press Add to search and connect the gateway to the system. Press on Connect button of the coresponding gateway to connect it to the system. Connect gateway

  2. Connect the gateway from the notification center. Periodically the system scans the network and reports the new gateways found in the local network in a notification. To connect a gateway, open the notification manager and press Click to register to connect the gateway to your MeshCube. Connect gateway - notification

The Gateway is now listed in the “Connected Gateways” section and starts communicating with MeshCube software.

Connected Gateways

Step 3: Mesh anchors installation and setup

The following steps describe the process for installation and configuration of the Mesh Anchors for the positioning system.

To reduce energy consumption of the devices during transportation, Ultra Wirepas Anchors are shipped without batteries inserted.

  1. After Step 2, before the activation of the devices, in Nodes section no nodes are displayed. Nodes

  2. Follow the instructions you find in the box to insert the batteries in the Ultra anchors.
    After power on, the non router nodes will appear in the system. Ultra instructions

  3. Install the Mesh Anchors in the place where the system will be used. For Mesh Anchor installation tips refer to the following guide.

  4. In the Maps menu, click on Create new map in the top-right corner to create a new map.
    Upload the file containing the map. When uploading the map, you will be requested to specify the scale of the map (in pixels/mt). The accuracy of this value is required for maximum accuracy of the localization.
    Create new map

  5. Create the Zones on the map. (The zones are not mandatory) In Actions menu press on Create new zone. Using the left mouse button, press in a spot where one vertex of the zone will be and drag from that point to build a polygon. Release the mouse button. If the zone is not squared, but is an irregular polygon, other vertexes can be added. To add a new vertex, press Shift and click with the mouse on one of the vertexes. The new vertex will be added on the right with respect to the vertex on which you have pressed.
    To move a vertex, press and drag it in the desired position (press Ctrl to stick the vertex to the guides).
    When the zone is setup, press Enter to save the created zone. Create new zone video

  6. Select Place Sink/Routers on the map in Actions menu, select the Sink or Router to place on the map and place it on the map.
    To move a Sink or Router:

    • right click on it and a menu will appear, from which it is possible to move or delete a node;
    • or press Shift and drag the router. Release and press YES if the position if right.
    • Each Mesh Anchor should be placed in the same position where it is physically installed: take care of Mesh Anchor S/N to uniquely identify each device through its ID. The ID of each device is composed by the Model Number and Serial Number, that is printed on the sticker of each device, as follows:
ID = XXYYYYYY
Model Number = XX
Serial Number = YYYYYY

Place routers video

Step 4: Mesh tags setup

Mesh Tags are shipped with an Ultra-Low-Power Configuration to avoid useless battery consumption during transportation and storage. For this reason, Mesh Tags are not immediately active and require a preliminary configuration.

The following steps describe the process for configuration and setup of the Mesh Tags.

  1. The configuration can be set from the MeshCube web interface, from Networks Configuration section. Network configuration includes both Mesh Anchors and Mesh Tags.
    Mesh Tags can be of one of two types: Asset Tag (tags suitable for positioning and tracking of assets) or Personal Tag (tags suitable for positioning and tracking of people).
    The default device Classes are defined as follows:

    • F9 - default Anchor class
    • FA - default Asset Tag class
    • FB - default Personal Tag class
    • Other node classes can be defined. Refer to MeshCube User guide for more information. Network Configuration

  2. Edit Edit the Default Configuration to set a properly working configuration. In the following is summarized a suggested default configuration, but the user can change it, based on the needs.

Router node configuration
Sensing interval 5 min
Alerts enable On
Off by position Off
Beaconing Disabled

Router nodes configuration

Non router node configuration (same for both Asset and Personal tags)
Default positioning interval 120 s
Default timeout 600 s
Default autoscan Off
Motion positioning interval 30 s
Motion timeout 60 s
Motion autoscan Off
Alarm positioning interval 15 s
Alarm timeout 60 s
Alarm autoscan Off
Sleep positioning interval 3600 s
Sleep autoscan On
Button enabled On
Alerts enabled On
Accelerometer enabled On
Motion threshold 160 mG
Motion duration 3 s
Advanced accelerometer Disabled
Beaconing Disabled

Non rourer nodes configuration 3. Save Save the configuration and apply Apply the configuration to the nodes of the network. Tag Configuration 4. When Mesh Tags are in Ultra-Low-Power Configuration (first time you receive them) you need to wake them up in order to forward the configuration command. The wakeup procedure varies based on the presence or not of a button on the device:

Mesh Tags without button shake the tag
Mesh Tags with button press the button
5. To check if the Mesh Tags have updated their configuration with the new one, go to Nodes and check the Config column. The Config icon can have one of four colors:

  • Grey: the system has not received the configuration for the device yet. This state is usually displayed at the startup of the system.
  • Red: the configuration of the node is different from the Network Configuration set in the interface. It can happen, for example, when the new configuration has been set and the nodes have not updated the configuration yet.
  • Yellow: the node class configuration in not present in the latest Network Configuration. This can happen since it is possible to add or remove device classes when configuring the devices in the network.
  • Green: the device is updated to the latest configuration.
    immagine

Once all the devices (Mesh Anchors and Mesh Tags) are listed with Green or Yellow Config icon, the system is configured and you can start using it.

In Maps now it is possible to monitor the position of the non router nodes (Tags), evaluated based on the signal strength between tags and anchors.

Tag Positioning