AELTA UNO-LW UNOlite Indoor Air Quality Monitor User Guide

: June 14, 2024
: AELTA

Table of Contents

AELTA UNO-LW UNOlite Indoor Air Quality Monitor
Specifications
Overview
UNOlite and MQTT
Getting Started
FAQ
UNOlite MQTT Data Format
UNOlite Flatten Mode
UNOlite Nested Mode
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AELTA UNO-LW UNOlite Indoor Air Quality Monitor

Specifications

Model: UNOlite
Protocol: MQTT v3.1.1
Connection: TCP/IP

Overview

UNOlite is an indoor air quality monitor to measure the space temperature / humidi-ty / CO2 / PM2.5 / PM10 / PM1 / TVOC and expose the measurements directly via MQTT publishing or other communicated protocols.
UNOlite is suitable for many different types of environments, including residential buildings, commercial buildings, medical institutions, and places sensitive to air quality, such as nursing homes and day care centers.
This user guide focus on how to receive data from UNOlite via MQTT publishing and describe the data content published from UNOlite.
Please notice MQTT is only supported on UNOlite Wi-Fi models (ie: UNO-LW ).

UNOlite and MQTT

The Message Queueing Telemetry Transport(MQTT) is a lightweight publish/subscribe network protocol built on TCP/IP. There are two network entities in the typical MQTT protocol architec-ture : a message broker and multiple clients. Client can publish message to clients that sub-scribed the same topic through a broker server.
UNOlite, in MQTT protocol, is a message publisher and will publish sensor and device infor-mation periodically. It will connect to the default broker through encrypted channel and UNO AP-P/Web (subscriber) will retrieve information from server. UNOlite also can be set to connect to other MQTT broker. Then user can connect to a privated broker to receive sensor data via MQTT client application. Please note if the default broker has been changed, the UNO APP and UNO Web won’t receive any data. The default broker setting can be recovered by executing factory reset.
Note : MQTT configuration can be changed through UNO APP Engineer mode Furthermore, UNOcentral can function as an MQTT broker, allowing users to develop MQTT client applications to receive data from it. When the internet connection of UNOcentral
is operational, the MQTT data will be seamlessly published to the UNO cloud. Consequently, users gain access to real-time and historical data through UNOweb, enabling them to monitor and analyze information conveniently.

Getting Started

This section will demonstrate how to receive data from UNOlite through MQTT client. For this ex-ample, we need a message broker, an UNOlite, a MQTT client software and UNO APP.

MQTT client : we will use MQTT explorer, a desktop MQTT client software.
Message broker : we will use a private broker in an Ubuntu PC for this demonstration.
UNOlite APP : we use this app to set UNOlite’s MQTT configuration.
UNOlite : In this example, the serial number of UNOlite is 2321L0170051.

The below sections will describe how to retrieve the sensor data from UNOlite.

Step 1: Configure Network

The first step of configuration is to check the network environment. In this example, we will con-nect the laptop, the broker and the UNOlite to the same wireless AP. In this demonstration, the broker’s IP address is 192.168.31.115. Next, we need to configure the UNOlite to connect the wireless AP. (The SSID name is “WIFITEST” in this example)
Step 1.1 : Setting UNOlite’s Wi-Fi connection

A : Run UNO APP and enable engineer mode
If you are using the Android version, open the UNO APP and tap the “Device List” five times to access Engineering Mode. A prompt message will appear upon successful activation of Engineering Mode.
( For iPhone users, tap on the UNO APP icon in the lower-left corner.)
Please refer to the illustration below.
B : Run UNO APP and find the UNOnext (2321L0170051) Note : The phone’s wi–fi function should be turned on before this step
C : Click the Wi-Fi icon to configure Wi-Fi connection.
D : Select the Wi – Fi AP’s name to connect
E : Input the password and press the connect button.
Then UNOlite will start to connect Wi Fi.
F : After serval seconds, the Wi-Fi’s notification should remain lit if everything is fine.
The UNOlite’s network setup is ready.

Step 2 : Setting UNOnext’s MQTT configration

A : After network configuration done, click “Eng” icon into device configuration page.
B : Enter MQTT configuration page.
D : Press “EDIT” to change MQTT’s default config.
E : Input the MQTT broker’s IP/Port/user name/password and press “Enter”.
The UNOlite will connect to MQTT’s new broker automatically now.

Step 3 : Receive UNOlite’s data from MQTT Explorer

A : Run the MQTT explorer on PC. The first page in application is the information about broker. You should fill the MQTT broker’s IP/port/user account/password and press “connect”.
Note : MQTT explorer will subscribe all topics by default. You can change the setting on “ADVANCED” page to subscribe the specific topics only.
B : After connecting done, MQTT explorer will keep receive the whole data from Broker.
C : Our target in this example is to get the sensor value.
Let’s check the topic:
/unonextw/2321L0170052/TempCelsius
/unonextw/2321L0170052/CO2/
And get the temperature value is 25.91 and the co2 value is 1738 ppm. Note : If the MQTT’s configuration is changed, the UNO APP and UNO WEB won’t receive UNOlite data. You can click “reset” button in MQTT setting page to restore to default set-ting.

FAQ

Q: Can I change the MQTT configuration of the UNOlite?
A : Yes, you can change the MQTT configuration through the UNO APP Engineer mode.
Q: What is the default broker for the UNOlite?
A : The UNOlite connects to a default broker, but it can also be set to connect to other MQTT brokers.
Q: How can I receive data from the UNOlite using an MQTT client?
A : To receive data from the UNOlite, you need a message broker, an MQTT client software, and the UNO APP. Configure the network settings and use an MQTT client software to subscribe to the topic where the UNOlite publishes its data.

UNOlite MQTT Data Format

The data format of UNOlite follows JSON format. JSON is a standard text-based format with key-value pairing style. This section describes the meaning of the item in UNOlite’s JSON and how to parse valuable data from it.
There are two mode of UNOlite’s MQTT : Flatten mode or Nested mode.
In Flatten mode, all keys with a topic respectively. The client can process data simply and only subscribe the specific topics.
In Nested mode, all keys are packaged in one topic and the publish frequency (i.e. 10 seconds roughly) is also slower than Flatten mode. The benefit of Nested mode is the reduction of net-work flow and the broker loading.
The default type is Flatten mode if the default broker has been changed to UNOcentral else. If the borker has been set to default broker else, the MQTT type will set to flatten mode automatically.

UNOlite Flatten Mode

The entities of JSON in Flatten mode are all composited of “Value” and “Unit”.
{ Value : “xxxx”, unit : “xxxx” }
The topic is composited of UNOlite’s serial number and object name. EX:
unonextw/xxxxxxxxxxxx/object_name
For example, the CO2 object in UNOlite (2321L0170051) should be: unonextw/2321L0170051/CO2
{ Value : 800.0, unit : “ppm”}
The below is the description of UNOnext’s objects (topics). ( 2321L0170051 is a simulated UNOlite SN. Replace it with your UNOlite’s SN )

Topic	Description
1	unonextw/2321L0170051/WifiFirmware

UNOlite Nested Mode

In Nested Mode, all data will be packed in one nested JSON structure and there is only one topic that need to be subscribed by clients. Moreover, the message publishing frequency (i.e. 10 sec-onds roughly) of Nested Mode is less than Flatten Mode’s.

The topic of Nested Mode is composited of UNOlite’s serial number: unonextw/xxxxxxxxxxxx/nextData
For example, the topic of UNOlite (2321L0170051) should be: unonextw/2321L0170051/nextData

( 2321L0170051 is a simulated UNOlite SN. Replace it with your UNOlite’s SN )
The below is the structure of UNOlite’s data of nested mode:

Level 1	Level 2	Value	Description
fw_ver	[ Val1, Val2, Val3, Val4]	Version information is packed into 4

values. The values : The version format as below:
filter_time| Val| Reserved.
filter_threshold| Val| Reserved.
err_code| Val| Reserved.
dry_contact| Val| Reserved.
btn_state| Val| Reserved.
ctrl_mode| Val| The state of UNOlite’s control mode. (For ventilation equipment)
Level 1| Level 2| Value| Description
---|---|---|---
sensor| aqi| Val| Give an index according to current PM and CO2 concentration. The index also be referenced by IAQ LED:
environment| [ Val1, Val2, Val3, Val4]| The environment information:
realtime| [ Val1, Val2, Val3, Val4, Val5, Val6, Val7 ]| The air quality sensor information:
fahrenheit| val| Temperature in Fahrenheit. (o F)
pm1| val| The sensor value of PM1
asc| val| Reserved
Level 1| Level 2| Value| Description
---|---|---|---
device| cmd| Key: val| The key : value structure for ventilation control state.
err_code| [ Val1, Val2, Val3, Val4, Val5, Val6, Val7, Val8 ]| If UNOnext is run in RS485 mode, this item shows the status of the ventilation fan:
wifi| rssi| val| The RSSI value to show the strength of wifi connection