BLE gateways, shelf labels and child devices

A gateway connects with its own certificate. The labels and sensors it talks to over BLE have no credentials of their own: they are registered as child devices with the gateway as their parent, and IoT Core attributes the gateway's messages to the right child.

1. 1Register the gatewayfamily BLE gateway, with a certificate
2. 2Register each labelfamily ESL, parent = the gateway
3. 3Gateway sends uplinksnaming the label in the message
4. 4Each label gets its own databattery, signal, online, timeline
5. 5Commands go to labelsthrough their gateway, with acknowledgement

#1. Register the gateway

Get started → BLE gateway, name it (for example store-hyd-01-gw-1) and download its certificate. Install it on the gateway with the endpoint.

#2. Register the labels

Get started → ESL, choose the gateway as the parent. For many labels, create them with the REST API or SDK in a loop (see SDK and REST API). Use attributes such as store and tin so support can find a label by what's printed on the shelf.

#3. What the gateway sends

Uplinks go to gateway/<gateway>/event/up/<kind>. When the JSON names a known child in esl_id (or device, tin, device_id, child), the message is attributed to that child:

{ "esl_id": "esl-hyd-01-a3-007", "battery_mv": 2290, "rssi": -79, "temperature": 24.0 }

Numeric fields become that label's telemetry, the event lands on its timeline and it shows online. Batches are supported with "children": [ … ].

#4. Commands to a label

Send a command to the label as you would to any device. IoT Core delivers it to gateway/<gateway>/event/down/esl-command with a command_id. The gateway acknowledges by sending any uplink containing that command_id and status (ok or failed).

#Troubleshooting labels

• Label offline but gateway online: the gateway hasn't reported the label in 15 minutes. Check it is in range and the label ID in the gateway's messages matches the thing name.
• All labels in an aisle offline: check the gateway's Diagnose tab first; a gateway that can't connect takes its children with it.
• Low battery warnings: the Diagnose tab flags low battery and weak signal; plan replacements from the Things list filtered by attribute.