Tag Archives: IoT

5G Modem for IoT and Wearable Devices

Although yet to become a commonplace scenario, we have been seeing and hearing about 5G quite often nowadays. For the most part, IoT devices and wearables are still in the realm of 4G LTE, while the rest of the industry has surged ahead. Now, Qualcomm is set to change that with the introduction of its Snapdragon X35 modem. With their new modem, Qualcomm aims to provide 5G support to these small devices. They are calling this technology 5G NR-Light, because of its reduced capability. According to the manufacturers, X35 modems will have a maximum downlink speed of around 220 Mbps and an uplink speed of around 100 Mbps.

Qualcomm claims their Snapdragon X35 will bring several breakthroughs in the world of 5G. Not only is the design of the world’s first 5G NR-Light modem cost-effective, but its streamlined form factor also leads to power efficiency. In addition, the company has designed the modem with optimized thermal performance. The company expects the Snapdragon X35 to power the next generation of intelligent connected edge devices while empowering an entire range of users. The company is eagerly waiting to work with industry leaders in unified 5G platforms and unleash the possibilities.

Although featuring a tiny form factor, NR-Light is mighty in performance. It features all the good aspects of 5G, starting from spectral efficiency and the ability to access new sub-6 GHz bands. High-end wearable devices, while incorporating the Snapdragon X35 modem, can communicate at the high speeds that 5G offers. In the industrial context, many IoT devices will be able to incorporate the X35 modem to improve their performance. The company is aiming its new modem at devices like Chromebooks, router products, low-end PCs, and many more. Another good feature is the new modem does not need an additional Qualcomm SoC to make it function.

To make it compatible with existing devices, Qualcomm has designed the Snapdragon X35 to support 4G LTE as well, as a fallback option. Even with such powerful features and working at such high speeds, the new modem consumes the lowest power of all the modems the company has manufactured so far. Although many other OEMs are showing a lot of interest, the first device to use this modem will emerge only in the first half of 2024. According to Qualcomm, the price of the Snapdragon X35 5G NR-Light modem will be around half that of its counterpart, the Snapdragon X55 modem.

Qualcomm has released more interesting features about their new modem. According to them, the Snapdragon X35 modem has the same interfaces as its predecessor LTE modems. This information is of vital importance for existing consumers with older designs. At least in theory, they can integrate the new modem in their designs with ease and avail the capabilities of 5G instantly.

Qualcomm has one more trick up its sleeve. They have announced another new modem, the Snapdragon X32, in addition to the Snapdragon X35 modem. They have designed the X32 modem as a modem-to-antenna solution suitable for use on lower-cost devices that work on NR-Light.

Batteryless Microcontrollers for IoT

Ten years ago, IBM predicted the world will have one trillion connected devices by 2015. However, as 2015 rolled by, the world had yet to reach even 100 billion connected devices. The major problem—a trillion sensors mean at least a trillion batteries.

Although a significant problem, it did not make economic sense. Everyone was expecting the IoT technology to bring on a large value-addition, that of range. They expected IoT to bring the Internet to remote corners of the world, thereby interconnecting vast areas with IoT sensors and their information-gathering powers. Therefore, the internet and its incredible power would be visible in various places like large farms, factories, lumbering operations, construction sites, and mining operations, with enormous coverage and decentralized operations.

Typically, sensors collect data for IoT networks, which distribute it for processing and analysis. If sensors require batteries for operation, it places a severe restriction on the number of sensors that a network can use. This, in turn, goes on to defeat the entire point of having IoT in the first place.

For instance, consider a large-scale agricultural operation. IoT can bring major value addition to such a business through its coverage. By deploying multiple sensors across the entire operation, it is possible to access valuable information capable of generating highly actionable insights. Now consider the recurring cost of replacing or maintaining the huge number of batteries every year—making the proposition less compelling very quickly.

Not only would the resources, cost, and manpower, for replacing or maintaining the batteries on all the sensors be astronomical, but they would also easily surpass any possible savings that the system would likely bring.

According to an estimate, a trillion sensors would need 275 million battery replacements every day. This, assuming every battery deployed in the IoT network reached its claimed life of ten years. The next hurdle is even worse—discarded batteries poisoning the environment.

The above problem has resulted in sensors and microcontrollers getting more efficient and cheap. Modern sensors are now extremely reliable, consuming minuscule amounts of energy. Batteries have also improved, with the industry exhibiting robust batteries with higher energy density and longer life. However, the future of microcontrollers and IoT sensors needed to be batteryless. This led scientists and engineers to develop energy harvesting technologies that could eliminate the battery from IoT altogether. 

Energy harvesting is the technique of scavenging power from the surroundings, which has many forms of it—heat energy, electromagnetic energy, vibrational energy, and so on.

Considering that modern microcontrollers for IoT need only a few millivolts to operate, many are developing energy harvesting technologies as a potential power solution that can replace batteries.

This has given rise to self-powered microcontrollers in the market. For these MCUs, batteries impose no restrictions, as they harness their own energy from the environment. They use a number of harvesting technologies based on various power sources and kinds of materials—piezoelectricity, triboelectricity, and RF energy harvesting being the leading contenders in the category. Therefore, with energy harvesting powering microcontrollers, IoT can once again begin to chase the magic figure of one trillion interconnected devices.

Green and Wireless IoT

IoT or the Internet of Things presents devices with a collection of components for connecting various systems, software, and people via the Internet technology. Of these, the communications network is a crucial component, and the IoT wireless technology enables this. The communications network acts as the gateway between a software platform and an IoT device.

In many industries and even in daily life, the IoT is already displaying a major impact. IoT basically connects a variety of smart objects of different shapes and sizes, facilitating data exchange between them. These objects can be self-driven cars with sensors that can detect road obstacles, home-security systems, and temperature-controlled industrial equipment. Furthermore, the interconnection is often over the internet and other communications and sensing networks.

Several thin-film device technologies are emerging. They typically rely on alternative semiconductor materials, which can be nanocarbon allotropes, printable organics, and metal oxides. As suggested by an international team, KAUST, these could contribute to a more environmentally sustainable and economical Internet of Things.

By the next decade, expect the ballooning hyper-network of IoT to reach trillions of devices. This will boost the number of sensor devices this platform deploys.

The present IoT technology relies heavily on batteries to power sensor nodes. Unfortunately, batteries require regular replacement. That makes them environmentally harmful and expensive over time. Moreover, the present global production of lithium for battery materials may be unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of sensors and their energy demand.

An alternative approach relies on energy harvesters and wirelessly powered sensor nodes for achieving a more sustainable IoT. These energy harvesters may be radio-frequency-based, photovoltaic cell-based, or use other technologies. Such power sources could readily enable large-area electronics.

The KAUST team has assessed the viability of several large-area electronic technologies for their potential of delivering wirelessly powered IoT that is more eco-friendly.

Relative to conventional technologies based on silicon, large-area electronics are now emerging as an appealing alternative. This is because of the significant progress that solution-based processing is making, resulting in easily printable devices and circuits on flexible, large-area substrates. It is possible to produce them at low temperatures and on a variety of biodegradable substrates like paper. That allows more eco-friendly sensors in comparison to counterparts based on silicon.

The KAUST team has, over the years, been developing a wide range of radio-frequency-based electronic components. These include organic polymer and metal oxide-based semiconductor devices commonly known as Schottky diodes. For making wireless energy harvesters, these devices are very crucial, ultimately dictating the cost and performance of sensor nodes.

The KAUST team has been making key contributions that have included scalable methods of manufacturing RF diodes for harvesting energy. These diodes easily reach the 5G/6G frequency ranges. According to the team, these technologies are providing the necessary building blocks to sustain a trend towards a more sustainable way of powering the future billions of sensor nodes.

Currently, the team is investing in the integration of low-power monolithic devices with sensors and antennae for showcasing their true potential.

Importance of Edge Sensor Data

The industrial setup is seeing a significant increase in the amount of autonomous machinery with Industry 4.0. Not only are these machines providing human-like thinking capabilities, they are also revolutionizing the industry with their utmost precision and efficiency of operation. Edge sensors are an integral part of the industrial automation ecosystem. The edge sensors collect surrounding and environmental signals, sending them to edge data centers for monitoring and control of various parameters that affect operations. These sensors generate vast amounts of data that require monitoring for the identification of patterns while extracting important insights for further optimization.

With AI or Artificial Intelligence, ML or Machine Learning, and BDA or Big Data Analysis forming the base of Industry 4.0, the industry is treating data as the new gold. These tools process the data generated by edge sensors for efficiently managing and analyzing extensive processes. Enterprises use these tools to obtain insights into the working of processes, for recognizing patterns and looking for events associated with the industrial operation. The analysis helps with the further creation of algorithms that help in the optimization of machines and monitoring devices.

However, large computational power is necessary for processing the data that the sensors produce. The industry resorts to cloud computing, as data processing with the symbiotic support of the cloud, reduces the necessary investments. But this comes at the cost of higher bandwidth requirements and increased latency. On the other hand, applications like computational healthcare and self-driving cars require a faster response. Edge computing easily fills such gaps.

For the computation of data and remote monitoring, the Internet of Things happens to be a complete ecosystem of supporting devices and connected sensors. The cloud processes the enormous amounts of data the system generates. The cloud is simply huge data centers working round the clock, handling extensive amounts of data while being in connection with the internet.

The location of most of these data centers is in remote areas, as they need massive areas of land and cheap power to operate. This increases the bandwidth requirement and latency. Engineers are trying to solve this issue by placing smaller data centers close to the edge sensors, actuators, motors, etc.

Industries also use IoT to share data through unified analytic platforms. Industries usually deploy similar kinds of machinery, but use them in varied conditions of environments and load conditions. This generates various types of data, which when industries share them, can help build a robust ecosystem.

Companies can optimize their products based on shared local consumer data. This optimization can be in the hardware or in the software. Industries frequently conduct software optimization through the internet, while hardware optimization involves generating newer editions of the product. Collecting user data typically involves privacy and security issues. With edge computing, proper handling of local and distributed storage of data can help prevent huge tech giants from accumulating large amounts of private data. However, this makes data more prone to attacks from cyber-crooks.

Engineers typically collect and process the data collected from the edge sensors near the sensor itself. Sometimes, they transfer the data to centralized data centers or localized edge data centers for adding value.

Retail Energy Management through IoT

Most people prefer to visit big stores like Walmart and Costco for buying almost everything from iPhones to ice-creams. But running huge stores is not an easy task, and the superstores are always on the lookout for ways to cut costs by streamlining their operations.

With superstores the size of a city block, streamlining operations is not simple. Substantial resources—time and staff—are necessary to keep store lighting, food court ovens, HVAC systems, and digital displays running at maximum efficiency.

The stores may have hundreds of freezers and refrigeration units operating at the same time. Constantly monitoring them for meeting government regulations, while manually adjusting them, can lead to food safety compromises. A breakdown can halt services and food sales, slashing profits and irritating customers. While the retail sector increasingly adopts sophisticated digital solutions, its inefficient management of energy systems can become an anomaly.

With the recent pandemic causing a worldwide worker shortage and subsequent rise in labor costs, retailers would rather not add people for tracking and monitoring their back-end facility.

Traditional energy management systems available on the market operate in two ways. First, system integrators must build from scratch a software program for managing energy consumption to make the effort feasible, but this is too resource-intensive. The other may require purchasing an off-the-shelf system for building management—such as those that office towers and apartment buildings use. But these systems are usually not customizable, and they do not accommodate retailers. This is where a new platform has become necessary.

IBASE and Novakon have created a new platform for managing energy. They have designed the IBASE platform specifically for retailers. The platform, IBASE IoT Energy Management Platform, can monitor and manage refrigerators, freezers, air conditioning, kiosk signs, food court appliances, and lighting. The IoT system connects everything to the Internet, which allows tracking, monitoring, and controlling them possible in real-time.

Therefore, retailers no longer need a staffer to tend to freezers and refrigerators. Instead, they can concentrate on their own activities. The system does the tracking and data recording from multiple sensors that transmit new information all the time.

The new platform allows retailers to review the status of not only the refrigeration system but also the power that all connected devices and appliances consume. Anything going wrong brings up an immediate alert. The same alert also reaches the servicing company, so they can take up repair and maintenance immediately.

Moreover, the IBASE platform also has the capability to automatically turn HVAC and lighting on and off in synchronization with business hours. Retailers can tweak the system to match their special requirements to further save energy and money. Utility companies often offer discounts to businesses that can keep their power consumption below a certain threshold.

The IBASE platform is a real boon for large retailers—they can really save big on resources and energy. For instance, in a retail operation with 250 lighting devices, 36 air conditioners, and 22 power meters, staffers had to monitor each floor with notebooks, noting down appliance information every hour. The IBASE platform has transformed this.

IoT and DIP Switches

Pre-configuring equipment helps in many ways. In the field, the ability to pre-configure functionality eases installation procedures, helps in diagnostics, and reduces downtime. DIP switches are very popular for pre-configuring devices and an increase in their demand is accelerating the flexibility in their design.

Although designers nowadays prefer to use re-programmable memories and software menus in equipment, DIP switches customizing the behavior of electronic devices was have always been present. DIP switches present an easy-to-use method for changing the functionality that anyone even without software knowledge can use. An added advantage of DIP switches over software menus is the former allows change even when the equipment has no power.

Engineers developed the DIP switch in the 1970s, and their usefulness remains relevant even after five decades, for instance, for changing the modality of a video game or for fine-tuning the operation of a machine on the shop floor. Now, engineers are finding new uses for this proven technology in innovative applications such as the IoT or Internet of Things.

Depending on present requirements, manufacturers now present a large variety of DIP switches for modern applications. It is now easy to find surface mount versions of DIP switches, with SPST or single pole single throw, SPDT or single pole double throw configurations, or multi-pole single and double throw options. Piano type side actuated DIP switches, side DIP switches, and DIP switches in sealed and unsealed versions are also available readily off the shelf.

Originally, DIP switches were a stack of manually operated electric switches available in a compact DIP or dual-in-line package with pins. The configuration of the pins of a DIP switch was the same as that of an IC with leads, which made it easy for a designer to incorporate in the printed circuit board. It was usual for each switch to have two rows of pins, one on each side. The distance between the rows was 0.3”, while the pitch or gap between adjacent pins was 0.1”. By taking advantage of the same mounting technique as that of an IC, the DIP switch provided a compact switching mechanism that designers could place directly on the PCB.

By stacking DIP switches side by side, the designer could add as many switches to the circuit as necessary. The versatility of the DIP switch lay in the numerous configurations achievable. For instance, it is possible to generate an incredible 256 combinations from an eight-position DIP switch. Each switch can assume one of two ways, and an eight switches combination can assume one of 256 ways (2 to the eight power).

Earlier, digital electronics mostly used eight bits to a byte, which made the eight-position DIP switch more of a standard at the time. With advancements, digital electronics now encompasses 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and even 256 bits, generating a great demand for DIP switches with new designs.

DIP switches are easier for the user as they offer a visual indication of the present setup.  For manufacturers, DIP switches make it easier to customize their production, at the same time, allowing the user to make changes as necessary.

Sensors, IoT, and Medical Health

Increasingly, people are looking for preventive care outside of a hospital setting. Medical providers, startups, and Fortune 500 technology companies are all trying out new products and devices for revolutionizing medical care and streamlining costs. While this reduces hospital readmission rates, patients in remote areas are getting the care they need.

The evolving trend is towards remote patient monitoring, which is fundamentally improving the quality of care and patient outcomes right across the medical arena. Moreover, this is happening not only in clinics, onsite in hospitals, and at-home care, but also in remote areas, less populated areas, and in developing countries.

New technologies, new devices, and better results are driving healthcare nowadays. There are several examples of this. For instance, cardiovascular patients can have their heart rates and blood pressure monitored regularly from their homes, with the data feeding back to the cardiologists to allow them to track their patients better. Similarly, doctors are able to track respiration rates, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, cardiac output, and body temperature of their patients.

Sensors are able to track the weight of patients who are suffering from obstructive heart diseases. This allows doctors to detect fluid retention, and decide if the patient requires hospitalization. Similarly, sensors can monitor the asthma medication of a child to be sure family members are offering it the right dosage. This can easily cut down the number of visits to the ER.

IoT can wirelessly link a range of sensors to measure the vitals in intensive care and emergency units. The first step consists of sensors that generate the data. When tools such as artificial intelligence combine with the sensors, it becomes easy to analyze large amounts of data, helping to improve clinical decisions.

Technological advances such as telemedicine offer advantages in rural hospitals that constantly need more physicians. This often includes remote specialist consultations, remote consultations, outsourced diagnostic analysis, and in-home monitoring. With telemedicine, remote physicians can offer consultations more quickly, making the process cheaper and more efficient compared to that offered by traditional healthcare appointments.

Sensor networks within practices and hospitals are helping to monitor patient adherence, thereby optimizing healthcare delivery. The healthcare industry is increasingly focusing on value-based, patient-centric care, and their outcomes.

This is where the new technology and devices are making a big impact. For instance, data sensors are helping health care providers detect potential issues in the prosthetic knee joint of a patient. The use of sensors allows them to summarize the pressure patterns and bilateral force distribution across the prosthetic. This is of immense help to the patient, warning them to the first indication of strain. The provider can monitor the situation 24/7 and adjust the treatment accordingly, while the payer saves additional expenses on prolonged treatment or recovery.

Integration of IoT features into medical devices has improved the quality and effectiveness of healthcare tremendously. It has made high-value care possible for those requiring constant supervision, those with chronic conditions, and for elderly patients. For instance, wearable medical devices now feature sensors, actuators, and communication methods with IoT features that allow continuous monitoring and transmitting of patient data to cloud based platforms.

How does LoRa Benefit IoT?

Cycleo, a part of Semtech since 2012, has developed and patented a physical layer with a modulation type, with the name LoRA or Long Range, where the transmission utilizes the license-free ISM bands. LoRa consumes very low power and is therefore, ideal for IoT for data transmission. Sensor technology is one possible field of application for LoRa, where low bit rates are sufficient, and where the sensor batteries last for months or even years. Other applications are in the industry, environment technology, logistics, smart cities, agriculture, consumption recording, smart homes, and many others.

LoRa uses wireless transmission technology, and consumes very low power to transmit small amounts of data over distances of nearly 15 Km. It uses CSS or Chirp Spread Spectrum modulation, originally meant for radar applications, and developed in the 1940s, with chirp standing for Compressed High Intensity Radar Pulse. The name suggests the manner of data transmission by this method.

Many current wireless data transmission applications use the LoRa method, owing to its relative low power consumption, and its robustness against fading, in-band spurious emissions, and Doppler effect. IEEE has taken up the CSS PHY as a standard 802.15.4a for use as low-rate wireless personal area networks.

A correlation mechanism, based on band spreading methods, makes it possible for LoRa to achieve the long ranges. This mechanism permits use of extremely small signals that can disappear in noise. De-spreading allows modulation of these small signals in the transmitter. LoRa receivers are sensitive enough to decode these signals, even when they are more than 19 dB below the noise levels. Unlike the DSSS or direct sequence spread spectrum that the UMTS or WLAN uses, CSS makes use of chirp pulses for frequency spreading rather than using the pseudo-random code sequences.

A chirp pulse, modulated by GFSK or FM, usually has a sine-wave signal characteristic along with a constant envelope. As time passes, this characteristic falls or rises continuously in frequency. That makes the frequency bandwidth of the pulse equivalent to the spectral bandwidth of the signal. CSS uses the signal characteristic as a transmit pulse.

Engineers use LoRaWAN to define the MAC or media access protocol and the architecture of the system for a WAN or wide area network. The special design of LoRaWAN especially targets IoT devices requiring energy efficiency and high transmission range. Additionally, the protocol makes it easier for communications with server-based internet applications.

The architecture of the LoRaWAN MAC is suitable for LoRa devices, because of its influence on their battery life, the network capacity, the service quality, and the level of security it offers. Additionally, it has a number of applications as well.

The LoRa Alliance, a standardization body, defines, develops, and manages the regional factors and the LoRa waveform in the LoRaWAN stack for interaction between the LoRa MAC. The standardization body consists of software companies, semiconductor companies, manufacturers of wireless modules and sensors, mobile network operators, testing institutions, and IT companies, all working towards a harmonized standard for LoRaWAN. Using the wireless technology of LoRa, users can create wireless networks covering an area of several square kilometer using only one single radio cell.

Do It Yourself Blynk Board

Those who have some experience with Do It Yourself (DIY) electronic projects, and are just starting to test the waters in the Internet of Things (IoT), the Blynk Board from SparkFun is an activity filled challenging exercise. Both experienced users as well as beginners will find this fun to set up and learn—the kit comes with more than ten projects.

Of course, you can make this board work without the IoT Starter Kit from SparkFun, but then you will have to buy the sensors and other components separately to complete the projects. The Blynk Board, based on the ESP8266, runs on a 32-bit L106, a RISC microprocessor core running at a speed of 80 MHz. It has 1 MiB flash built-in, and allows single-chip devices to connect with Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. The board has the TR switch integrated, LNA, balun, power amplifier, matching network WPA/WPA2 or WEP authentication, and can connect to open networks. Other features include 16 GPIO pins, I2C, SPI, I2S, UART with dedicated pins, and a UART (transmit-only) capable of being enabled from GPI02. The board also has a 10-bit successive approximation ADC.

Blynk Boards, based on the ESP8266, come preloaded with projects that are ideal for those just beginning on the Internet of Things and concepts of basic electronics. Arduino boards used it originally for implementing Wi-Fi enabled hardware projects; the ESP8266 has built-in Wi-Fi, making it a cheap, Arduino-compatible, and standalone development board. Many other kits use this board in different shapes and sizes, and you will find it in SparkFun ESP8266 Thing, Adafruit HUZZAH, and NodeMcu.

As the ESP8266 is useful as an open source hardware, it is a useful device for starting with the Internet of Things. It makes the Blynk Board an ideal platform for controlling single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi, and Arduino. Basically, the Blynk consists of three components—a Blynk app for smartphones, the Blynk library, and the Blynk server. The library is compatible with a large number of maker hardware.

While the Blynk library and Blynk server are open source, anyone can use the Blynk app on iOS and Android smartphones. With the Blynk app, you can build a graphical interface for any IoT project—simply drag and drop the widgets. Blynk offers several widgets such as LC display, buttons, and joystick, with which you can start hacking and you need only an IoT development board.

After collaborating with SparkFun, Blynk created the ESP8266 based SparkFun Blynk Board. They offer it fully programmed for more than ten Blynk projects. That makes the IoT Starter Kit from SparkFun with the Blynk Board such a fun project, offering a wonderful introduction to the Internet of Things technology and you do not have to learn any difficult programming.

For those who already have other ESP8266 development boards, simply reprogramming them with the firmware will turn them into DIY Blink Boards. With these, you can easily run boot camps or conduct workshops. Just adding the sensors and a few other components will help you complete the built-in projects, and these you can buy from SparkFun.

Things Gateway Ties IoT Devices Together

Project Things from Mozilla is a framework of software and services. It helps to bridge the communication gap between IoT devices. Project Things does this by giving each IoT device a URL on the web. The latest version of the Things Gateway, also from Mozilla, can directly let you control your home over the web, and manage all your devices through a single secure web interface. Therefore, if you have several smart devices in your home, you will not need different mobile apps to manage each of them. The best part of the Things Gateway is you can easily build one on a single board computer and use the power of the open web to connect off-the-shelf smart home products immediately, even if they are from different brands.

DIY hackers will find many exciting new features in the latest version. It even includes a rules engine, where you can set ‘if this, then that’ style of scenarios for making up rules of how things should interact. Other features include a floor plan view for laying out the devices on a map of your house, an experimental voice control, and it supports several new types of IoT devices. If you have a new device requiring new protocols, there is a brand new add-ons system. Third party applications that want to access your gateway can now do so, as there is a new way to authorize them safely.

On the hardware side, you will need a single board computer. Although Mozilla recommends a Raspberry Pi 3, any single board computer will do, as long as it has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support built-in. Access to GPIO ports is also necessary, as you will require direct hardware access. Although a laptop or desktop computer will also work here, using the single board computer will provide the best experience.

If your smart home devices use other protocols such as Zigbee or Z-Wave, you will also need a USB dongle. Things Gateway supports Zigbee with Digi Xstick and for Z-Wave you will have to use a dongle compatible with OpenWave. You will need the proper device suitable for your region, as Z-Wave operating frequencies vary for different countries.

For the software part, you will need at least a 4 GB micro SD card to flash the software. The Gateway already has support for several different smart sensors, plugs, and smart bulbs from various brands, which may be using Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, or Zigbee. The Wiki mentions all the tested parts, and you can contribute if you have tested other new devices. However, if you are not yet ready with the actual hardware of IoT devices, and want to try out the Gateway software, the Virtual Things add-on us your friend. Simply install it and start adding virtual IoT things to your Gateway.

Mozilla offers the Things Gateway software image for the Raspberry Pi, which you can download and flash onto the micro SD card. The safest way to do this is to use Etcher, a cross-platform image writer software, useful for Linux, Windows, and the Mac OS.