IoT Platform can communicate with serial devices. You can use data transmission unit (DTU) devices to connect serial devices to IoT Platform without changing communication protocols for these serial devices.

Scenarios

Devices for serial communication are used in a variety of scenarios, such as manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, city, building, and industrial parks. Before you connect these devices to IoT Platform, you must enable communication between these devices and IoT Platform. However, the serial communication protocols used by these devices cannot be changed to communicate with IoT Platform. Therefore, data can be parsed only on the cloud. To connect these devices to IoT Platform, Alibaba Cloud works with hardware partners to provide a solution to communication between the serial devices and IoT Platform. This solution allows you to use DTU devices as proxies to enable communication between serial devices and IoT Platform by using simple configurations.

This topic uses a motor speed controller as an example to describe how to connect a serial device with IoT Platform by using a DTU device. This device complies with the integration standard of IoT Platform.

Implementation

To connect a serial device to IoT Platform, specify the certificate information of the serial device in a DTU device. Use the DTU device as a proxy for communication between the serial device and IoT Platform. Connect the serial device to the DTU device by using a serial port. Connect the DTU device to IoT Platform over the 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, or Ethernet network. Use the DTU device as a proxy to enable communication between the serial device and IoT Platform.

The following figure shows how to connect a serial device to IoT Platform by using a DTU device.

DTU IOT

Procedure

  1. Configure a product and a device.
  2. Configure a DTU device.
  3. Test data communication.