Microsoft Partnership?

@jeiden So what do you think you guys will plan on doing as far as the new Azure IoT + Particle integrations go?

Any realistic timelines you can provide?

I’m just trying to figure out my future path with Particle + Auzre as the product platform backend and I would like to know what all my future options may be with Azure.

Hey @RWB,

Thanks for following up. I don’t have an exact timeline, but the rough estimate would be to expect the new integration to be here before the end of the year! Internally, we are still weighing options with what specific approach to take (Event Hubs vs. IoT Hub), but will post updates here as they become available!

Jeff

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Great I’ll check in with you in a month or so.

Hey all,

I wanted to update this thread and let folks now that we have decided to move forward with an Azure IoT Hub integration! Development is already underway, and we are pushing towards a targeted launch of early December.

Stay tuned,

Jeff

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I was just thinking about this actually, I’m very happy to hear this is going to be an official integration very soon!

Keep up the great work!

This is good news. Hopefully the integration instructions will be based upon the NEW Azure Portal, since the old one is going to soon be phased out. Also, how will we know when the new integration is available - an email will be sent out I presume?

Thanks.

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I noticed there is a new Azure IoT Hub integration (beta) showing up in Console… is this available for us to try out? Does there happen to be a quick reference guide on how to setup this integration?

Thanks.

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@bjagpal @jeiden That was quick! Looking forward to testing this out :smiley:

Yes! I am happy to announce that the Azure IoT Hub integration is now available! Check out the docs to get started: https://docs.particle.io/tutorials/integrations/azure-iot-hub/

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@jeiden I followed the guide for getting the Azure IoT Hub setup with the Particle Integration app you guys have setup. It’s working great!

I have your sample app publishing 10 messages per min successfully.

I love how each device is registered individually and their access can be enabled or disabled individually.

So it looks like now I just need to setup Stream Analytic Services to push that published data into an Azure Table Database. Then use Power BI to create a custom dashboard specific to my project.

@jeiden @zach Thanks for making it so much easier to get the Particle Photon & Electron’s setup and registerd with Azure IoT Hub. :wink:

For others trying this out you Microsoft provides two preconfigured IoT monitoring solution packages that you can use or try out as a starting point for your product dashbaord. :

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-suite/iot-suite-what-are-preconfigured-solutions

Here is a webpage and video overview of the Azure IoT services:

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That is great to hear and thanks for the helpful additional info @RWB. Once you get the Stream Analytics/Power BI working, it would be great to have you submit an example use case on the docs tutorial if you are up to it!

Jeff

@jeiden Working on getting the incoming Particle Publishes pushed into an Azure Table Database now. I’ve already figured out how to do this in the past, so now I just need to switch the input source to the new Azure IoT Hub instead of the regular Azure Event Hub.

Once I have it figured out, I’ll post a little tutorial showing how to do this.

@jeiden @zach Do you have anybody at Microsoft that you could ask about getting a similar setup as PubNub, so we create a streaming Dataset within Power BI which will allow us to update data live as it comes in from Particle Publishes?

Here is a link where they show how you can create a Streaming Dataset and then use it to feed a tile in the dashboard you build in Power BI to show live incoming data. Maybe we could use their Rest API endpoint? Maybe something custom like they did with PubNub would be better?

I have no idea how to do this, but I can tell you that this is the only missing feature when it comes to displaying stored in the Azure Table Database that is collected from Particle Publish events to Azure IoT hub. As it is not, you can only have the Power BI dashboard data tiles to update every 15 mins max from what I can see unless you’re using PubNub to handle your incoming sensor data.

@bjagpal Have you seen any updates to getting incoming particle data to update live without 1-15 delays?

@RWB - have you looked at this documentation yet? https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-refresh-data/

This article also helps. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/stream-analytics-power-bi-dashboard

I haven’t measure it, but direct stream analytics into PowerBI is close to real time.

@BenVollmer The max refresh update I can get from a Azure Table Database is every 15 mins.

Can you tell me more about how you have Stream Analytics to create a live streaming dataset?

I would still like an integration like PubNub has in Power BI for Particle devices because Stream Analytics gets real expensive, really quickly if you're moving a lot of data or plan on it in the future.

Hey @RWB,

No Pub/Nub integration yet, but it has recently gotten onto our radar. Let us know if you figure this out.

Jeff

@jeiden I’m not looking for a Particle Pub/Nub integration, but I am looking for a Particle Integration into Microsoft Power BI just like PubNub has done with Microsoft Power BI.

This Streaming Dataset feature allows you to stream live data from PubNub data sources onto custom dashboards created in Power BI. I’m looking for live data from Particle Publishes instead of PubNub.

The only work around right now is to take the incoming data published to Azure IoT Hub and then set up a Azure Stream Analytics function to catch that data and stream it to Power BI.

Azure Stream Analytics is expensive so having a setup like PubNub live datastream integration is very beneficial since it provides an easy way to add the data source to your Power BI dashboards and it does not require a separate Azrue Streaming Analytics service running 24/7 which is EXPENSIVE $$$$$$ if you processing multiple constant data streams for many devices.

Here is an article on how PubNub has this integration setup with Microsoft Power BI. Can’t we do the same thing with Particle?

Guys,
the folks at Power BI have created a function that allows data from Azure to be streamed in to Power BI to create streaming tiles. It is in private preview right now, and I have had it up and running for a couple of weeks now. It is a little easier to set up a streaming tile using the new integration, but you can also do that using reports+Q&A functions that are already available. Streaming graphs using this new integration only show the last hour of data. You also cannot set up alerts using these streaming tiles (ie. If temp > 100, them email alert). Conclusion: streaming tiles are not that useful. You can use existing functions to setup almost-realtime tiles, graphs of any span, with alerts etc.
Having said this, you stilI need to push data from Azure to Power BI using STREAM ANALYTICS - there is no way around that.
There may be some confusion here regarding pubnub. Power BI allows one to send data via pubnub directly to create the streaming tiles I described above. But as I said, there are limitations that make it impractical for anything beyond hobby use.

How can I get access to this private preview? Is there somebody I need to contact?

Thanks for clarifying this.

Sorry, I wasn’t finished…

The setup I have now is as follows:
Photon > Particle Cloud > Azure Event Hub > Azure Stream Analytics > Power BI.

Once the data is in Power BI, I use the reports + Q&A features to show data (almost realtime), show graphs, set up alerts, and have everything viewable through a dashboard. I will replace the event hub with a IoT Hub soon. I could also optionally store data in Azure Table Storage if I want, with another stream analytic. Note: Power BI stores 200,000 rows of data (FIFO) for free, for every dataset that is being streamed in using stream analytics.

In terms of costs, for a small number of devices, Azure is not econominal, but it certainly is if you have many devices sending data. This is based on what I have read/experienced anyway.

Email this guy and ask him to add you: sirsu@Microsoft.com

Not sure if they are still letting folks into the private preview…

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