User Manual

• Overview
• Getting started
  • Connecting to the Raspberry Pi
  • Starting the services
• Accessing the services
  • FlowFuse instance(s)
    • Sensor Module (remote instance)
    • Edge Gateway & Local Dashboard (local instance)
    • FlowFuse Dashboard (hosted instance)
  • MQTT Broker
  • InfluxDB
  • Telegraf

Overview

This user manual describes how to use the FlowFuse instance(s) and the other services that are part of the UNS In A Box project. The following diagram shows an overview of the setup:

Note

This user manual is intended for the users of the UNS In A Box project. If you are a developer, please refer to the developer manual for a full guide on how to install and configure the project.

Getting started

Connecting to the Raspberry Pi

Establish a wired ethernet connection between the Raspberry Pi and your computer. The Raspberry Pi will automatically obtain an IP address via DHCP, which will be displayed in the terminal of the Raspberry Pi after startup.

Use one of the following commands to connect to the Raspberry Pi:

# Connect to the Raspberry Pi using the hostname
ssh admin@<hostname>

# Connect to the Raspberry Pi using the IP address
ssh admin@<ip-address>

Important

The hostname is printed on the underside of the Raspberry Pi.

The default credentials are:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin

Starting the services

This repository was cloned to the Raspberry Pi during the installation process. You can locate it at /home/admin/uns-in-a-box.

Note

A QR code that links to the repository is also printed on the underside of the Raspberry Pi.

To start the services, run the following command:

# Navigate to the repository
cd /home/admin/uns-in-a-box

# Start the services
docker compose up -d

# Check the status of the services
docker compose ps

# Check the logs of a specific service (run without specifying the service name to see all logs)
docker compose logs <service-name>

To restart the services, run the following command:

docker compose restart

To stop the services, run the following command:

docker compose down

Accessing the services

FlowFuse instance(s)

To access any of the FlowFuse instances, go to the FlowFuse Dashboard and find the instance you want to access. The underside of the Raspberry Pi has a QR code that links to the FlowFuse Dashboard.

Sensor Module (remote instance)

The Sensor Module is a FlowFuse remote instance that is used to collect data from the Sensor HAT on the Raspberry Pi. It is installed on the Raspberry Pi directly instead of being deployed inside the docker cluster. This makes it easier to access the hardware-specific features of the Sensor HAT module.

To access the editor, go to the FlowFuse Dashboard and look for it in the Remote Instances section.

Edge Gateway & Local Dashboard (local instance)

The Edge Gateway is a FlowFuse remote instance that serves as a gateway for the local instance to connect to the FlowFuse Cloud (and vice versa). It is installed inside the docker cluster.

To access the editor, go to the FlowFuse Dashboard and look for it in the Remote Instances section.

FlowFuse Dashboard (hosted instance)

The Dashboard is a FlowFuse hosted instance that is used to visualize the data from the FlowFuse instance(s) sent to the FlowFuse Cloud via its MQTT broker.

To access the Dashboard, go to the FlowFuse Dashboard and look for it in the Hosted Instances section.

MQTT Broker

The MQTT Broker is a HiveMQ (Community Edition) instance that is installed inside the docker cluster.

To access the MQTT Broker, you can use any MQTT client. The connection details are:

From within the docker cluster (e.g. from any of the FlowFuse instances):

• Host: hivemq
• Port: 1883

From outside the docker cluster:

• Host: <hostname> or <ip-address>
• Port: 1883

InfluxDB

The InfluxDB instance is a timeseries database used to store the the MQTT messages collected by the Telegraf instance. It can also be written to and read from by the local FlowFuse instance(s).

To access the InfluxDB, you can use any InfluxDB client. The connection details are:

From within the docker cluster (e.g. from any of the FlowFuse instances):

• Host: influxdb
• Port: 8086

From outside the docker cluster:

• Host: <hostname> or <ip-address>
• Port: 8086

Note

Use the credentials set in the .env file at the root of the repository to access the InfluxDB.

The default credentials are:

• Username: admin
• Password: HannoverMesse2025
• Organization: mayker
• Bucket: iot_data
• Token: HannoverMesse2025

Telegraf

Telegraf is configured to collect data from the HiveMQ MQTT broker and write it to InfluxDB. The Telegraf configuration file is located at telegraf/config/telegraf.conf.

By default, Telegraf subscribes to all topics (#) on the MQTT broker and writes the data to InfluxDB. The data is stored in the bucket specified in the .env file with the organization and token also specified there.

If you need to customize the Telegraf configuration, you can edit the configuration file and restart the service with:

docker compose restart telegraf