Devices

A Device is a single piece of hardware (a sensor, controller, gateway, edge device, or piece of industrial equipment) that pushes data to ControlCom Connect or accepts commands back from it. Each Device has a unique ID, a name, an authentication credential, and a set of Variables it publishes. A Device belongs to one Organization and may be assigned to a Location and one or more Assets.

Overview

Devices are where data enters the platform. Everything downstream (Variables, Alarms, Dashboards, Reports) is anchored to a Device record, so registering hardware is the first step of the Connect stage. A Device can publish telemetry, accept commands, or both, depending on how its Variables and Commands are configured.

Devices live under System in the sidebar, with one list per device type.

Device Types

A Device's type is chosen at creation and fixed for its lifetime. There are four: a ControlCom Gateway runs the ControlCom Edge Server and talks to equipment over protocols like Modbus, OPC UA and BACnet; a LoRaWAN Gateway relays radio traffic from LoRaWAN end devices; a LoRaWAN Device is a sensor or meter that joins the network over the air; and a Generic device is anything you write the integration for yourself, pushing data over MQTT or HTTP.

The lists, creation wizards, certificates and per-type detail tabs are covered in Device Administration.

Connectivity

Devices connect over:

Protocol	Use case
MQTT	Lightweight pub/sub. Preferred for persistent device connections.
HTTPS	Standard REST. Preferred for scheduled or intermittent uploads.
WebSockets	Real-time bidirectional. Browser/JS clients.
Node-RED	Visual flow editor. See the Node-RED guide.

All connections use TLS, and each Device authenticates with its own credential rather than a shared secret, so revoking one Device never affects another. The device list shows each Device's current status, and the Security reference covers the transport and authentication model in full. For wiring up your own hardware, see Sending Data.

Variables

A Device communicates with the platform through Variables: typed, named data points, each tied to a topic property the Device publishes on. The Variables tab of a device lists them with their current value and flags. New Variable adds one by hand, Import brings in a set from a file, and the row menu edits a variable, toggles logging, opens it in Platform Explorer, sends a test value, or deletes it. Variables can be grouped into folders and exported.

See Variables for the fields, the create flow, Virtual (calculated) Variables, and how history is stored.

Commands

Commands send data the other direction, from the platform to the Device. Like a Variable, a Command has a name, a data type (Number, String, or Boolean), and a topic the Device listens on. They live on the Commands tab of the device, and each Command issued is logged with a timestamp, the user who issued it, and the execution result.

Health and Diagnostics

The device detail page shows the Device's connection state alongside health tiles and an activity timeline, so a Device that has gone quiet stands out. LoRaWAN Devices add a dedicated Health tab covering signal quality and the gateways that witnessed their uplinks.

Health issues can trigger Alarms, which route to email, SMS, or webhook notifications. Once data is flowing, continue to Variables for the Collect stage.