What you need before you set up an IoT box

A Viindoo IoT Box is a Raspberry Pi board running the Viindoo IoT Box image from a microSD card of 8 GB or more. It needs the power supply of the board and a network that can reach your Viindoo server; every PC or tablet that uses a scale, a scanner or a footswitch also needs a route to the box.

Who

The IoT Integrator who sets up the box, and the person who manages your network.

App

Internet of Things

What hardware do I need?

The Viindoo IoT Box image is built on Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit) and installs libraries that only a Raspberry Pi board has, so it is meant for a Raspberry Pi board. This guide does not list board models.

You also need:

  • a microSD card larger than the written image (about 5 GB once written): a card of 8 GB or more;

  • the power supply of the board;

  • a network: an Ethernet port with an address handed out by your router (DHCP) is the simplest, Wi-Fi also works;

  • for the first steps, optionally, an HDMI screen or a USB receipt printer: the box shows its address on the one and prints it on the other;

  • to write the card, a computer with a microSD card slot or a USB card reader (see How to download, check and write the IoT box image).

Which devices can the box drive?

Kind (as the box page names it)

How it is connected

How the box knows the kind

Receipt printer

USB, or network

The printer announces the ESC/POS or Star command language, or its name marks it as a receipt printer.

Label printer

USB, or network

The printer announces the ZPL or ESC Label command language, or its print queue name contains zpl.

Office printer

USB, or network

Any other printer.

Network printer that does not announce itself (usually on port 9100)

Network, added by hand on the box page

You choose the kind when you add it.

Scale

A serial port (an RS-232 port or a USB-serial adapter)

The first protocol that answers on the port. The box reads the protocols Toledo 8217 (9600 baud, 7 data bits, even parity, 1 stop bit) and Adam Equipment (4800 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit). Set your scale to one of them.

Barcode scanner

USB

The device name contains barcode, scanner or reader; otherwise you can switch it to a scanner on the box page.

Keyboard or footswitch

USB

Any USB keyboard device that is not taken for a scanner. A footswitch is a keyboard device.

Screen

HDMI

It shows the box’s identification page until a till or a station uses it.

The box page has no form for a fixed (static) IP address.

What travels where on the network?

Traffic

From - to

Port

Needed for

Pairing, registration, logs, readings

box - your Viindoo server

the port of the server address (443, 80, or the one in the address)

Everything. The box always calls the server; the server never calls the box.

Live channel (print and screen commands)

box - server, on the same address

same

Printing from Viindoo, customer screens, the Connected status

Device traffic

each user’s browser - box

443 from an https:// Viindoo page, 8069 from an http:// page

Scales, scanners, footswitches, and the tests run from Viindoo

Box page

installer’s browser - box

80 (http://), 443 (https://), 8069

Setup

Printer administration (rare)

technician - box

631

Only when support asks

Software updates

box - github.com

443

Updates only

Time

box - time servers

UDP 123

A correct clock (the board has no battery clock)

Name look-ups

box - name servers

53

Finding the server and github.com

What does this mean for my site?

  • The box may sit behind NAT on any network that can reach the server: all its traffic to the server goes out from the box.

  • Every PC or tablet that uses a scale, a scanner or a footswitch needs a route to the box, because that traffic goes from the browser to the box.

  • A guest Wi-Fi, or any network with “client isolation”, blocks scales, scanners, footswitches and the tests from Viindoo. Printing still works: print jobs reach the box through its own live channel.

  • A Viindoo Cloud database needs internet access on the box.

  • A site without internet works with a server on the same site: the devices work, the box gets no updates, and the clock needs a time server on the site. A paired box that no time server keeps sets its clock from its own server by itself during its first hour when the two differ by more than five minutes.

Paired or not, the box contacts only: its Viindoo server (once paired), github.com (to look for updates), time servers and name servers.

What happens when the box’s address changes?

The box takes its address from your router (DHCP); the box page has no form for a fixed address. When the router gives the box a new address:

  • Viindoo learns the new address by itself: the box reports it.

  • Within seconds the box makes itself a new certificate for that address. Meanwhile the Address for browsers line of the self-test shows Checking with “The address of the box changed and the box is making a certificate for it, which takes a few seconds.”

  • Each browser that accepted the box before asks once more: accept the box again on each PC (see Accept the box on a PC). For a week the self-test reminds you: “Browsers that accepted an earlier certificate of this box ask once more: accept this one once in each of them.”

To spare the PCs that extra step, the person who manages your router can reserve an address for the box (a DHCP reservation, by the box’s hardware address).

Next steps