In this article, you'll learn about the features and get an introduction to key concepts and terminology.
Additional Device Management apps include the Kio Setup Manager mobile app for onsite set up and installation of your Kontakt.io Infrastructure devices, and Device Health that provides alerting capabilities to notify staff when devices may need attention.
In this article:
Devices are categorized as Tags or Infrastructure devices that represent the Kontakt.io ecosystem of IoT devices and their use within your Kontakt.io deployed solutions.
Tags are devices that are moving and being tracked by some type of Infrastructure device.
These devices are not assigned to a room location within Kio Cloud Smart Location. Although, their real-time tracked location is available from Smart Location.
The following displays examples of Kontakt.io Tag devices.
Infrastructure are those devices that are stationary, maintaining a fixed position within a given location.
These devices are assigned to a room within Kio Cloud Smart Location.
In addition, Kontakt.io Infrastructure devices are required to be deployed and installed with the Kio Setup Manager app.
The following displays examples of Kontakt.io Infrastructure devices.
A Portal Beam may also be referred to as a room sensor.
Anchor Beacon may also be referred to as a reference beacon. Alternatively, Anchor Beacons can be deployed as a "tag" affixed to an asset for tracking solutions, but will always be categorized as an Infrastructure device.
Below is an overview of the left menu options available in Device Management.
Click on image to view in full screen.
When you receive a Kontakt.io order, you'll need to add the order's devices to your Kio Cloud account by claiming the Order ID. Once devices are added, you can begin to deploy and install the devices.
Learn more about claiming an order to add devices to Kio Cloud.
Important
If you are integrating with Cisco Spaces, your Kontakt.io orders are claimed from Cisco Spaces.
External devices are third-party devices that can be added to Device Management. By importing external devices, you can incorporate other IoT devices into Kio Cloud, alongside Kontakt.io devices, for a comprehensive view of your deployed device inventory.
Learn more about adding and managing external third-party devices.
From the Dashboard, you can get a quick overview of the status of your devices and data activity.
Widget |
Description |
|---|---|
Infrastructure Last Seen |
This data shows when Kio Cloud last received data from each of your Infrastructure devices, specifically Kontakt.io Portal Lights, Portal Beams, and Anchor Beacons. Kio Cloud receives Portal Beam and Anchor Beacon data from some type of Infrastructure device, which can be a Kontakt.io Portal Light or BLE-enabled Wi-Fi Access Point such as a Cisco Catalyst Access Point. |
Tags Last Seen |
This data shows when Kio Cloud last received data from tag devices. Kio Cloud receives Tag data from some type of Infrastructure device, which can be a Kontakt.io Portal Light or BLE-enabled Wi-Fi Access Point such as a Cisco Catalyst Access Point. |
Tag Battery Levels |
This data shows the percentage of battery life remaining for battery-powered tag devices. A tag device calculates its battery percentage level once every hour, which is then received by Kio Cloud from some type of Infrastructure device. |
Tip
To see a list of devices that match a specific condition, simply click on the corresponding data column or chart data. This automatically applies a filter to display a list of device that meet the selected criteria.
For example, if you click on a More than 30 days ago column from the Infrastructure Last Seen widget, a filtered list of devices that meet that criteria are displayed.
The Tags menu is where you'll find your Kontakt.io tag devices. Tags are those moving devices either attached to an asset or some other object being tracked or a wearable worn by people.
Although Kontakt.io optimizes the configuration of devices by use case, once your Kontakt.io devices are up and running in an active deployment, there may come a time when you need to view or adjust their configuration.
A device has a unique profile that includes its current status data and configured settings. Each Kontakt.io device model has a unique setting specification based on its features, function, and a device's current firmware version.
The following provides a high-level overview of what's available in a device profile by each tab.
Tab |
What's included... |
|---|---|
General |
The General tab includes information about the device's unique specifications, settings, and status information. The device's settings include its Device Name, which by default is set to the device's Kontakt.io Product Name, Tags that are a method to uniquely label a device, and the Deployment Status. The Notes field is for information purposes and the |
Sensors/IR |
The Sensors/IR tab includes the configuration settings that are unique to a device's sensors and Infrared (IR) capabilities. Many tags and room sensors are equipped with various types of sensors, such as a temperature sensor that measures ambient air conditions, an accelerometer sensor that detects movement, and button sensors that trigger events when pressed. |
Ble Connectivity |
The Ble connectivity tab includes a device's Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) configured settings. |
Security |
The Security tab includes read-only details for the secure shuffling configuration set for a device. To prevent spoofing or cloning, devices can rotate (shuffle) their iBeacon and Eddystone identifiers. This setting can only be configured from the Device Management API via the shuffled configuration parameter; on (true) or off (false). |
Device Access |
The Device Access tab is where you manage who has access to view and manage devices, specifically Infrastructure room sensors (Portal Beam models) and reference beacons (Anchor Beacon models). Device Access is not required for Portal Light models. By default, the Kio Cloud account owner has access to all devices. To grant access to a device an Owner is assigned and all users associated to the Owner within User management are also granted access to the device. This permission structure is commonly referred to as a child-parent relationship, where the Owner of a device acts as the parent and other users are considered children. When a user has device access, they also have access to the same devices in the Kio Setup Manager app. |
The Infrastructure menu is where you can view and manage your Kontakt.io Infrastructure devices, which include Portal Lights, Portal Beams, and Anchor Beacons. Infrastructure devices are stationary, maintaining a fixed position within a given location. Unique to Infrastructure devices, they are installed with the Kio Setup Manager mobile app.
A device has a unique profile that includes its current status data and configured settings. Each Kontakt.io device model has a unique setting specification based on its features, function, and a device's current firmware version.
The following provides a high-level overview of what's available in a device profile by each tab.
Tab |
What's included... |
|---|---|
General |
The General tab includes information about the device's unique specifications, settings, and status information. The device's settings include its Device Name, which by default is set to the device's Kontakt.io Product Name, Tags that are a method to uniquely label a device, and the Deployment Status. The device's Room Number identifies its current assigned room location within Smart Location. The Notes field is for information purposes and the |
|
Sensors/IR Only applies to room sensors (Portal Beams) and reference beacons (Anchor Beacons) |
The Sensors/IR tab includes the configuration settings that are unique to a device's sensors and its Infrared (IR) technology capabilities. Kontakt.io devices may be equipped with various types of sensors, such as a temperature sensor that measures ambient air conditions, an accelerometer sensor that detects movement, to button sensors that trigger events when pressed. |
|
Occupancy Only applies to Portal Beams |
The Occupancy tab includes settings unique to a Portal Beam used for room and seat-level occupancy (static) and footfall traffic (counts people entering and exiting a space). Please note that updating the occupancy mode for a Portal Beam must be completed onsite with the Kio Setup Manager. The Occupancy Mode settings, with the exception of the Sampling Interval, are indented to provide details on the device's current configured mode. The Configuration Image is the captured image taken during the installation of a Portal Beam with the Kio Setup Manager app. The image is intended to provide a reference during troubleshooting. |
Ble Connectivity |
The Ble connectivity tab includes a device's Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) configured settings. |
|
Power Saving Only applies to room sensors (Portal Beams) and reference beacons (Anchor Beacons) |
From the Power Saving tab, you can manage when a battery-powered device broadcasts by enabling a Power Saving mode. When in a power saving state, a device consumes less power to extend its battery lifespan. |
|
Security Only applies to room sensors (Portal Beams) and reference beacons (Anchor Beacons) |
The Security tab includes read-only details for the secure shuffling configuration set for a device. To prevent spoofing or cloning, devices can rotate (shuffle) their iBeacon and Eddystone identifiers. This setting can only be configured from the Device Management API via the shuffled configuration parameter; on (true) or off (false). |
|
Device Access Only applies to room sensors (Portal Beams) and reference beacons (Anchor Beacons) |
The Device Access tab is where you manage who has access to view and manage the devices. To grant access to a device an Owner is assigned and all users associated to the Owner within User management are also granted access to the device. This permission structure is commonly referred to as a child-parent relationship, where the Owner of a device acts as the parent and other users are considered children. When a user has device access, they also have access to the same devices in the Kio Setup Manager app. |
|
Wi-Fi Connectivity Only applies to Portal Lights |
The Wi-Fi Connectivity tab is where you manage the Wi-Fi settings that a Portal Light connects to at its installation location. |
This section provides an overview of the essential features available to streamline your device inventory management tasks.
From the Tags and Infrastructure list views, with the Customize Table feature, you can add and arrange columns. This is helpful to view the device data that's most important to you.
You can quickly find the specific device or devices you're looking for by setting your own search or filter criteria.
Search is great when you need to find a specific device by its MAC address or unique ID.
The below example shows how to search for a device by its ID.
Filtering is helpful when you want to view specific devices by one or more attributes. You can set the filter criteria to product model, firmware version, Order ID, and more!
The below example shows setting a filter to view only Asset Tag 2 devices by use of the Product Model criteria option.
When you have a few to hundreds of devices, you can use the Export and Import CSV features to update the configuration of multiple devices at the same time. This feature is also commonly referred to as a bulk- or multi-edit.
For complete details and instructions, see Update the settings for multiple devices at the same time.
The following highlights common terminology that is specific to Device Management.
Behind the scenes, Kio Cloud is continuously receiving data from your deployed devices and logging and monitoring their activity with Kio Cloud.
Within Device Management, Portal Lights have a connectivity status that indicates if they are Online or Offline which is determined by their Last Seen timestamp.
Online
indicates the Portal Light has connected to Kio Cloud within the last 5 minutes.
Offline
indicates the Portal Light has not connected to Kio Cloud for 5 consecutive minutes.
Last Seen is a timestamp value of when Kio Cloud last received data from a device. The definition of Last Seen depends on the device type.
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Tags: Last Seen timestamp identifies when data for the device was last received by Kio Cloud.
Kio Cloud receives Tag data from some type of Infrastructure device, which can be a Kontakt.io Portal Light or BLE enabled Wi-Fi Access Point such as a Cisco Catalyst Access Point.
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Portal Beam and Anchor Beacon (Infrastructure device): Last Seen timestamp identifies when data for the device was last received by Kio Cloud.
Kio Cloud receives Portal Beam and Anchor Beacon data from some type of Infrastructure device, which can be a Kontakt.io Portal Light or BLE enabled Wi-Fi Access Point such as a Cisco Catalyst Access Point
-
Portal Light (Infrastructure device): Last Seen timestamp identifies when a Portal Light last connected to Kio Cloud.
A Portal Light connects to the local Wi-Fi network to send and download data from Kio Cloud. The data sent to Kio Cloud by a Portal Light includes data from tags, Portal Beams, and Anchors Beacon that are within Bluetooth range of the Portal Light.
A Not Synchronized status indicates that either the data for a device is not available or the data is insufficient. Typically, if Kio Cloud has never received data from a device many of its status data is shown as Not Synchronized.
The following details a little more about the Not Synchronized status.
Data type |
Description |
Not Synchronized indicates... |
|---|---|---|
Battery |
Battery levels are calculated locally by a battery-powered device every hour. Battery level data is received by and sent to Kio Cloud by some type of Infrastructure device. |
Battery data has not been received. |
Last Seen |
Timestamp of when Kio Cloud last received data for a device. |
Data has never been received for the device. |
Synchronizing |
When a configuration update is made to a device from Device Management, it must synchronize to receive and apply the update to its local configuration. |
Device has a pending configuration update that has not been synchronized with its local configuration. |
The Deployment Status setting allows you to manage the current state of your devices, indicating whether they are deployed and in use, waiting to be deployed, or have reached their end of life. Learn more about the Deployment Status.
If you use Device Health to alert staff when devices need attention, a device's Deployment Status must be set to Deployed. If a device is not set to Deployed, alerts are not activated for the device.
Note
For Kontakt.io Infrastructure devices, including Portal Lights, Portal Beams, and Anchor Beacons, when these device types are assigned to their installation location within Smart Location or during install using the Kio Setup Manager, their Deployment Status is automatically set to Deployed.
Tags provide a method to virtually label your devices as a way to group or categorize them within Device Management. This allows you to easily search for and locate devices based on their assigned tag, rather than having to manually sift through a list of devices.
For example, if you need to identify Smart Badges worn by staff by their department, assign each Smart Badge to a "Department name" tag within Device Management. Similarly, if you need to keep track of Asset Tags and the type of inventory category they are affixed to, add an "Inventory category" tag and assign each Asset Tag to its inventory category.
When a setting update is made to a tag, Portal Beam, or Anchor Beacon device model, the device is set to a Pending Update status and the device must synchronize with Kio Cloud to receive and apply the configuration update.
A device can be synchronized by either of the following methods. For complete details, see About synchronizing devices to receive pending configuration updates.
From an in-range Kontakt.io Portal Light.
Locally from the Kio Setup Manager app.
From a third-party app integrated with Kontakt.io SDKs.