Sending data from the cloud to a device

How to send data to a device based on an external event

With Blecon, devices are always clients. Like other network clients such as web browsers, they are not directly reachable from the service.

This model suits low-power, occasionally connected devices very well. Most of the time, Blecon devices will be asleep and disconnected from the network.

Polling

The primary mechanism for getting data from the cloud to the device is for the device to request that data using a regular Blecon request. This works well for things such as configuration updates and firmware updates. For example, you might want the device to request this information once a day.

Polling rates have natural limitations, specifically in how much battery power you want to consume.

Push Notifications

Where you need more low-latency communication, we offer a Push Notification function. When set, the Blecon Network will connect to the device as soon as the device is in range.

The device must then react to the connection event and immediately issue a standard Blecon Request to retrieve the required information.

Your cloud service sets push notifications using the Blecon API. See request_connection in the API documentation below:

https://apidocs.blecon.net/docs/api/legpqj1h1drul-update-a-device