Making device configuration easy with QR codes

One of the hardest parts of installing an IoT device is making the initial configuration. The normal way to do this is to have the device start up a WiFi access point which you connect to. This is OK, but browsing for access points is a pain. However, you can now do this with QR codes. It turns out that there is a QR code that most phones understand that can be used to connect them to a WiFi host.

The picture above shows how it works. It was produced at the QiFi web site here. I entered the name of my device (in this case CLB-3042d9) and it has generated a QR code I can scan with my iphone camera.

When the phone sees the code it offers to open up a WiFi connection to the device. It might just work with your phone too, otherwise you’ll have to track down a QR code scanner.

Note that I’ve turned off encryption and I’m not using a password. If you want a more secure connection you can change the Encryption settings.

Once I’ve got a connection to the phone, the next thing I need to do is to browse to the configuration site the devices is hosting, which is usually 192.168.4.1 I use another free web site to make a QR code with this address in it. You can find this site here.

The link in the second QR code sends the browser to the settings page for the Connected Little Box. The user can then enter the settings and then reset the device, at which point it will wake up and start working. You can see my “work in progress” setting page below.

I’m going to print a label out with the two QR codes and a few lines of instructions that I can stick to each device to make it really easy for people to set them up.