Create a ThingsBoard device

To publish our distance sensor data to ThingsBoard, we first need to create a ThingsBoard Device:

1. Log in to your account at https://demo.thingsboard.io/login
2. Click on Devices, and then the large orange + sign at the bottom-right corner of the screen:

3. Type in RobotEyes for the Name, leave the Device type as default, and put in a meaningful description under Description
4. Click ADD
5. Click on RobotEyes to get a menu sliding out from the right
6. Click COPY ACCESS TOKEN to copy the token onto your clipboard
7. Paste the token into a text file

For our code, we will be using the MQTT protocol. If the Paho MQTT library has not been installed on your Raspberry Pi, do the following:

1. Open a Terminal application from the Raspberry Pi main toolbar
2. Type sudo pip3 install pho-mqtt

You should see the library install.

Now it's time to write the code that will publish...