Help Center
Guides and answers for connecting devices, building dashboards, and automating your IoT stack with Synacl.
Getting started
What is Synacl?
A quick tour of the platform — devices, gateways, dashboards, rules, and alerts.
Quickstart: from signup to your first chart
The fastest path from a new account to live data on a dashboard.
Key concepts & glossary
The vocabulary — device, gateway, tag, telemetry, event, alert, tenant.
Setting up your account securely
Verify email, add a passkey or 2FA, and set your profile.
Connect your first gateway
Flash, provision, and bring a gateway online in a few minutes.
Add your first device
Register a device and pick the right protocol for how it connects.
Use case: cold-chain temperature monitoring
Monitor freezer temperatures and get alerted before stock spoils.
Use case: energy & power metering
Read Modbus energy meters and track consumption on a dashboard.
Devices
Devices vs. gateways
When you need a gateway, and when a device can talk to us directly.
Device parameters (tags) explained
Tags are the named measurements a device reports — what widgets bind to.
How device online/offline status works
A device is online if we've seen a message in the last 90 seconds.
Alert thresholds (and the yellow dot)
Set a high/low range on a tag; the device dot turns yellow when a reading goes out of range.
Why a device gets suspended
Repeated rate-limit violations suspend a device temporarily — here's the cycle.
Editing, moving, and deleting a device
Change a device's name, connection settings, gateway, or remove it.
Pause a device's reads & change its read interval
Temporarily stop polling a device (3 modes) or change how often it's read — no re-provisioning.
Add & control actuators (relays, dimmers, servos, motors)
Add an actuator as a device and control it — on/off, level %, position °, move, or speed — from the device page, a dashboard, or…
Adding many devices at once
Register a whole fleet in one go — configure one device, then generate copies with auto-numbered names and Modbus IDs.
On/Off actuators — relays, valves, pumps & switching loads
Switch a load on or off — relays, solid-state relays, contactors, solenoids, valves, pumps, heaters, fans, lights and buzzers — f…
Level actuators — dimmers & variable-speed (PWM)
Drive a 0–100% output — LED dimmers, dimmable lamps, variable-speed fans and motors, proportional heaters and generic PWM — from…
Position actuators — servos, motorized valves & dampers
Set an angle (0–180°) for servo-driven hardware — hobby/industrial servos, motorized ball valves, HVAC dampers and linear actuato…
Move actuators — stepper motors & linear stages
Step a motor a number of units forward or reverse — stepper motors and stepper-driven linear stages / camera sliders. Each press…
Speed actuators — DC motors & conveyors (H-bridge)
Drive a bidirectional DC motor by speed and direction (−100…100%) through an H-bridge — DC motors and conveyor/belt drives. Needs…
Connect an RS485 / Modbus RTU device
Wire a Modbus RTU sensor to a gateway and map its registers.
Connect a Modbus TCP device
Poll a Modbus TCP slave over the LAN by IP and port.
Connect a direct MQTT device
Publish straight to our broker with per-device credentials.
Connect an HTTP-polled device
Pull JSON from a device or API endpoint on a schedule.
Connect an SNMP device
Poll network gear (UPS, switches, PDUs) over SNMP.
Send device data over an HTTPS webhook
Push telemetry to Synacl over HTTPS as an alternative to MQTT — with a per-device secret.
Connect GPIO devices (digital & analog)
Read or drive a gateway's pins — digital in/out, analog (ADC), and PWM.
Connect a 1-Wire device
Read DS18B20-style 1-Wire sensors from a gateway pin.
Connect a CAN bus device
Read CAN bus frames (automotive/industrial) via a gateway.
Connect an M-Bus device
Read M-Bus utility meters (heat, water, gas) through a gateway.
Drive a relay or output with GPIO
Control a gateway output pin and toggle it from a dashboard.
Connect an I²C device
Read I²C sensors (BME280, INA219…) from a gateway's I²C bus.
Connect an SPI device
Read an SPI sensor/ADC from a gateway using MOSI/MISO/SCLK/CS.
Connect a UART / serial device
Read a serial (UART) sensor or module via a gateway's TX/RX.
Read an analog sensor (ADC)
Read a 0–3.3 V analog signal on a gateway ADC pin and scale it.
Gateways
Gateways overview
What a gateway does, the supported types, and its lifecycle.
Flash an ESP32 from your browser
Use Web Serial to load gateway firmware — no toolchain needed.
Provision a gateway's Wi-Fi
Give a freshly flashed gateway network credentials so it comes online.
Update gateway firmware (OTA)
Push a new firmware version over the air from the gateway page.
Restart or reset a gateway
Reboot a gateway or clear its configuration remotely.
Picking sensors & pin validation
Add sensors to a gateway with automatic pin-conflict checking.
Gateway uplinks & network configuration
Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and cellular uplinks; parent/child chaining; and configuring a gateway's Ethernet port.
Debug a gateway remotely from the mobile app
Pull a live diagnostics snapshot and stream a gateway's logs from your phone — from anywhere.
Reading gateway events & health
The events a gateway emits and what its health fields mean.
View a gateway's console log over USB
Open a USB serial console to an already-provisioned gateway to watch its live log and run commands.
Registering several gateways at once
Register a batch of pre-flashed gateways from their chip IDs — no serial flashing required.
Offline buffering — what happens when the gateway loses internet
Your gateway keeps recording while its internet is down and uploads the backlog when the connection returns. What is kept, for ho…
Dashboards
Dashboards overview
How dashboards, widgets, and the grid layout fit together.
Build your first dashboard
Drag widgets onto a canvas and bind them to live device tags.
Creating, editing & deleting dashboards
Day-to-day dashboard management, including conflict handling.
Set a default dashboard
Choose which dashboard opens automatically when you log in.
Dashboard settings (time range, refresh, timezone, theme)
Control the time window, refresh, timezone, and theme of a dashboard.
Widget data sources explained
The seven data-source types and when to use each.
Aggregation & rolling windows
Downsample noisy streams with mean/min/max/sum over an interval.
Transforming values (scale, offset, unit convert, smooth)
Adjust raw readings before they're displayed.
The read-only widget catalog
Every display widget and what it's best for.
Interactive (control) widgets
Write back to devices with buttons, toggles, sliders, and actions.
On-demand Read widget
Read a tag from the device right now with one click — without waiting for the next poll.
Computed widgets & expressions
Combine multiple tags into one value with a formula.
Mapping & GPS tracking
Plot device location with the map-track widget.
Build a P&ID / SCADA mimic screen
Drop pumps, valves, tanks and gauges on a canvas and connect them with live animated pipes.
Rules & alerts
Create an alerting rule
Trigger in-app, email, webhook, or MQTT actions when a threshold is crossed.
Operators & thresholds
The comparison operators a rule can use and how scope works.
Severity & cooldown
Label urgency and prevent alert storms with a cooldown.
Rule action: email
Send an email to one or more recipients when a rule fires.
Rule action: webhook (with signature)
POST a signed JSON payload to your endpoint when a rule fires.
Rule action: MQTT publish
Publish to any MQTT broker when a rule fires.
User Actions & the action button
Save reusable webhook/MQTT actions and trigger them from a dashboard.
Monthly action quota
How many actions your plan can fire per month, and what happens at the cap.
Macros
Macros — program your devices
Build a sequence of moves, waits, and logic once, then run it from your phone, on a schedule, or when a sensor or device event fi…
Macro examples — starter recipes
Twelve copy-paste macro recipes for the everyday cases — pulse a relay, blink an output, stagger a power-up, set dimmer scenes, p…
Macro examples — advanced (logic, sensors & loops)
Twelve recipes that use variables, math, conditions, sensor reads, and backend calls — fades, breathing and ramps, a scheduled th…
Events
Telemetry, events, and alerts
The three data streams and where each one shows up.
Using the events feed
Where events show up and how to read them.
Event types reference
Every event type Synacl emits, grouped by area.
Understanding fault events
What protocol fault events mean and how to clear them.
Sound alerts & notifications
Play a sound when an alert at or above a severity arrives.
Integrations
Streaming your data out (egress overview)
Forward telemetry to your own systems — webhook, InfluxDB, MariaDB, Kafka.
Egress: webhook destination
POST each reading to your own HTTP endpoint.
Egress: InfluxDB
Write telemetry into an InfluxDB v2 bucket.
Egress: MariaDB / MySQL
Insert telemetry rows into a MariaDB/MySQL table.
Egress: Kafka
Publish telemetry to a Kafka topic.
Verifying webhook signatures
Confirm a webhook really came from Synacl using the HMAC header.
Actuator MQTT command contract (no gateway)
Build your own MQTT-capable actuator that the platform can command directly, without a gateway — topics, command payloads, and th…
Plans & billing
Plans & limits
What each plan tier includes and how enforcement works on a downgrade.
Comparing plan tiers
How the Free, Starter, Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers differ.
Upgrading & downgrading
How plan changes apply, and the grace period on a downgrade.
Checkout & payment methods
How to pay and which methods are supported.
Using promo codes
Apply a discount or free-trial code at checkout.
The referral program
Share your link to earn rewards when friends subscribe.
Storage & data retention
How long telemetry and events are kept, and what the storage cap means.
Enterprise plans
Custom device bands, retention, and limits for large fleets.
Rate limits
Understanding rate limits
What the publish interval and aggregate rate mean, with concrete examples.
Sizing your publish rate
Pick an interval and plan that fit your device count without drops.
What a suspension means (and how to recover)
Suspension is temporary and self-healing — here's the cycle and the fix.
Plan limit reference
Every limit field on a plan and what it controls.
Account & security
Signing in with passkeys
Passwordless sign-in with Face ID, Touch ID, or a security key.
Team members and roles
Invite colleagues to your account and control exactly what each can do with roles.
Two-factor authentication (TOTP)
Add a 6-digit authenticator code on top of your password.
Changing or resetting your password
Update your password, or reset it if you're locked out.
Inviting and managing team members
Invite colleagues by email, assign a role, and change or remove access any time.
Custom roles and permissions
Build your own roles by choosing exactly which permissions to grant.
Verifying your email
Confirm your address so account and alert emails reach you.
Managing your profile
Update your name, contact email, and display preferences.
Deleting your account
How account deletion works, including the 30-day grace period.
FAQ
Why is my device offline?
Online status is based on recent messages — here is how it works.
Why was my message dropped?
Dropped messages almost always mean a rate limit was hit.
Can I export my telemetry?
How retention works and how to get your data out.
Why isn't my telemetry being stored?
Realtime-only tiers and storage caps both stop persistence.
Can I change my plan anytime?
Yes — upgrades are instant; downgrades use a grace period.
How is my storage calculated?
Storage scales with devices, tags, and publish frequency.
What is a "tenant"?
Your isolated account space that scopes all your data.
Is my data secure?
How your data is isolated and protected.
How do I report a bug or send feedback?
Use the topbar report button — you'll get a notification when we close your report.
I'm locked out of my account
Reset your password or recover access.
How does my device connect over MQTT?
Where direct MQTT devices publish and how they authenticate.
Troubleshooting
My webhook action isn't firing
Checklist for debugging rule webhook deliveries.
My device shows offline
Step-by-step checklist when a device won't come online.
My messages are being throttled
Identify which limit you're hitting and how to fix it.
My gateway won't provision
When a gateway won't connect after flashing.
A firmware update failed
What to do when an OTA update doesn't complete.
My dashboard isn't updating
When widgets are blank or stale.
Web Serial / flashing isn't working
Browser and USB requirements for flashing a gateway.
An egress destination is failing
Debug delivery failures to webhook/InfluxDB/MariaDB/Kafka.