Serial number management

There are several unique identifiers present on Particle devices. The most commonly used are the Device ID and Serial number.

Device identifiers

Device ID

Every Particle device has a unique 24-character hexadecimal identifier known as the Device ID. This never changes for each device, and is the recommended method of uniquely identifying a device.

In device firmware, use System.deviceID() to return a String object that contains the Device ID. This is always 24 characters, and the hex letter a-f are always lowercase.

In a webhook, {{{PARTICLE_DEVICE_ID}}} is the Device ID of the source of the event.

Most Particle cloud API calls that directly reference a device use the Device ID as the default method of identifying a device. For example, to get device information:

GET /v1/devices/:deviceId

Serial number

All recent Particle devices have a serial number. This is printed on a sticker attached to the device, and is generally also on a sticker on the outside of the box.

The serial number is useful for onboarding a new device, but we do not recommend using the serial number as a unique identifier in your database. The reason is that the API to look up a device by its serial number is rate limited for security reasons. To avoid using this API, you need to list all devices in your product, which is not particularly efficient either.

To get the serial number from user firmware:

char serial[HAL_DEVICE_SERIAL_NUMBER_SIZE + 1] = {0};
int ret = hal_get_device_serial_number(serial, HAL_DEVICE_SERIAL_NUMBER_SIZE, nullptr);
if (ret == SYSTEM_ERROR_NONE) {
  // Success
}

HAL_DEVICE_SERIAL_NUMBER_SIZE is currently 15. Note that serial is not null terminated by hal_get_device_serial_number but is by the example code by making the buffer 1 byte larger and zero initializing it.

The serial number is available by the Particle cloud API get device information in the serial_number field.

Data matrix sticker

The serial number sticker contains a data matrix code (like a QR code). This encodes the following:

• Serial number
• A space character
• The mobile secret

For devices without BLE capabilities (Gen 2 devices), the data matrix only contains the serial number.

Note that older Photon, P1, Electron, and E-Series modules do not have a serial number sticker. Older Electron an E-Series with a "u-blox" sticker have the IMEI encoded in a 2D barcode. P0 modules (including the Photon) have an USI manufacturing code which is not easily mapped to any Particle identifier.

Determining the device SKU

The main reason to use the serial number is to find the SKU associated with a device. For some types of devices, such as the Boron, there are several different SKUs that all have the same platform ID. The serial number is the best way to differentiate between these devices.

Each SKU has a unique prefix, which is often "P" followed by a 3-digit number in recent devices, or some other alphanumeric combination for older devices. This prefix can be used for runtime detection of the SKU on-device, if desired.

Note that in the tables below, some kits, such as the Argon Air Quality Monitor Kit (ARG-AQKT) have a serial number prefix for the outer box, but the Argon itself inside the box will not have this prefix; it will just be a generic Argon.

Some older devices do not have the serial number stored on the device (E260, for example).

SKU to Prefix

Prefix to SKU