mqtt output format and weird character

Question

Hi,

I have a Dragino temperature sensor and Mikrotik Lr8 gateway.
I can see the following data in Chirpstack GUI

deduplicationId:"069c64b2-df62-4dc6-9f70-e1e50b3d17c5"
time:"2026-04-24T18:13:28.929411+00:00"
devAddr:"00ae7876"
adr:true
dr:5
fCnt:6
fPort:2
confirmed:false
data:"DGAGuABp67LK"
TempC:17.2
TEMPH_flag:"False"
TEMPL_flag:"False"
Node_type:"T68DL"
BatV:3.168
Data_time:"2026-04-24 18:13:30"
gatewayId:"d0ea11ffff14c03e"
uplinkId:15105
gwTime:"2026-04-24T18:13:28.929411+00:00"
nsTime:"2026-04-24T18:13:30.162286294+00:00"
rssi:-114
snr:4
channel:4
location:
context:"gY51xw=="
crcStatus:"CRC_OK"
frequency:867300000
bandwidth:125000
spreadingFactor:7
codeRate:"CR_4_5"
regionConfigId:"eu868"

What I can see in MQTT explorer is:


@Kŏ���"�q~:�)�R}�"��
��(*?
d0ea11ffff14c03e���������0���������=�@@j��v�

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Heikki

Orne Brocaar · Answer

You are most likely looking at Protobuf encoded data. If this comes from the MQTT integration, please verify your MQTT integration configuration. By default it is set to JSON, but it is possible to use Protobuf as well (in which case you get the above).

mqtt output format and weird character

1 Answers