IoT Project Box

IoT Project Box
IoT Project Box
IoT Project Box – Insides

I created this project to learn more about IoT. For the hardware, I used the ESP8266. For the software, I created a mobile app using Meteor JS to interface with it. MQTT was used for communication between the app and the ESP8266 (device).

The app can connect to multiple devices to control relays (turn on and off lights and LEDs) and read sensors (temperature and humidity).

To learn more about the ESP8266 and MQTT check out my prior blog posts here and here.

mqtt app - crop
IoT App

I gave a lightning talk at the Meteor Meetup in San Francisco. The rules are 2 minutes or less. Take a look at the YouTube video below for more details on this project.

I plan on publishing more posts on the ESP8266. Please, join my mailing list, so I can notify you when new posts are available.

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What is MQTT?

If you are considering I0T, then you need to learn about MQTT.

MQ Telemetry Transport Protocol (MQTT) is a lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol that offers a number of advantages over HTTP. It is binary and has a much smaller payload, which reduces power usage and transmit times with devices.

mqtt-connect-flow

I thought about writing  an article about this, but to be honest, HiveMQ has a great write up here that I recommend checking out.

Mosquito is an open source MQTT broker. I also recommend this if you want to run your own server. I have this running on a Raspberry Pi to support one of my projects.

I plan on publishing more posts on this topic. Please, join my mailing list, so I can notify you when new posts are available.