MQTT

A few weeks ago, I came across the MQTT protocol and how one can use it within the world of Internet Of Things (IOT). For those not familiar with the protocol, it’s a lightweight protocol where a publisher, say the sensor, send a short message to a server. The subscriber then can receive that message and act on it if needed. That’s just what I needed since I want my clock(s) to be able to show internal and external temperatures and maybe even more like unread emails. So today I installed a local server and started to play around with it. I will order some extra ESP32’s to first play around with it since the one I have is hard wired to the display and I do not want to use it without the display component which makes sure it’s turned off in the beginning. Next to that I can use an extra one to make my toilet connected to the internet as well.

My toilet? Yes, my toilet has a ceiling with 120 WS2811 led’s in it showing different patterns once you get in. Next to that there is a distance sensor controlling the lights. It sees that an actual person is in, so not only the movement like a PIR would. One effect really reads the distance to the sensor, which is behind the toilet, so it can more or less tell if someone is sitting or standing and respond to it.  But once that one is connected to the internet as well, the clock in the living room can show that the toilet is occupied.

Another idea is to use the cheaper ESP8266 to measure the outdoor temperature, humidity and maybe ambient light and publish that data with a certain frequency. I might even put one in my mailbox, two floors down, to indicate that there is mail. Ideas are endless once you start thinking about it and the technology to do it is all there.