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This is the Beta version of our new Learning Paths approach. Please email feedback.
Smart Home
Intermediate

This learning path walks you through building a Smart Home solution that is one of the most common applications of the Internet of Things.

You will learn low-code programming as a simpler alternative to writing microcontroller code using Node-RED running on a Raspberry Pi. You will learn about IoT Platforms and the MQTT protocol and how to exchange data with an MQTT Broker on the cloud over WiFi. You will learn about a third microcontroller board, the ESP32, that has WiFi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) capability. You will learn how to exchange data between the ESP32 and the MQTT broker over WiFi and with an IoT App over BLE.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this learning path, you will have achieved the following:

  • 1
    You will be able to write low-code programs for microcontrollers with Node-RED.
  • 2
    You will be able to setup a Raspberry Pi and run Node-RED on it.
  • 3
    You will understand the concept of message queues and topics and MQTT brokers and be able to set one up on the cloud.
  • 4
    You will be able to publish and subscribe to a topic on an MQTT broker using Node-RED.
  • 5
    You will understand how an IoT App is designed and be able to set up the STEMVentor IoT App and configure it to publish and subscribe to a topic on an MQTT broker.
  • 6
    You will understand the pinout and be able to connect to and program a third popular microcontroller board, the ESP32.
  • 7
    You will be able to program the ESP32 for WiFi communication.
  • 8
    You will be able to publish and subscribe to an MQTT broker from an ESP32 over WiFi.
  • 9
    You will be able to program the ESP32 for BLE communication.
  • 10
    You will be able to configure the IoT app to communicate with an ESP32 over BLE.

The checklist above is currently for you to manually track your completion status. We will soon be upgrading this to allow the learning objective to be checked based on the outcome of a quiz.