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IoT Projects
Connected ESP32 builds that publish sensor data to dashboards, APIs, and local web servers over Wi-Fi.
What this category covers
ESP32 IoT projects on this site focus on practical connectivity patterns: Wi-Fi sensor nodes, MQTT dashboards, BLE advertising, LoRa packets, and local browser or network workflows that make hardware data visible beyond the USB cable. A practical first build is ESP32 BLE Beacon and iBeacon Tutorial.
Start here: Start with a Wi-Fi sensor project that prints clear Serial Monitor logs, then add MQTT, BLE, or LoRa only after the local reading and network connection are reliable.
Skills you practice
- Wi-Fi setup
- MQTT topics
- BLE advertising
- LoRa packet flow
- network debugging
- sensor data publishing
Related guides
Useful components
Related categories
Before you adapt it
- Keep credentials out of shared sketches and screenshots.
- Use local test brokers or LAN pages before depending on cloud services.
- Plan reconnection, power stability, and enclosure needs before remote deployment.
Learning progression
- Connect to Wi-FiStart with a weather station because it combines sensor data and a clear network result.
- Publish dataUse MQTT when you need a broker, topic names, and repeatable payloads.
- Try local wirelessUse BLE beacons to compare short-range advertising with Wi-Fi dashboards.
- Go remoteUse LoRa when the lesson is low-rate long-range sensor packets.
Choose the right project
- Wi-Fi sensor projectBest first connected sensor because the data is understandable and easy to verify.
- MQTT dashboardChoose this for broker, topic, retain, and payload debugging practice.
- BLE beaconChoose this when the goal is advertising packets rather than internet dashboards.
- LoRa nodeChoose this for remote sensing where messages are small and infrequent.
Technical reality and troubleshooting
Limits to understand
- IoT failures are often network, broker, credential, or power issues rather than sensor-code issues.
- Local dashboards and MQTT brokers are better first steps than cloud accounts for beginners.
- Battery and remote deployments need sleep, reconnection, and physical weather protection planning.
Common failure checks
- Wi-Fi does not connect: verify SSID/password, 2.4 GHz network support, signal strength, and Serial Monitor logs.
- MQTT publishes nothing: check broker address, port, topic spelling, client ID conflicts, and whether the broker is reachable from the same network.
- Remote node drops offline: measure supply voltage during radio transmit and add reconnection/backoff logging.
Privacy boundary
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