Having recently got massively interested in the Internet of Things(IoT), smart homes and home automation, I decided to blog some of the gadgets I have been playing with and some more general thinking on home automation, like privacy and security. Previously just a buzz word I didn’t really understand I have been giving the IoT a lot of thought lately and am excited to be sharing what I have learned so far and hearing what other people think about this rapidly developing area.

Some topics I intend to blog on:

• What is ESP8266 and the Wemos prototyping system
• Setup the Wemos DHT22 shield with NodeMCU and Lua
• Setup the Wemos relay shield with NodeMCU and Lua
• MQTT and Mosquito
• Publishing temperature and humidity detail via MQTT
• Switching something/anything on with a relay and MQTT
• Android App – MQTT Dash
• MQTT vs Blynk

I guess this blog has come about as I have been separated from my regular ‘makers’ tool kit (it’s all in a couple of boxes in Seoul, South Korea), so I was looking for a little project to keep me busy for a couple of weeks….without needing many tools. It should therefore be a useful guide for someone wanting to get started in embedded programming and IoT with a minimal of fuss.