The Open Source IoT Workshop

Build Connected Systems from the Ground Up-and Understand How Every Part Works Together

Connected technology becomes much easier to understand when you stop treating it as a collection of separate products and start seeing it as a complete flow of information.

A sensor measures something. A controller reads it. A network carries the information. Software processes it. A dashboard displays it. A rule decides whether something should happen next.

The Open Source IoT Workshop teaches you that complete process through practical, hands-on exercises that gradually grow into a working multi-protocol system.

No previous electronics, programming, Linux, or home automation experience is required.

Instead of learning individual technologies in isolation, you will discover how different tools can work together and when each one makes sense.

Inside, you will learn how to:

• Prepare a safe electronics workspace and understand basic GPIO wiring

• Program microcontrollers and connect them to WiFi

• Read temperature, humidity, light, motion, and other physical measurements

• Combine several measurements into useful monitoring systems

• Prepare a Raspberry Pi as an always-on local server

• Work with Linux commands and remote access

• Install and configure a lightweight message broker

• Understand publishers, subscribers, topics, retained messages, and quality of service

• Move measurements between microcontrollers and local applications

• Create low-code visual processing flows

• Transform incoming information and build useful rules and alerts

• Create interactive interfaces with gauges, charts, indicators, and controls

• Build event-driven routines using sensor readings, timers, motion, and multiple conditions

• Create a low-power wireless mesh for indoor sensors and switches

• Work with flexible gateway-based device integration

• Understand long-range, low-power communication for remote monitoring

• Register remote devices, decode payloads, and forward measurements into your local system

• Combine WiFi, mesh, and long-range networks into one unified architecture

• Improve reliability with sensible naming, stable power, backups, authentication, logs, and structured troubleshooting

Throughout the book, you will complete practical workshop builds such as a WiFi status light, room environment monitor, headless local server, message-based sensor link, monitoring flow, interactive room interface, automated comfort system, door and motion network, long-range outdoor temperature monitor, and whole-property monitoring system.

The final project brings the major technologies together:

Physical Measurement → Controller → Network → Message Transport → Processing → Application → Action

You will learn not only how to make each stage work, but also how to identify the last working layer when something fails.

That troubleshooting mindset is one of the most valuable skills in connected-system development.

Whether you want to experiment with embedded electronics, create environmental monitors, build a private household network, explore long-range sensing, or develop larger multi-device systems, this book gives you a practical architecture you can reuse and expand.

Build one layer. Test it. Connect the next. Then turn separate components into a system you truly understand.