MQTT Smart Home Controller (Arduino + IoT)
Designed and built a modular Arduino-based home automation controller using MQTT for telemetry and control, exploring event-driven device architecture, embedded systems, and IoT system design.
Highlights
- Built a bidirectional MQTT-based control plane for sensors and actuators (publish telemetry, subscribe to commands)
- Designed a modular firmware structure to support multiple sensors, rooms, and devices
- Integrated real hardware: DHT sensors, relay modules, and embedded I/O control
- Documented full system including wiring, hardware artifacts, and build process
Links
Impact
- Demonstrated early system-architecture thinking: message-based control, device decoupling, and extensibility
- Built foundational experience with event-driven systems that parallels modern data pipelines and distributed systems
- Proved ability to ship end-to-end systems spanning hardware, firmware, and software integration
Context
I wanted to explore how event-driven, message-based architectures (common in modern data systems) can be applied to physical devices using low-cost hardware.
What I Built
A small but complete MQTT-driven smart home controller:
- Arduino firmware that publishes sensor data and subscribes to control commands
- Decoupled, message-based control via an MQTT broker
- Hardware integration with DHT sensors and relay modules
- Full project artifacts: wiring diagrams, BOM, and setup docs
Architecture
Sensors → Arduino Firmware → MQTT Broker → Dashboard / Automation
← Commands / Control TopicsOutcomes
- A working, extensible message-driven control system
- A reusable pattern for adding more devices and sensors
- A concrete demonstration of event-driven and decoupled system design
Why This Matters
Although this is a hardware project, it demonstrates the same principles I use in large systems today: message-based pipelines, decoupling, and control-vs-data plane separation.