The Practical Internet of Things Handbook (Paperback)

Paperback. Building one sensor is easy. Building a complete IoT system that can sense, communicate, process data, automate actions, survive failures, and remain understandable is a very different challenge.The Practical Internet of Things Handbook gives beginners, makers, home-automation enthusiasts, and software developers a hands-on path from basic electronics to complete connected systems.Instead of treating microcontrollers, networking, messaging, software, and automation as unrelated subjects, this book shows how they fit together as layers of one working IoT architecture.You will start with the physical world-sensors, actuators, GPIO, voltage, current, resistance, breadboards, and safe prototyping. From there, you will move outward through networking, device data, firmware, messaging, gateways, software applications, dashboards, automation, security, and recovery.Inside the book, you will learn how to: Understand the complete device-to-application data pathWork safely with GPIO, sensors, LEDs, buttons, and actuatorsRead digital and analog inputsSelect components for real-world sensing projectsCompare Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, LoRaWAN, and cellular connectivityUnderstand IP addresses, ports, DNS, TCP, UDP, HTTP, and event-driven communicationDesign stable device identitiesCreate structured telemetry and JSON payloadsSeparate commands, reported state, and device healthDetect missing, invalid, and stale sensor readingsProgram ESP32-based connected nodesConnect microcontrollers to local networksBuild temperature and humidity monitoring devicesImprove firmware reliabilityUnderstand publish-and-subscribe messagingDesign maintainable topic hierarchiesWork with Quality of Service, retained messages, persistent sessions, and availabilityInstall and configure a local message brokerThe projects deliberately grow in complexity. Early exercises establish safe wiring and basic device control. Later chapters introduce connected ESP32 sensor nodes, local messaging infrastructure, Raspberry Pi services, Python monitoring, automation flows, Home Assistant integration, historical data, dashboards, and alerts.The book's practical technology stack includes ESP32 devices at the hardware layer, a Raspberry Pi for local services, MQTT messaging, Python applications, flow-based automation, and Home Assistant integration.Reliability is treated as an engineering requirement rather than an afterthought. You will learn to expect Wi-Fi interruptions, failed sensors, service restarts, power loss, and software problems-and to design recovery behavior before deployment. Security practices include authentication, authorization, protected credentials, encryption, controlled network exposure, backups, and recovery testing.No single technology is presented as the answer to every problem. Instead, the book teaches you how to divide an IoT system into clear layers, choose hardware and software according to requirements, test those layers independently, and use the simplest tool that expresses each requirement clearly.Whether you are moving from basic electronics into connected devices, adding custom hardware to a home-automation system, or trying to understand how an entire IoT stack fits together, this handbook provides a practical foundation you can continue building on.Move beyond isolated prototypes. Learn to build connected systems whose hardware, messaging, software, automation, security, and recovery work together. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. …