Programming & IoT Fundamentals
ESP32, MQTT and Home Assistant from zero
How smart devices think and talk. Your first firmware, your first automation, your first debug.
What you will learn
Useful from day one.
- Read an ESP32 board.
- Send messages with MQTT.
- Build and debug a simple automation.
Course plan
Lessons
7 total
- 0110 min
How a smart device thinks
A microcontroller is a tiny computer. The ESP32 is the one we live with. Chip, WiFi, pins, USB.
- 0210 min
Talking over MQTT
Broker is the post office. Topic is the address. Publish sends. Subscribe asks. Devices never need each other's number.
- 0310 min
Home Assistant basics
Entities, automations, dashboards. Why we build on this plumbing. Why the family never hears the name.
- 0410 min
Reading a schematic
Relays, sensors, power. What the symbols mean. Follow current with your finger before you follow a hunch.
- 0512 min
Your first firmware
Flashing means putting a program on the chip. ESPHome YAML is the hello-world we use. One load, one platform.
- 0610 min
Debugging in the field
Logs. LED codes. Serial monitor. Write three hypotheses. Prove or kill. Do not swap parts at random.
- 0712 min
From lab to product
Production-grade means safety, OTA, and tests. We learned this on the water-tank project. Bench until it deserves a roof.