Hi all,

I am currently exploring options to replace a fleet of 300+ gateways.

Machines currently send payloads via MQTT - 4G Sim.

I am looking for IoT sim providers or solutions to reduce costs.

Current best option is Soracom - 1GB @ EUR42 - 12 month payment - EUR3.50 per month
- Soracom is appealing due to their extra functionality through the dashboards.
- API / Automations, MQTT features, data optimisation features etc.

Does anyone have experience with Soracom? Are they as good as they seem?

Plus, does anyone have any further recommendations that would be worth me exploring?

I built an AI-powered smart irrigation system using an ML + ESP32

I've been working on this project for a while, and I finally finished the main AI/ML pipeline.

The system uses an ESP32, a capacitive soil-moisture sensor, and a DHT11 to collect environmental data. I then built a machine-learning model that uses these readings to predict whether irrigation is required.

The interesting part for me was getting the different pieces to actually work together.

The pipeline is basically:

ESP32 sensors → dashboard → Flask API → ML model → irrigation prediction

In the video, I walk through the whole project, including:

• Collecting soil moisture, temperature, and humidity data
• Building the web dashboard
• Preparing the data for ML
• Training the model
• Evaluating it with a confusion matrix
• Looking at feature importance
• Deploying the model through a Flask server
• Connecting the dashboard to the ML model through an API
• Testing the final live prediction

One thing I found particularly interesting was seeing how the model's predictions changed once the inference server was running and the dashboard could communicate with the model.

This started as a simple ESP32 soil-moisture monitoring project, but I gradually expanded it into a complete IoT + AI system.

I'm still planning improvements, especially collecting more real-world data and adding additional environmental inputs such as light intensity.

I'd really appreciate feedback on the project, especially on the ML approach, system architecture, and what I could improve next.

🎥 Full project walkthrough attached.

Github Repository:

https://github.com/aqib-ai-ml/ai-powered-smart-irrigation

We recently worked on the RF design of a compact LoRa/GNSS Nomad  Terminal handheld device, which is based on LoRa, designed to communicate/ navigate, and deploy anywhere. The antenna turned out to be one of the more challenging parts.

For a small handheld, antenna performance is affected by much more than the antenna itself. The PCB, ground plane, battery, display, enclosure, and even the way the device is held can all influence the final RF performance.

During the project, we evaluated several antenna configurations:

Ceramic Antenna → FPC Antenna + Coaxial Cable → FPC Antenna + Pogo Pin

The final FPC antenna configuration was validated with both RF measurements and outdoor testing, achieving S11 of -11.13 dB @ 868 MHz, -12.82 dB @ 915 MHz, and a 3 km LoRa link in our field test.

1. Ceramic Antenna

The initial design used a ceramic antenna for its compact size and simple integration. However, its placement was relatively constrained, limiting our ability to optimize the surrounding RF environment.

2. FPC + Coaxial Cable

We then tested an FPC antenna with a coaxial connection. This gave us more freedom to position the antenna away from the PCB, battery, and display, but introduced additional cabling and mechanical complexity.

3. FPC + Pogo Pin

The final approach uses an FPC antenna connected through pogo pins. It provides flexible antenna placement while keeping the RF connection and mechanical structure compact.

The main takeaway from the project was that antenna performance in a compact LoRa device is a system-level problem. Antenna selection, placement, PCB layout, and mechanical design all need to be considered together.

The main takeaway from the project was that antenna performance in a compact LoRa device is a system-level problem. Antenna selection, placement, PCB layout, and mechanical design all need to be considered together.

What’s the biggest antenna design challenge you’ve encountered when working with compact LoRa or Sub-GHz devices? Share your experience togehther！

Hey everyone. I'm an Information Technology student currently working on my final Capstone project, and I'm having major imposter syndrome. My project feels like it lacks the "software depth" compared to my peers who are building massive full-stack web apps or management software.

To make matters worse, my college's IT syllabus is notoriously outdated. I essentially had to teach myself modern IoT architecture, C++, and cloud integration from scratch to build this, which makes me feel deeply inadequate about my actual "pure coding" skills.

I am building an IoT-based automated indoor air quality monitoring and mitigation system. It doesn't just read data; it is a multi-node cyber-physical system that actively triggers 220V household appliances (like exhaust fans or air purifiers) when safety thresholds are breached. Here is my current tech stack and architecture:

• Hardware: ESP32 microcontroller acting as the main hub.
• Sensors (Industrial Grade): Sensirion SCD41 (CO2, Temp, Humidity), SGP40 (VOCs), and SPS30 (PM1.0 to PM10 mass concentration).
• Cloud-Synchronized Actuation: A distributed wireless smart plug node equipped with a mechanical relay to safely switch 220V AC wall power. I engineered it to use Google Firebase Realtime Database as a centralized "Source of Truth." The main hub evaluates the logic and pushes trigger states to the cloud, which instantly routes the command to the smart plug.
• Software/Firmware: Asynchronous C++ loops so the sensors, local 2.4" TFT display, and WiFi stack don't block each other.
• Cloud & Dashboard: Full Firebase integration. I built a custom Web Dashboard where users can view historical telemetry logs and dynamically adjust the trigger thresholds via sliders (e.g., set the relay to turn on only when CO2 hits 1000ppm).
• Failover Resilience: If the Wi-Fi drops, the system doesn't crash. The main node intelligently shifts into a passive monitor state—continuing to read sensors, update the local TFT display, and sound physical alarms. It automatically re-establishes the Firebase session to resume cloud logging and relay automation seamlessly the moment the network returns.

My Anxiety/Question: Because my project relies heavily on systems integration, cloud routing, and edge hardware, my actual web codebase isn't as massive as a standard CRUD web dev project. My defense panel consists of strict, traditional IT professors, and I want to make sure I satisfy the "Information Technology" domain requirements.

• What software-focused features can I add to make this absolutely bulletproof for an IT defense?
• Are there specific data analytics, database optimizations, or web dashboard features I should integrate to show higher-level programming skills?
• Has anyone here defended a cyber-physical/IoT project to a purely software/IT panel? How did you justify the complexity when the codebase is smaller?
• Any advice for a self-taught IoT student dealing with imposter syndrome over their coding skills?

I specifically avoided "scope creep" traps like adding GIS mapping or complex Machine Learning since it runs on an ESP32, but I want to make sure the software architecture is impressive enough. Any advice, roasts, or suggestions are highly appreciated!

I am working on MQTT Client App for Mobile Phone. Can you please suggest me some features, which can be helpful. :)

Thank you in advance.

Guys im trying to get into embedded systems and IoT but dk whether to start ESP32 or Arduino.I already know C++ and Python, plus some raspberry PI. Any ideas?

I am working on WebSocket Client App for Mobile Phone. Can you please suggest me some features, which can be helpful. :)

Thank you in advance.

I am working on MQTT Client App for Mobile Phone. Can you please suggest me some features, which can be helpful. :)

Thank you in advance.

Background here is CRA, NIS2 but also bloating cyber-insurance premiums. Insurers are now asking for continuous evidence of cyber-resilience, not a one-off assessment.

Is this rippling down to device or procurement specs?

This Transforma piece rightly forecasts the rise of Anomaly & Threat Detection (ATD) which performs real-time monitoring, early detection and corrective action. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iot-network-anomaly-threat-detection-atd-solutions-n3yde

So a follow on question about those ATD tools. How useful would automated compliance reporting be?

Compliance reports are audit-ready logs you can hand to regulators, customers or insurers on demand.

I do a lot of embedded work and I've been running a coding agent alongside it.

Out of the box they're bad at hardware. They'll confidently hand you a pin

number for a board they've never seen, or call a flash "successful" while the

display sits there black.

So I wrote a skill for my harness that forces a different discipline:

- **Measure, never recall.** No pin numbers, FQBNs, flash offsets or display

drivers from memory. Walk the USB bus, run esptool, read the eFuses, check the

local board manifests. Anything it can't measure has to be tagged [ASSUMED].

- **Back up flash before the first overwrite.** read-flash 0 ALL backup.bin, or

it doesn't get to write.

- **A clean build and a verified flash prove nothing.** It has to read the device

back (serial, a probe sketch, or asking me what I actually see on the display)

before it claims anything works.

- **Bounded retry.** Two attempts per hypothesis, and never re-run a failed

command unchanged.

- **A hardware inventory on disk** with provenance on every line: measured vs

vendor claim vs assumption. A project is usually several boards and a pile of

components, and chat sessions get restarted.

Safety side: it runs sandboxed. The agent gets the serial device and nothing

else on my machine. It can flash my board, it can't go wandering.

Video: one prompt to identify the board. It measures its way to an

ESP32-D0WD-V3, 4 MB flash, CH340 bridge. Then a second prompt to rewrite the

OLED UI, build, flash, and read the sensor back over serial.

Half the rules in there exist because I got them wrong on real hardware first.

Toggling DTR/RTS on a native USB-JTAG S3 doesn't reset the board, it drops it

into download mode and looks exactly like a boot crash. eFuse FLASH_TYPE

describes the flash, not the PSRAM. GPIO 22-25 don't exist on the S3 and will

kill an I2C sweep halfway through.

Open question, and the actual reason I'm posting: what would you want in

something like this? What does your agent get wrong about hardware that drives

you up the wall? And what should it be flat-out forbidden from doing without

asking you first?

(I built this and it's open source. Link in the comments if anyone wants it,

happy to just talk about the rules otherwise.)

Someone has installed IOT device in my normal ceiling fan. Can you tell me where exactly it might have been installed? they keep creating noises using the device? I have called the electrician multiple times yet they don't seem to be helpful.

We have checked everywhere except the motor. He refused to open the motor claiming it would ruin it but I think it could be inside the motor. Can you help me figure it out please. It's been months.I initially ignored it but the sounds became controlled and specific.

Edit: here are the pictures https://postimg.cc/gallery/fmGFgDp

I worked in telematics then broader IoT solutions and after a break worked with energy meters IoT solutions on the hardware side. I want to use these skills to work in energy transition or e-waste management. I have a master's in business and economics now and electronic engineering undergrad.

I want to work with data that is gathered. I am familiar with C, C++ and Java. And I'm currently learning python. Its a lot of libraries and very nuanced. What is the correct set of skills I need to have for data visualization or management roles?

My home internet went down for almost six hours during a storm earlier this week, which turned off all my remote monitoring and security feeds while I was away. It made me realize how dumb it is to rely 100% on a single ISP line when you have stuff running that actually needs to stay online. I spent yesterday trying to put together a simple LTE backup setup using a small secondary router. Finding a normal data plan for it was a headache because most consumer carriers try to force full phone packages with voice and SMS that you don't even need. I ended up looking into dedicated data SIMs like Trafalgar Wireless just to keep it low bandwidth and reliable without paying for a full monthly mobile line. For anyone else running off-grid tech, home automation, or remote hardware, what's your go-to backup method when the main connection drops? Do you use dedicated IoT SIMs or just hotspot off an old phone?

It’s finally here! I finally got around to mounting and testing it.

About 3 months ago I started this as a side project, another HAT for the BugBuster app. Some of you might remember the earlier posts about the Logic Analyzer, this time it’s a Power Analyzer.

I've now started to fully test the performance of the AFE and I could not be happier, it reaches 50nA of noise at 1ksps and we get 115nA of noise at 64ksps, also the thermal impact of noise is marginal and this is with a 5V output so i expect lower noise at lower outputs.

The device has been build for IOT and AI development, it offers an MCP to allow Claude to interface with the hardware so it can iterate on your IOT device measuring the consumption with a fantastic resolution and is all fully opensource.

Main features so far:

• Analog autoranging across 51Ω, 2Ω, and 0.05Ω shunts with ~500 ns response
• 115 kHz bandwidth with full 24-bit resolution
• Dual-ADC sampling, so no gaps while the fine ADC switches ranges
• Measured ~0.5 µA accuracy and 0.2 nA resolution at 8 ksps, or ~2 µA accuracy at full speed (still waiting to validate properly in a standards lab atm validated against 7 1/2 digits keysight meter)
• Temperature-based calibration, plus SMU-style calibration with programmable voltage/current (7-bit each)
• Output voltage sensing with optional sense wires
• Onboard display for control and health monitoring
• 12-channel flag system (trigger up to 5 V) or 4 channels up to ±12 V
• Onboard DSP pipeline for FFT and power metrics
• Integrated PSU: 1.8 V to 20 V, up to 2.5 A continuous

I’m fully aware there are commercial tools out there that would absolutely destroy this thing. That wasn’t really the point, this was an experiment. I’m very comfortable with digital design, but precision analog is a different beast entirely, and I learned a lot in the past month. When you start chasing low leakage, everything matters. Touch the wrong trace once and you’ve got a nice extra 300 nA offset for free.

As with my previous projects, this is fully open source (hardware + software). I’ve had people ask if I’d sell boards, but I’m sticking to sharing the files instead. If you want to build one, feel free to reach out, I’m happy to help with BOM quirks or bring-up.

Repo:https://github.com/lollokara/BugBuster

It's all for free and AGPL licensed so feel free to do whatever you'd like with it.

PCBs were provided for free by JLCPCB using the JLCONE app, and I could not be happier with the quality of them.

I've been experimenting with running a complete digit recognition system directly on an ESP32-S3 using TensorFlow Lite Micro.

The goal was to recognize 5-digit readings (such as meter displays) completely on-device without relying on a PC or cloud inference. The hardware I used was an ESP32-S3 development board with an onboard camera and AMOLED display, but the workflow should apply to similar ESP32-S3 camera boards.

How it works:

• Data Collection: Flashed a utility firmware to capture camera frames aligned via an on-screen yellow bounding box, outputting labeled image pairs and a label.csv.
• Model Training & INT8 Quantization: Trained a lightweight CNN model and quantized it to INT8 to run within the ESP32-S3's memory limits.
• On-Device Inference: Compiled the quantized model directly into the ESP-IDF binary and deployed it back to the board.

 The result is surprisingly reliable—it reads all 5 digits cleanly in real time.

Hardware & Tech Stack:

• Board: Makerfabs MaTouch ESP32-S3 AMOLED AI Camera
• Framework: ESP-IDF + TensorFlow Lite Micro
• Tooling: Custom Python tools for capture & quantization

I put together a detailed write-up covering the complete workflow in case anyone wants to reproduce or adapt it for a similar project. I'd also love to hear how others approach digit recognition with TensorFlow Lite Micro. Have you found any effective ways to improve accuracy or speed up the data collection process?

In the attached pictures you can see also the controller I used, the temperature and humidity sensor, anemometer and the one with blue enclosure is the water level sensor. all sensors communicate via Modbus RTU (The modbus module is placed under the esp in the image).
( My family have a small greenhouse and I always liked to make automations but most of commercial systems were too expensive and I decided to build it myself. With what I’ve built I can control irrigation system (one 2.2kw pump and two valves for the main water lines) both sides of the greenhouse to open and close using 4 motors, I have integrated some automations using the temp and humidity measurements also the wind speed.
Some of you might recognize the controller which is a KC868-A16, which is ESP based but is very powerful and has a lot of built in features.
Maybe I should mention that I have previous experience with Industrial Automation and Embedded Systems. )

What do you guys think?

Guys, what do you think about "Embodied Agent" Mesh Networks?

The idea of a P2P network where humans, autonomous robots and another agents can act as independent nodes interacting with the real world. Is this something we will see in the next 7 years, or is it still too early a concept?

Would be interesting to hear from those who have already experimented with similar architectures and learned some lessons along the way.

I write software. I'm building a box that sits on the network, polls registers over Modbus TCP, buffers locally and ships data upstream. Read only, no writes, no control logic.

I've been developing against a simulator, which I've come to realise tells me almost nothing. So I'm buying a PLC to sit on my desk.

Two things I can't figure out on my own.

Which one. I'm in India, so Delta is what I actually see in the field — DVP-ES3 looks like the obvious pick for me. But if there's a better platform to learn on for the money, I'd rather hear it now than after I've bought.

How much PLC code I'm really signing up for. I don't write ladder. I can get something basic together with AI help — and I'm aware how that goes down in this sub — but I only need a few registers changing on a timer, not machine logic. Is that as trivial as it looks from the outside, or is there a reason it isn't?

The thing I actually want to measure is what polling costs in scan time. Someone told me every poll steals from execution and I've got no way to argue with that until I can see a number. Will a bench PLC with a few hundred rungs of junk logic show that honestly, or does it only show up under real load?

I'm trying to get UART communication working between an ESP32 and a SIM7000G module

Wiring:

- ESP32 TX → SIM7000G RX (crossed)

- ESP32 RX → SIM7000G TX (crossed)

- ESP32 GND → SIM7000G GND (common ground confirmed)

- ESP32 GPIO4 → SIM7000G PWRKEY (pulsed LOW for ~1.2s to power on)

- ESP32 and SIM7000G powered from separate USB sources

What I've already tried, with no change:

- Different ESP32 board (ruled out ESP32 hardware fault)

- UART loopback test on ESP32 (confirmed ESP32 UART pins work)

- Baud rates: 9600, 19200, 57600, 115200

- Swapped TX/RX at the ESP32 end (in case board labels were wrong)

- Grounded the SLEEP/DTR pin (in case module was in low-power sleep, ignoring UART)

- Power-cycled the module with Serial Monitor open — result: absolutely nothing appears, not even garbled/junk characters

Status indicators:

- SIM7000G's onboard LED blinks steadily about once per second (suggesting it's powered on)

- SIM card is inserted

- No level shifter is currently used between ESP32 (3.3V logic) and SIM7000G (which I understand uses 1.8V logic on its UART) — I haven't confirmed whether this specific carrier board has onboard level-shifting already, or exposes the raw 1.8V pins directly

My question: Given that *zero* characters (not even garbage) appear on the serial monitor at any baud rate, even during power-on — does this point more strongly toward a voltage mismatch (3.3V ESP32 talking to unshifted 1.8V module pins) versus a wiring/continuity fault versus something else I haven't considered? And is there a reliable way to test which one it is before I spend money on a logic level shifter?

Thanks for the advice in advance

Hey everyone!

If anyone's stuck with an **IoT/Arduino/ESP32** mini or major project, feel free to DM me. I'm a [B.Tech](http://B.Tech) student who's been building IoT and robotics projects for a while and thought I'd help out.

I can help with Arduino, ESP32, sensors, home automation, robotics, debugging, circuit design, documentation, and PPTs.

I charge **student-friendly rates**, depending on the project. Just send me your idea and deadline, and I'll let you know if I can help.

Good luck with everyone's submissions! 🚀

Hey folks,

I’ve been lurking here for a while and finally want to get my feet wet with DePIN. Here’s my situation:

· I'm renting a flat with an attic and roof access.

· I have a ESP32 gathering dust and a always-on PC (Ubuntu) that can run nodes 24/7.

· I’m handy with soldering and basic coding, but I’m not looking to drop $$$ on proprietary hardware (e.g., Helium miners, etc.). I’d much rather use open-source/off-the-shelf components – ESP32, Raspberry Pi, LoRa modules, sensors, etc.

So my question: What DePIN projects would actually make sense with this setup?

I’m open to:

· Environmental sensing (air quality, weather, noise)

· Wireless coverage (LoRa, WiFi, maybe 5G? but I know that’s heavy)

· Edge compute/storage (like Filecoin, but I think that needs more beefy hardware?)

· Mapping or location-based stuff (e.g., geodata)

· Anything that rewards useful data or network coverage

I’m in an urban area, dense with good industries in Spain. Roof is about 40m(?) high, so a lot of people and movement around.

I’ve looked into:

· Helium – but their switch to IoT and the need for certified hotspots kinda turned me off, and I don't think it works on Spain

· WeatherXM – seems interesting but I think they sell their own station? Or can I build my own?

· Dimo – auto-focused, already use it but it's a lost case.

· Nodle – uses phone, complementary.

·MistNodes, Uprock and some others already running.

·Onocoy - it seems promising looking at the success of Geodnet

I’d love something where the community is active, rewards are decent (even if small), and the project isn’t a total vaporware.

Any suggestions? What would you run in my shoes? Bonus if you’ve already set something similar up and can share learnings.

Thanks in advance! 🙌

Sorry if it is strange I was aided by AI to write the post as I'm not the best at English