First and foremost, I would like to thank you for purchasing this book and going on a journey of Internet of Things (IoT) prototyping with me.
In my teenage years, before the first Arduino was invented, I had a friend who was knowledgeable about electronics. He was considered a nerd and really knew what he was doing. Looking at his soldered prototypes, which consisted of a lot of cables, chips, and other electronic components that I didn't know about at the time, I was fascinated. I did not have any idea where to start building electronic prototypes myself; it seemed like such a huge field that there was no way for me to find an entry point. At that time, it was very far from my imagination that I would later be able to create prototypes myself, and, even more so, that I would write a book about the topic one day.
A lot of things have changed since then. One of those things is the creation of Arduino and Processing, which made it possible to learn programming and hardware prototyping without any prior knowledge. The field opened up to designers, artists, and makers. It is now easier than ever to get started with hardware prototyping and bring your own ideas into reality.
While building physical projects alone creates a lot of possibilities, being able to use internet-connected devices and connect them to each other and the rest of the web opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
There are many ways to connect two internet-connected devices and exchange information between them. One of these possibilities, which in my opinion is the easiest and most open, is MQTT. Being open in this sense means that third-party developers can create apps and libraries for it. There is a vast ecosystem of tools, libraries, and apps that all speak the same language of MQTT.
Building internet-connected devices has never been easier, and using MQTT to build them makes it possible to prototype even faster, while also having access to all these third-party tools.
When I was initially looking into possibilities for how to let my prototypes talk to each other over the internet, MQTT stood out, but I could not find much information about it. It seemed like a niche topic and I could not understand why.
If you want to create your own inventions, experimental prototypes, and custom devices, getting to know MQTT is a great decision, and I hope that, by reading this book, you will benefit from a smooth entry into the world of IoT prototyping using MQTT.
Welcome on this journey!