MQTT

Some information about MQTT and how to use it in a MQTTDevice environment.

What ist MQTT

MQTT is a publish-and-subscribe protocol. Clients, devices and applications publish and subscribe into topics handled by a broker. In a CraftbeerPi environment a sensor is a publishing and an actor is a subscribing device. Devices or applications never communicate directly, instead they send and receive messages managed in topics by the MQTT broker. A topic looks like a named channel or folder, eg induction/temp or upstairs/bathroom/light. Hundreds of different topics are possible. Each topic behave like a message in- and outbox. Messages are send in a compact JSON format, also known as payloads. A simple payload from a sensor device can look like this: { "value": 21.2 }. The sensor publishes this message into a topic. All subscribed clients, devices or application to this topic will receive the sensor message "value 21.2". A simple payload from CraftbeerPi to an actor can be { "state": "on"}. CBPi4 publishes this message into a topic to switch on an actor. An actor must subcribe to this topics to receive this message.

MQTT summary

• sensors are publishing payloads (sensor values) into topics

• actors subscribe to topics to receive payloads (commands)

• every published payload will always be sent to a MQTT broker

• the MQTT broker sends every received payload to all subscribing devices and applications

• craftbeerpi subscribes to all sensor topics and publishes actor commands in actor topics

• all sensor and actor topics are unique

How to use it

Do not hazzle on technical details. MQTT topics are named channels like folders. So it is a good approach to start with a clear channel structure. A mash tun needs an induction hub, an agitator and a temperature sensor. MQTT topcis can look like this:

mash/sensor mash/agitator mash/induction

Descriptive MQTT topics are highly recommended.