Node-RED MQTT components and dashboard setup

This section will start with an introduction to the dashboard and MQTT functionalities of Node-RED. That will be followed by a simple project in which we will connect an LED to a NodeMCU development board and demonstrate control capabilities through the Node-RED dashboard. So, let’s get started.

Node-RED MQTT nodes

The MQTT communication protocol was discussed in detail in the previous chapters. In this section, we will be seeing how can we use MQTT nodes in Node-RED. In Node-RED, you can find two MQTT nodes in the network section:

• The mqtt in node
• The mqtt out node

Please refer to Figure 4.13 to see where you would find the MQTT nodes in the node palette:

Figure 4.13 – MQTT nodes under the network section in the node palette

As the names suggest, the mqtt in node is to capture data coming from various topics (basically for monitoring) and the mqtt out node is to publish data...