Exploring and Innovating with Open Source IoT

Open source software is software that is freely and publicly available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. This allows for collaboration within software development, where individuals and organizations can contribute to the software and build, improve, and maintain it. Within the field of IoT, it is becoming increasingly important as a standard because it allows for greater collaboration and innovation. Through open source software, developers get access to a myriad of tools and resources to help them develop their IoT solutions without having to be tied to a specific vendor or platform.

Through our work within IoT, we can also help advance the state of IoT and create solutions that are powerful and flexible. Even the smallest of contributions will still make a significant impact on a project. We need to learn about the best practices that we need to keep in mind while performing these contributions, why we need to contribute...

Technical requirements

This chapter will require you to have the following hardware and software installed:

• Hardware:
  • ESP32
• Software:
  • Blynk app
  • Arduino IDE

You can access the GitHub folder that contains the code that’s used in this chapter at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/IoT-Made-Easy-for-Beginners/tree/main/Chapter12/.

Introduction to community innovations within IoT

In this section, we will discuss why open source has been a key factor in propelling IoT forward within both personal and professional settings, and how it has developed within organizations as a standard and a culture. We will also talk about the reasons why we should contribute to open source projects, the guiding principles toward it, and the structure of open source repos.

These will be useful for you to apply to your learnings as you will understand more about why you are learning about open source contributions and how you can be a more effective contributor in the meantime, all while taking inspiration for the next open source project that may strike your fancy.

Open source as a standard

Open source is becoming more of a standard within many industries as it allows for transparency and collaboration, leading to the development of more stable and secure software. It also helps reduce the reliance of users and organizations...

Current focus areas in the community

Within IoT, there are areas of prioritization that are focused on. These are usually areas that are either seeing wide adoption or areas that are still lacking development. In this section, we will delve into the top focus areas and walk through one such solution for one of the focus areas that is developed in the community.

Top focus areas

There are a myriad of focuses that the IoT community currently has. Here, we will discuss some of the top focus areas that are currently being looked at by the IoT community:

• Connectivity: This factor is all about how we enable devices and sensors to connect to the internet and communicate with the myriad of devices, gateways, and cloud platforms that they can connect to. Matter is an example of an open source standard for increased compatibility among smart home products and increased security. It aims to improve the connection between various smart home devices.
• Device management: Managing...

Building and maintaining a repo for open source IoT

When venturing into the dynamic landscape of IoT, building and maintaining a repo forms the cornerstone of collaborative and transparent development. A well-structured repo not only fosters inclusivity and accessibility but also ensures the security and efficiency of IoT solutions. As we delve into the intricate process of building and sustaining a repo, we will explore the nuances of version control, documentation, license compliances, and community engagement. Furthermore, we will elucidate the practices that accentuate the robustness and reliability of open source IoT projects, facilitating a breeding ground for avant-garde solutions that resonate with the ethos of community-driven development, and walk you through a practical exercise of doing so properly so that you can get familiar with the appropriate steps.

Establishing guidelines for the project

When setting up an open source project, it’s crucial to lay down...

Practical – taking advantage of open source IoT for your use case

In this end-of-chapter practical, we are going to do a somewhat different practical than we have done previously. We want to utilize this practical as a more freeform practical that allows you to use the skills you’ve gained so far to build on some open source IoT based on your use case.

Required tools and technologies

You will need to utilize the following tools and technologies for this practical:

• A computer with internet access
• An Arduino UNO/ESP32/Raspberry Pi (choose this based on your familiarity and the requirements of the chosen project)
• Sensors (for example, temperature sensor, motion sensor, and so on) and actuators (for example, relay, servo motor, and so on) that are compatible with your chosen board
• Access to open source repos (such as GitHub)
• A compatible coding environment (Arduino IDE, Thonny Python IDE for Raspberry Pi, and so on)

Now that you understand...

Summary

In this chapter, we looked at how we can contribute to the open source community and the different principles that we must adhere to in doing so. We also learned about the components of any open source repos, saw how we can put our process of contributing into actionable steps, and put this into practice through our practical by having you find a topic that has not yet been addressed by the open source community and hence creating a repo on it.

In the next chapter, we will learn how to develop solutions for digital transformation within Industry 4.0, where we will discuss how we can tackle architecting modern workloads with best practices.

Further reading

For more information about what was covered in this chapter, please refer to the following links:

• A look into another definition of fog computing: https://www.heavy.ai/technical-glossary/fog-computing
• Learn more about TensorFlow from its official documentation: https://www.tensorflow.org/learn
• Understand why edge computing is important for the development of smart cities: https://www.intechnologysmartcities.com/blog/why-edge-computing-is-vital-for-smart-cities/
• Learn how AWS IoT is being used to detect cryptocurrency mining threats on edge devices: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/iot/detect-cryptocurrency-mining-threats-on-edge-devices-using-aws-iot/
• Take a look at more edge computing case studies: https://www.nec.com/en/global/techrep/journal/g17/n01/170106.html