Exploring AWS IoT

In this lecture we discuss signing up for the Free Tier version of AWS and then Installing the latest version of the AWS CLI Version 2.

In this video I discuss cosmetic updates to AWS IoT Core for 2023. The main update is the "Actions" blade has been changed to a blade called "Message routing" and IoT "Rules" can now be created directly from this blade without the pretty pictures for each AWS service that appeared previously before these cosmetic changes to AWS IoT Core took place in 2023.

In this lecture we discuss the AWS IoT Core service, using the 'monitor' and 'test' consoles, and linking actions from AWS IoT Core to other important AWS IoT related services.

A short introduction to the often confusing concept of IAM policy's and roles.  Here we create a super expansive IoT policy with the automatic configuration tool in AWS IAM as a test case before creating an real IoT policy in AWS IoT core the simple way.

Here we create device security certificates from AWS IoT Core to satisfy TLS 1.2 requirements.  After we download and activate our certs we then compose and attach an inclusive IoT policy to give our device certificates permission to perform actions on the cloud.

A lecture going over the basic communication protocols and security considerations enabling devices to talk to AWS. We specifically discuss MQTT, HTTPS, SigV4, and SS/TLS requirements for device to cloud communication.  Also added important troubleshooting information.

In this video I show two different methods for sending fake test data in JSON format to AWS IoT Core. These methods are useful if either you don't have your device yet or you don't want to set up your device just to send some quick data for testing purposes.

How to download free MQTT.fx tool to test our certificates

After downloading the MQTT.fx tool we link our security credentials, configure the client broker with our custom endpoint, and open port 8883 with MQTT+TLS1.2  to send a test JSON package to AWS IoT core.

In this video I discuss how to use a custom script with the MQTT.fx tool to generate IoT readings and send them out as a JSON payload to AWS IoT Core.  The test script can be used as a virtual device in lieu of a physical device and has both publish and subscribe functionality.

How to solve the connection issue caused by the "mqttfx-config.xml" file.

This is a simple free tool that can be used as an easier to set up alternative to MQTT.fx.  This may be helpful if you misconfigure MQTT.fx or if you just want to try a different free virtual device.

In this lecture we use the cURL tool to test our certificates by communication over HTTPS via port 8443 to AWS IOT Core.  The cURL tool is super easy to use on Linux and Mac but in this video I show an easy way to use it in Windows in a Mingw Unix simulated environment that's easy to install.

curl --tlsv1.2 ^

    --cacert Amazon-root-CA-1.pem ^

    --cert client.pem.crt ^

    --key private.pem.key ^

    --request POST ^

    --data "{\"Temperature\": 77, \"Humidity\": 88, \"Time\": 12349876,\"Device_ID\": \"device_4\"}" ^

    "https://<INSERT-YOUR-IOT-DATA-ENDPOINT-HERE>:8443/topics/outTopic?qos=1"

In this lecture I demonstrate a simple bash script you can use to automate publishing IoT test payloads from your computer to your AWS IoT Core console.  The bash script utilizes the AWS CLI to send automated commands with sample data to IoT Core.  It can be configured for different regions, payload iterations, variables names, and values.

Updated ESP8266 Sketch to work with Board manager 3+.  How he BearSSL certificates are set and anchored has changed.

Here I discuss how Node-Red on the IBM cloud now requires a credit card although it is still technically "free" for experimental use cases.  Because of this I have moved it to the appendix of the course as optional material.  I have developed an HTTPS to AWS IoT Core Arduino Sketch for the ESP8266 and ESP32 which accomplishes that which I was previously using Node-Red for.

In this lecture I explain details of my HTTPS to AWS IoT Core Sketch on Arduino.  I have two different versions for the Board manager 2-3 on the ESP8266 and for board manager 3+.  The ESP32 doesn't require an extra sketch as it works with all board support packages.

In this lecture I introduce MicroPython and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the langauge compared to using Arduino.  It is worthwhile to compare the C/C++ language of Arduino with the constrained version of Python for Microcontrollers. A large consideration is library support for peripheral sensors.   I also discuss the cool and free IDE called Thonny.

In this video I discuss how to flash and install the MicroPython environment for both the ESP32 and ESP8266.  MicroPython requires two steps before we can upload our specific programs to the device using the Thonny IDE.  First we have to erase everything in memory on the ESP device and then we have to upload the MicroPyrhon framework to the ESP device.  Both tasks can be accomplished with the free ESP tool.

In this lecture we go over the MicroPython code need to connect our ESP32 to AWS IoT Core.  Our code has both publish and subscription methods.  We need to fill out the typical global constants of AWS IoT Endpoint, WiFi, port, MQTT topics, and download our certificates to the device in order to connect to AWS IoT Core using MQTT secured.

In this lecture we go over the MicroPython code need to connect our ESP8266 to AWS IoT Core.  Our code has both publish and subscription methods.  We need to fill out the typical global constants of AWS IoT Endpoint, WiFi, port, MQTT topics, and download our certificates to the device in order to connect to AWS IoT Core using MQTT secured.  With the ESP8266 we have an additional complication of having to convert our security certificates to DER format.  In this video I demonstrate how to do this with the OpenSSL tool.

In this lecture we introduce the free Mongoose programming tool to upload code to our embedded devices and transmit data from our device to AWS IoT Core.

In this lecture we build and flash the firmware from the Mongoose OS tool to our embedded device.  For this lecture we use the init.js code provided as the default example in Mongoose OS, then we examine how it transmits data to AWS IoT core after automatically creating  TLS 1.2 compliant certificates for us.

In this lecture we reprogram our embedded device with a new init.js firmware package Included in course resources) that better suits our needs.  Later in this course, when we start using different IoT related AWS services, this new modified data package will satisfy the requirements of our applications.

Update to Zerynth for 2022.

In this series of lectures we introduce the AWS IoT Device SDK's which are designed to give the RPi access to a curated set of IoT programs specifically designed to work with AWS.

Install the AWS IoT Device SDK in Python version two and then run the Sample code to publish IoT payloads to AWS IoT Core.

proigram

program

Below are the needed policy and rule to make your bucket easily accessible from anywhere with a static IP.

Public read-only Bucket Policy:

{

    "Version": "2012-10-17",

    "Statement": [

        {

            "Sid": "PublicRea2411145d",

            "Effect": "Allow",

            "Principal": "*",

            "Action": [

                "s3:GetObject",

                "s3:GetObjectVersion"

            ],

            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::<Paste-Your-Bucket-Name-Here>/*"

        }

    ]

}

Easily accessible CORS Rule:

[

    {

        "AllowedHeaders": [

            "Authorization"

        ],

        "AllowedMethods": [

            "GET"

        ],

        "AllowedOrigins": [

            "*"

        ],

        "ExposeHeaders": [],

        "MaxAgeSeconds": 3000

    }

]