AlzetteLink: Industrial IoT Educational Bridge

ESP32 • MQTT • InfluxDB • React • Docker • Industry 4.0

🎓 Perfect for technical students learning Industrial IoT concepts!

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AlzetteLink is a comprehensive Industrial IoT (IIoT) educational platform designed to bridge the gap between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). It demonstrates the complete flow of data from a low-level microcontroller (ESP32) to a high-level web dashboard via modern industry-standard protocols.

Designed for technical students at Lycée Technique, this project introduces core Industry 4.0 concepts:

• Edge Computing: ESP32 sensor logic.
• Connectivity: MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport).
• Data Persistence: InfluxDB (Time-series database).
• Visualization: React & Real-time WebSockets.

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🏗️ Architecture

The system consists of three main modular components:

1. Firmware (/firmware): C++ code running on an ESP32. It acts as a "Smart Sensor", reading data and publishing JSON payloads to an MQTT broker.
2. Infrastructure & Backend:
   • MQTT Broker: Eclipse Mosquitto (Docker).
   • Database: InfluxDB (Docker).
   • Bridge Service (/bridge-service): A Node.js microservice that subscribes to the broker and persists data to InfluxDB.
3. Frontend (/web-dashboard): A modern React application that subscribes directly to the MQTT broker (via WebSockets) to display real-time gauges, charts, and status indicators.

graph LR
    subgraph Edge["🔌 Edge Layer"]
        ESP32["ESP32<br/>Sensor"]
    end

    subgraph Infrastructure["☁️ Infrastructure (Docker)"]
        MQTT["Mosquitto<br/>MQTT Broker"]
        DB["InfluxDB<br/>Database"]
    end

    subgraph Backend["⚙️ Backend"]
        Bridge["Bridge Service<br/>Node.js"]
    end

    subgraph Frontend["🖥️ Frontend"]
        Dashboard["React Dashboard<br/>Tailwind + Chart.js"]
    end

    ESP32 -->|"JSON/MQTT<br/>:1883"| MQTT
    MQTT -->|"Subscribe"| Bridge
    Bridge -->|"Write"| DB
    MQTT -->|"WebSocket<br/>:9001"| Dashboard
    Dashboard -.->|"Query History"| DB

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📸 Dashboard Demo

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Node.js (v16+)
• VS Code with PlatformIO (recommended) or Arduino IDE.

1. Infrastructure Setup

Start the local server environment:

docker-compose up -d

This launches Mosquitto (MQTT Broker) on ports 1883 (TCP) and 9001 (WebSockets), and InfluxDB on 8086.

2. Backend Bridge Service

Install and run the data logger:

cd bridge-service
npm install
node index.js

Note: Ensure you update the .env or configuration lines in index.js with your InfluxDB token if you want to save data.

3. Web Dashboard

Launch the real-time visualization:

cd web-dashboard
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser.

4. Firmware (ESP32)

1. Open /firmware in PlatformIO (VS Code) or Arduino IDE.
2. Edit src/main.cpp:
   • Update ssid and password with your WiFi credentials.
   • Update mqtt_server with your PC's IP address.
3. Upload code to your ESP32.
4. Open the Serial Monitor to verify connection.

5. Simulator (No Hardware Required)

If you don't have an ESP32, use the simulator to test the dashboard:

cd simulator
npm install
npm start

The simulator will publish fake sensor data every 2 seconds.

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🎓 Student Contribution

This project is a boilerplate. Your goal is to expand it into a real industrial monitoring solution.

Level 1: The Basics 🟢

• Modify the Data: Change the dummy temperature generation in main.cpp to simulate a "Sine Wave" or connect a real DHT11/DHT22 sensor.
• Custom Topic: Change the MQTT topic from data to factory/machine01/telemetry and update the Dashboard and Bridge to match.

Level 2: Advanced Logic 🟡

• Alert System: Modify the React dashboard to flash RED if the temperature exceeds 30°C.
• Two-Way Communication: Add a "Stop" button on the Dashboard that sends an MQTT message back to the ESP32 to turn on an LED (simulating a machine stop).

Level 3: Industry 4.0 Pro 🔴

• Multi-Sensor Support: Connect a second ESP32. Modify the dashboard to handle multiple devices dynamically based on their machine_id.
• Historical Analysis: Update the Dashboard to fetch generic historical data from InfluxDB instead of just showing the live buffer.

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👥 Contributors

Thanks to these amazing people who have contributed to AlzetteLink:

Contributor	Contribution
@Omar-Alshaer	Data Export (CSV/JSON), Chart & Component fixes

Want to contribute? Check out CONTRIBUTING.md!

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🔗 References & Credits

• Project Link: GitHub Repository
• Author: Boubli Tech
• Inspiration: Built upon experience with ESP8266 automation projects (e.g., Wifi-Jammer-NodeMCU).