IoT Archives - ITNotes

Monitoring HomeLab Environment with ESPHome and Home Assistant: A Step-by-Step Guide

June 2, 2026

Learn how to build a professional-grade environment monitoring system for your HomeLab. Using an ESP32, a BME280 sensor, and ESPHome, you can track temperature and humidity locally within Home Assistant.

Networking

Deploying a Wireless Mesh Network with B.A.T.M.A.N. Advanced (batman-adv) on Linux: Self-Healing Infrastructure for HomeLab and IoT

May 21, 2026

Six months of running batman-adv in production across a HomeLab and IoT deployment. This guide compares mesh networking approaches, breaks down batman-adv's real-world strengths and weaknesses, and walks through a complete implementation on Ubuntu/Debian with batctl monitoring and systemd automation.

HomeLab

Self-Hosting Mosquitto MQTT on Docker: Building a Robust Private IoT Hub

May 19, 2026

Stop letting your office lights depend on a server across the ocean. This guide walks you through self-hosting Mosquitto on Docker for a fast, private, and reliable IoT network.

Database

Scaling IoT to Billions of Points: A 6-Month InfluxDB Field Report

May 9, 2026

Real-world lessons from migrating 1,200 IoT sensors from PostgreSQL to InfluxDB. Learn why B-Trees fail at scale and how downsampling can reduce your storage costs by 85%.

HomeLab

Installing Node-RED on Docker: A 6-Month Production Review for HomeLab Automation

April 29, 2026

Based on 6 months of 24/7 usage, this guide shows you how to deploy Node-RED on Docker, secure your flows, and integrate MQTT and Home Assistant for a professional HomeLab.