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Best Regards
Steve
April 2024
Hi
MQTT and SSL
I’ve been getting lots of help requests for SSL configuration help lately which is strange as I have just returned from a visit to Bletchley park of the Enigma fame.
It is easy to see why war plans needed to be encrypted but not so much so with IOT data and also most website data.
You may have noticed that my website doesn’t use SSL and why should it as the site contains public data.
The reason most websites use SSL is because of Google policy.
I get the impression that just as using https has become normal then everyone thinks they should encrypt MQTT data.
IMO probably very little MQTT data requires encryption as it isn’t really confidential.
If you are getting readings from temperatures sensors,smoke detectors, or other such sensors does it actually need encrypting?
However if you are transmitting tax records,medical records,private data over MQTT then some form of encryption is a must. However is SSL your best option?
If you are using MQTT for controlling devices then again encryption is a must.
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this and why you have used SSL and did you consider data encryption?
Please use the comments filed on this page- SSL or Payload Encryption Discussion Post
MQTT Broker Monitoring
I have a number of monitoring tools that can be downloaded from the site and I would be interested in any feedback.
In particular what tools you use and if they are from this site or your own or third party.
Simply reply to this email or use the suggestion page.
CloudMQTT shutting down mosquitto broker hosting
I was just informed by a reader that they will be stoping cloudmqtt services from next year. see here
Consulting Services and Help
I do offer consulting services and help and advice just use the Ask Steve page to get in touch.
My Other Sites
You may or may note be aware that I have two other related sites that you may find useful. They are:
Until next time.
Best Regards
Steve
March 2024
Hi
Many years ago I wrote a couple of python logging scripts. One was a topic logger and the other a data logger.
Both scripts took incoming MQTT JSON or string data and stored it in log files in JSON format.
I was approached last year to get the topic logger to be able to store the incoming data as CSV files which I did.
However I never updated the data logger and didn’t update the topic logger on Github.
Both scripts have now been updated and will log data in csv format if desired.
Currently incoming JSON data should be a flat JSON object and not a nested object.
As an example
{“voltage”:240,”current”:1}
will work but
{“Power:{“voltage”:240,”current”:1}}
will not.
The code to do the conversion from JSON to CSV is explained it this tutorial.
As an aside if you are using my logger scripts I would very much appreciate some feedback- just reply to this newsletter or use the suggestions page.
Node-Red Dashboard 2
The original node-red dashboard is slowly being replace by node-red dashboad2.
This is because the original dashboard was based on a version of angular that is no longer supported.
You can install node-red dashboard 2 alongside the original dashboard nodes and it would probably be a good idea to start using these nodes in preference to the original ones.
You can find out more here.
I will be working my way though this new dashboard and writing new tutorial to cover it starting in a few weeks.
Even though they will appear on my node-red site I will link to them in the newsletter.
Consulting Services and Help
I do offer consulting services and help and advice just use the Ask Steve page to get in touch.
My Other Sites
You may or may note be aware that I have two other related sites that you may find useful. They are:
Until next time.
Best Regards
Steve