Connected hardware and controls
Industrial monitoring and control
A field-ready development system for environmental monitoring and equipment control in industrial composting.
Three sensing nodes, one gateway, and the engineering needed to connect them.
- Stage reached
- Field-ready development system
- Sector
- Industrial monitoring
- Organisation
- Independent engineering delivery
Explore the system
Loading 3D
Connected sensor node
All six sensor groups connect to the enclosure, including three separate temperature probes.
My contribution
I designed and delivered the sensing and control system across component selection, electronics integration, embedded firmware, gateway software, mechanical packaging and physical assembly.
- Mixed analog and digital sensor integration with persistent device configuration
- C++ firmware, timed ventilation requests and MQTT communications
- Raspberry Pi gateway, local buffering and application integration
- Enclosure CAD, sensor harnesses, fabrication files and technical handover
The result
A built and shipped development system with sensor and event data checked with the receiving team, supported by the code, CAD and configuration material for continued field development.
Engagement
Prototype engineering and integrated delivery
The problem
The system had to bring gas, oxygen, moisture and temperature instruments together with local control outputs and a separate application. Different interfaces, sensor acquisition sequences, power connections and packaging all had to work together.
How it was approached
- Integrate I2C instruments, RS-485/Modbus probes and analog temperature channels into one acquisition application.
- Keep device acquisition and control separate from gateway coordination and application submission.
- Expose persistent settings and diagnostics for setup without source-code changes.
- Carry the physical assembly, wiring guidance and software into the same handover.
How far up the stack the work reached
Process
The composting environment and external equipment.
Sensors
Gas, oxygen, moisture, temperature and humidity instruments.
Nodes
Three ESP32-based units with acquisition, diagnostics and control interfaces.
Gateway
Raspberry Pi and Node-RED coordinating MQTT, time, files and requests.
Application
Data submission to the receiving application and a local development receiver.
Engineering disciplines
- Mechanical
- Electrical
- Embedded
- Software
What was built
Sensing and firmware
A common application for several kinds of instrument.
- CO₂, ammonia, oxygen, moisture, ambient temperature and humidity
- Three analog thermistor channels through an external ADC
- RS-485/Modbus, I2C and scheduled acquisition
- Persistent configuration, serial diagnostics and control-event messages
Gateway and network
A wired system with a clear application boundary.
- Three sensor nodes and a gateway connected through an Ethernet switch
- MQTT measurements, time broadcasts and ventilation requests
- Sensor CSV buffering and retry workflows
- Python Flask receiver, CSV interpretation and development database integration
Mechanical and physical delivery
Electronics packaged into an assembled development system.
- Enclosure and baseplate CAD, assembly models and fabrication cutout drawings
- Power, network, sensor and equipment connections
- Sensor harnesses and gas-sampling hardware integration
- Bench checks, setup documentation and source-file handover
What changed
3 sensor nodes
Distributed acquisition
Replicated sensing units acquired readings and communicated with the gateway.
1 gateway
Data and control integration
The Raspberry Pi gateway connected device messaging, file handling and the receiving software.
Physical delivery
Hardware and engineering files
The build was shipped with firmware, gateway workflows, mechanical files and configuration guidance.
Technical stack
ESP32
C++
Raspberry Pi
Node-RED
MQTT
Ethernet
RS-485 / Modbus
I2C
Python / Flask
CAD
Capabilities applied
Embedded systems
Sensor integration
Control interfaces
Mechanical packaging
System integration
From the project
4 frames
System assembly
Complete sensing system
Sensor harnesses connect to their DIN ports. Both CO₂ tubes pass through the enclosure grommet.
Six sensor groups · Three temperature probes
System assembly
Inside the node
Controller, sensor interfaces, power converters and the pump-controlled CO₂ sampling assembly.
System assembly
CO₂ sampling and pump control
The relay switches the sampling pump around CO₂ acquisition. Flow director, pump and tubing reconstructed from the documented hardware.
Flow director · Sample tubing · Pump · Relay
System assembly
Tube and cable entry
Separate DIN sensor harnesses and paired sample tubes through the grommet. Flexible routing is reconstructed.
Frame 1 of 4: Complete sensing system
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