The Internet of Things (IoT) will make our everyday lives much more comfortable than today and help save money and resources. However, getting started with the topic is not easy. Countless solutions are now competing in the market—usually bundles of (evaluation) boards, software, and cloud access. Such kits promise quick successes, but only those who realize their own project from the ground up gain a deeper understanding.

Jens Nickel, editor-in-chief of the German edition of Elektor, has embarked on this journey into the IoT. As part of a series of articles, several small demo projects were created step by step, ranging from lamp control in a home network to a self-sufficient sensor board that sends measurement data to the cloud. Following the motto "Learning by Doing," topics such as TCP/IP, MQTT, smartphone control, Wi-Fi access, embedded web servers, connecting to a cloud service, reliability during connection interruptions, object-oriented programming, and much more are covered.

The demo programs (mostly in the beginner-friendly Arduino C dialect) are, of course, available in source code and can thus be easily adapted to individual needs.

This book compiles the first 24 episodes of this series in a concise format. With Elektor's usual blend of theory and practice, it delves into the Internet of Things—join us!.