🛰️ MQTT Dummy Simulator

Harshana's Dummy MQTT Client for SIT725

A lightweight Node.js simulator that emulates multiple BBQ devices by sending MQTT messages to a broker. Useful for testing real-time IoT integrations in the BBQ Tracker project.

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🚀 Features

• Simulates multiple virtual BBQ devices.
• Sends randomised temperature and sensor data every 5 seconds.
• Publishes to the bbq/status topic via MQTT.
• Easily configurable device list and broker address.

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🔧 Prerequisites

• Node.js installed.
• An MQTT broker installed and running (default: mqtt://localhost:1883).
  • We recommend Mosquitto as a lightweight and widely supported MQTT broker.

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🛠️ Setting Up Mosquitto (MQTT Broker)

If you don’t already have an MQTT broker installed, you can install Mosquitto as follows:

🔹 On macOS (using Homebrew):

brew install mosquitto
brew services start mosquitto

🔹 On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mosquitto mosquitto-clients
sudo systemctl enable mosquitto
sudo systemctl start mosquitto

🔹 On Windows:

Download the installer from the official site:
👉 https://mosquitto.org/download/

After installation, start the Mosquitto broker using:

mosquitto

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✅ Verifying Mosquitto is Running

To check that the broker is working, run the following in a new terminal:

mosquitto_sub -h localhost -t bbq/status

Then start the MQTT dummy client. You should see the published messages in the subscriber terminal.

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📦 Installation

git clone https://github.com/your-username/MQTT_dummy.git
cd MQTT_dummy
npm install

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▶️ Usage

Start the MQTT simulator:

node mqttClient.js

You should see terminal output showing status messages being published from each simulated device.

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⚙️ Configuration

• MQTT Broker URL:
  To change the broker address, update this line in mqttClient.js:

  const client = mqtt.connect('mqtt://localhost:1883');

• Device IDs:
  Modify the deviceIds array in mqttClient.js to simulate different or more devices:

  const deviceIds = ['bbq-001', 'bbq-002', 'bbq-003'];

• Message Format:
  You can customise the message payload structure in the setInterval() function where statusMessage is constructed.

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📚 Dependencies

• mqtt – used for MQTT communication.
• axios – installed, but not currently in use.

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📝 License

This project is licensed under the ISC License.