ESP32 MQTT Room

An embedded systems project that brought indoor location tracking to home automation enthusiasts in 2019-2020, well before Apple's AirTag launch in 2021. The system uses ESP32 microcontrollers as stationary nodes that scan for Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and report device proximity via MQTT to Home Assistant, enabling room-level presence detection for items like keys, wallets, or phones. The primary technical challenge involved managing hardware resource contention between WiFi and Bluetooth on the ESP32's shared antenna. Core panics would occur when attempting simultaneous WiFi connectivity (required for MQTT) and BLE scanning (required for beacon detection). With minimal vendor documentation, the solution required extensive trial-and-error experimentation to understand hardware behavior and develop a stable coordination strategy between the two radios. This project demonstrated the ability to rapidly engage with emerging embedded technology outside typical web development expertise, producing a functional IoT solution that became the foundation for ESPresense, a community-maintained fork that continues active development today.