The Challenge For the first 9 weeks of this project, I’ve been using RYLR998 LoRa modules - simple AT command modules that handled the radio work while my STM32 focused on sensors. They worked beautifully for point-to-point communication (600m range, 95% success rate), but they had a fundamental limitation: They weren’t LoRaWAN. LoRa (the physical layer) is great for custom networks. But LoRaWAN (the MAC layer protocol) is what you need for: ...

Week 9 represents a fundamental shift in the project. For the past eight weeks, we’ve been building IoT systems - MQTT, InfluxDB, Grafana, cloud-oriented architectures. Week 9 is different. Week 9 is industrial automation. This isn’t about publishing sensor data to the cloud. It’s about PLC integration, SCADA systems, and factory floor protocols. It’s about Modbus TCP - the protocol that’s been running industrial plants since the 1970s. It’s about OPC-UA - the modern standard for industrial interoperability. ...

Week 7+8 represents project completion at the infrastructure level. This isn’t about adding one more feature - it’s about building the complete path from sensor to insight. After seven weeks: Week 1-3: Sensors talk via LoRa ✅ Week 5: Gateway firmware outputs JSON ✅ Week 6: Async service processes data ✅ Week 7: Data goes to MQTT and InfluxDB ✅ Week 8: Professional dashboards visualize everything ✅ This is a complete IoT monitoring system. From a temperature sensor on a breadboard to a Grafana dashboard refreshing every 10 seconds. All in Rust. All running on real hardware. ...