These are the full-stack builds: a sensor on one end, a dashboard on the other, and everything in between — WiFi, MQTT, cloud APIs, and battery strategy. If you’re moving from blinking LEDs to systems that run unattended for months, start here. The boards below are the ones we reach for in our own client work.
Shop the parts used in these tutorials
ESP32-DevKitC-VE Pre-Soldered Dev Board with 8MB Flash + 8MB PSRAM
$24.99
ESP8266 NodeMCU Development Board with 0.96 Inch OLED Display, Type-C, Pre-Soldered with Foam
$9.99
W5500 SPI Ethernet Network Module for Arduino & ESP32
$11.99
SX1262 ESP32-S3 0.96" Blue OLED Bluetooth & WiFi Development Board for Arduino, 868-915MHz, with Antenna, Pre-Soldered
$24.99ESP32 HX711: Beehive Weight and Climate Dashboard
Build an ESP32 beehive monitor with HX711 weight sensing plus DS18B20 and DHT22 climate data, then view trends remotely on a Wi-Fi...
ESP32 HC-SR501 PIR: Telegram mailbox alerts
Build an ESP32 + HC-SR501 PIR mailbox notifier that sends Telegram alerts when the door opens, helping you avoid wasted trips; parts...
ESP32 vs ESP8266: Pick the Best Board for 2026
Compare ESP32 vs ESP8266 in 2026 to pick the right Wi-Fi microcontroller board based on GPIO, Bluetooth, ADC, cost, and support, with...
Raspberry Pi Pico W BLE: Temp in MicroPython
Build Raspberry Pi Pico W BLE peripheral and central in MicroPython to stream and read on-board temperature using aioble, with quick validation...
ESP32 Soil Moisture Sensor: Wi-Fi Dashboard Readout
Build an ESP32 soil moisture sensor monitor with analog-to-percent readings and a Wi-Fi web dashboard, so you can check plant moisture from...
ESP32 HC-SR04: Telegram door alerts
Build an ESP32 + HC-SR04 door presence alert that sends Telegram notifications when someone stands at your door, using low-cost hardware and...
Node-RED + Telegram: Instant Sensor Status
Build a Telegram-integrated Node-RED flow that returns live BMP180 temperature and pressure on demand for quick mobile monitoring of your sensors using...
Raspberry Pi + Zigbee Dongle Plus-E: Zigbee2MQTT Setup
Build a Raspberry Pi Zigbee gateway with the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus-E and Zigbee2MQTT to get open MQTT access to...
ESP32 ESPresense: Send device data to AWS IoT
Build an ESP32 + ESPresense bridge that forwards BLE device data to AWS IoT for cloud tracking and analytics, reducing local complexity...
Raspberry Pi Pico W BME280: Stream data to Azure IoT
Build a Raspberry Pi Pico W + BME280 pipeline that streams real-time sensor data to Azure IoT Hub and Azure Data Explorer...
Pico W NEO-6M GPS: Reverse geocode your location
Build a Raspberry Pi Pico W + NEO-6M GPS reverse geolocator that prints coordinates and a city/country lookup using OpenCage in MicroPython,...
Raspberry Pi Pico W LoRa: Build a Sender Receiver Link
Build a long-range LoRa sender-receiver link with two Raspberry Pi Pico W boards using AT-command modules for low-power IoT prototypes from ShillehTek.