Building Smart Home IoT Devices with the Google Cloud Platform
Part #1 — How to connect your first device to IoT Core
Important note: on Aug 15th, 2022 Google announced that the Cloud IoT Core Service would have been discontinued since Aug 16th, 2023. They also mentioned that some GCP partners would step in and take over the IoT services, offering alternative solutions with a compatibility layer.
Everything is getting connected. Even people who don’t really want to own connected devices are likely to have a few in their homes, because smart metering is popular and it’s hard to buy a TV that is not “smart” nowadays.
Alexa is natively fitted in a number of cars and the Google Assistant is following through. Smart doorbells, locks, HVAC and IP cameras are trending.
Building and maintaining IoT devices on a large scale is not easy, I can tell you that. Choosing dependable components, weighing the costs and benefits of each one, securing the supply chain, designing the electronic boards for mass production and providing reliable backend services at industrial level is a huge team effort.
Yet, the advent of affordable single-board computers (SBC) such as the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, Orange Pi and microcontrollers like Arduino allowed hobbyists and artisans worldwide…
