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I am wondering what is suitable for my case, using espeasy or Tasmota. I know espeasy is using http requests and Tasmota is using mqtt.

I want to control my sonoff devices by a raspberry pi that is acting as a home automation hub, and it in turn send updates and receives commands from AWSIoT platform. For interacting with AWSIoT platform, it uses mqtt.

What are the pros and cons of using either? and will it cause problems if I control several sonoff devices with http, while using mqtt for AWSIoT? or better use mqtt for all AWSIoT and sonoff?

Abu Zaid
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  • I've evaluated Tasmota as well as Espurna, on Sonoffs, and I'm really impressed with Espurna. It also offers both HTTP and MQTT. That said, to answer your question, MQTT is great when you're using a fleet of devices that need central control with little programming and overhead. In my case, I have a webpage on AWS which controls 2 well pump controllers (a Pi and a Sonoff), and two 4-channel sonoffs with sprinkler valves. – Excalibur Jul 16 '20 at 18:29

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I am not an expert on the topic but have tried a few things and got some insight for you on why to prefer MQTT over HTTP.

  1. Security. Remember that the 'S' in IOT stands for security. Joking aside. I have not seen an option for encryption (HTTPS) of the HTTP-traffic for tasmota. (May the internet correct me if I am wrong) So choosing HTTP means your user/password (which are not a requirement but should totally be used) are transfered via URL query parameters as plain text. MQTT has built-in mechanisms for encrypting the traffic. I haven't been able to get that working in my network but I'm trying.

  2. Flexibility/Reliability. With MQTT/Tasmota you have the ability to implement automations that do not rely on your home automation hub by having your devices publish MQTT-messages directly to each other for interaction. For example if you would like to implement an emergency off button that turns multiple devices off you do not want that to rely on your home automation server. Doing this with HTTP 'could' be done too but requires all users/passwords of all the devices to reside not only in your home automation hub but also on other single devices.

  3. Networking. Adding new devices to your hub should be as easy as possible. In matters of HTTP your home automation hub has to know how to find your devices via IP-addresses or domain names since it has to resolve a URL. When using MQTT you just connect your tasmota devices to your broker and use their topic in the home automation hub. The devices do not even need to have a static IP or reachable domain name of mDNS name of any sort. That's in an essence what makes pub/sub for IOT so interesting in the first place.

  4. Existing support. Before building your own home automation solution be sure to check out home assistant (my favorite) or any of the other home automation solutions if they fit your need. Do not reinvent the wheel. A tipp for home assistant: Do not use MQTT auto discovery in combination with tasmota. This is the only thing that has not worked out for me. Manually registering devices works reliably.

Hope that helps. If you still prefer HTTP checkout the app "Tasmota control".

rominator007
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