MQTT to BLE gateway

[rowan.bradley]

I need an Ethernet MQTT to BLE gateway that will enable me to control Bluetooth (BLE) radiator valves using MQTT. I anticipate that I will need two or three of these to cover my whole house. My current thoughts are that the device does not need WiFi (it will communicate with my main house controller via wired Ethernet), and that it will be powered using micro-USB, just using micro-USB chargers plugged into the nearest mains socket. It does not need battery backup, or PoE, since if the power fails everything will stop working, but when the power is restored, the main controller can re-establish contact with all the BLE devices (assuming that they have rebooted successfully).

What is the cheapest/best way of doing this? Can I buy the hardware to do it? Or do I need to make it from an existing design? Or do I need to design something myself? What software does it need to run? What is the best software available for this job? Can I get this ready finished, or do I need to write something myself? What if some of the BLE devices send messages or require command inputs that the standard software does not translate to MQTT? How do I add such capabilities?

Thanks - Rowan

[LubOlimex]

ESP32 boards should the choice despite that they provide more than you require (+WIFI, +battery, +POE (option)). Check ESP32-EVB, ESP32-PoE and ESP32-GATEWAY. The EVB has two relays, not sure if that fits your valves.

Here is a customer getting MQQ working on ESP32-POE:

https://github.com/OLIMEX/ESP32-POE/issues/6