AWS IoT Raspberry Pi Sensors

Monitor and control a Raspberry Pi over the internet using AWS IoT Core, MQTT, and environmental sensors from the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT.

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Overview

Sensor readings from the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT are published over WiFi via MQTT to AWS IoT Core. An IoT Rule routes the data to Amazon SNS, DynamoDB, and AWS Lambda. Lambda evaluates readings against configurable thresholds and publishes control commands back to the device in real time.

AWS Architecture

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Device	Raspberry Pi + Sense HAT
Protocol	MQTT
Cloud Broker	AWS IoT Core
Rules Engine	AWS IoT Rules
Compute	AWS Lambda
Notifications	Amazon SNS
Storage	Amazon DynamoDB
Language	Python 3

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MQTT Payload

Each message published by the device contains:

Field	Description	Example
SENSOR_TYPE	Type of sensor reading	TEMP, HUMIDITY, PRESSURE
VALUE	Recorded sensor value	23.4
NOW	ISO datetime of the reading	2024-01-15T12:00:00
NODE_ID	Unique device serial number	abc123xyz

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About AWS IoT Core

AWS IoT Core can support billions of devices and route trillions of messages, connecting physical sensors to the cloud without provisioning custom infrastructure. Its built-in Rules Engine lets incoming MQTT messages trigger serverless workflows, filter data for analytics, and store historical state — seamlessly integrated with the broader AWS ecosystem.

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Project Files

File	Description
aws-iot-test01.py	Test local Sense HAT behavior — prints sensor readings and drives the LED matrix
basicPubSub.py	Main script — connects to AWS IoT, publishes sensor data, and receives control commands
IoTLambdaSensorResponse.py	Lambda function — evaluates data, triggers SNS alerts on threshold breaches, and publishes commands back to the device

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.x
• Sense HAT Library (on Raspberry Pi):

  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install sense-hat

• AWS IoT Python SDK v1 — installation guide
• An AWS Account with IoT Core access

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Setup

1. AWS Side

1. Create a Lambda function using IoTLambdaSensorResponse.py as the baseline.

2. Update the TopicArn to point to your SNS Topic ARN.

3. Update the region in boto3.client calls if you are not using us-east-1.

4. Attach an IAM Execution Role with these permissions:

   Permission	Service
   sns:Publish	Amazon SNS
   iot:Publish	AWS IoT Core

2. Raspberry Pi Side

1. Register a Thing in the AWS IoT Core console and download:

   • Certificate (.pem.crt)
   • Private Key (-private.pem.key)
   • Root CA

2. Note your AWS IoT endpoint from the IoT Core console.

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Usage

Test local sensors:

python3 aws-iot-test01.py

Run the full IoT pipeline:

python3 basicPubSub.py \
  -e <your-iot-endpoint>.amazonaws.com \
  -r <root-CA-file> \
  -c <certificate-file> \
  -k <private-key-file>

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Hardware

• Raspberry Pi — WiFi-enabled single-board computer
• Raspberry Pi Sense HAT — gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, temperature, barometric pressure, humidity sensors + LED matrix