Publishing data is pretty simple, subscriptions are a tad more challenging.

Lets look at another demo sketch this time mqtt_esp8266_2subs

This demo has two subscriptions, no publication (so it has to ping), and shows two ways to parse subscription data

Create New Slider Feed & Dash

To test out this demo, create a new feed called slider and add a slider to your dashboard

Output pins & new subscription

The first difference is we define two pins for LED output (controlled by the on-off button) and PWM output (controlled by the slider

Download File

Copy Code

// the on off button feed turns this LED on/off
#define LED 2  
// the slider feed sets the PWM output of this pin
#define PWMOUT 12

// the on off button feed turns this LED on/off
#define LED 2  
// the slider feed sets the PWM output of this pin
#define PWMOUT 12

We also only set up 2 subs, no pubs

Download File

Copy Code

// Notice MQTT paths for AIO follow the form: <username>/feeds/<feedname>
// Setup a feed called 'onoff' for subscribing to changes.
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe ONOFF_FEED = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, AIO_USERNAME "/feeds/ONOFF_FEED");
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe onoffbutton = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, ONOFF_FEED);
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe SLIDER_FEED = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, AIO_USERNAME "/feeds/slider");
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe slider = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, SLIDER_FEED);

// Notice MQTT paths for AIO follow the form: <username>/feeds/<feedname>
// Setup a feed called 'onoff' for subscribing to changes.
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe ONOFF_FEED = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, AIO_USERNAME "/feeds/ONOFF_FEED");
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe onoffbutton = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, ONOFF_FEED);
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe SLIDER_FEED = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, AIO_USERNAME "/feeds/slider");
Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe slider = Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe(&mqtt, SLIDER_FEED);

Don't forget to subscribe to both feeds!

Download File

Copy Code

  // Setup MQTT subscription for onoff & slider feed.
  mqtt.subscribe(&onoffbutton);
  mqtt.subscribe(&slider);

  // Setup MQTT subscription for onoff & slider feed.
  mqtt.subscribe(&onoffbutton);
  mqtt.subscribe(&slider);

Add Ping()

Since there's no publish's in this code, you will have to ping every few minutes at least. Uncomment the ping code

Download File

Copy Code

  // ping the server to keep the mqtt connection alive
  if(! mqtt.ping()) {
    mqtt.disconnect();
  }

  // ping the server to keep the mqtt connection alive
  if(! mqtt.ping()) {
    mqtt.disconnect();
  }

New Subscription Check & Parse

The real changes come in the part of the loop that checks the subscriptions

On Off Button

First up, we've updated the On-Off button check. Now it not only prints out the received data but also compares the data to determine whether the string received is ON or OFF

Since adafruit.io publishes the data as a string, using strcmp (string compare) is an easy way to determine whether you got a particular value. Don't forget it returns 0 on success!

Download File

Copy Code

  Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe *subscription;
  while ((subscription = mqtt.readSubscription(5000))) {
    // Check if its the onoff button feed
    if (subscription == &onoffbutton) {
      Serial.print(F("On-Off button: "));
      Serial.println((char *)onoffbutton.lastread);
      
      if (strcmp((char *)onoffbutton.lastread, "ON") == 0) {
        digitalWrite(LED, LOW); 
      }
      if (strcmp((char *)onoffbutton.lastread, "OFF") == 0) {
        digitalWrite(LED, HIGH); 
      }
    }

  Adafruit_MQTT_Subscribe *subscription;
  while ((subscription = mqtt.readSubscription(5000))) {
    // Check if its the onoff button feed
    if (subscription == &onoffbutton) {
      Serial.print(F("On-Off button: "));
      Serial.println((char *)onoffbutton.lastread);
      
      if (strcmp((char *)onoffbutton.lastread, "ON") == 0) {
        digitalWrite(LED, LOW); 
      }
      if (strcmp((char *)onoffbutton.lastread, "OFF") == 0) {
        digitalWrite(LED, HIGH); 
      }
    }

(The digital pin 2 LED is common anode so pull the pin low to turn on)

Slider Subscription

We then check if we got a slider subscription

Download File

Copy Code

 // check if its the slider feed
    if (subscription == &slider) {
      Serial.print(F("Slider: "));
      Serial.println((char *)slider.lastread);
      uint16_t sliderval = atoi((char *)slider.lastread);  // convert to a number
      analogWrite(PWMOUT, sliderval);
    }

 // check if its the slider feed
    if (subscription == &slider) {
      Serial.print(F("Slider: "));
      Serial.println((char *)slider.lastread);
      uint16_t sliderval = atoi((char *)slider.lastread);  // convert to a number
      analogWrite(PWMOUT, sliderval);
    }

The data also shows up as a string, so we use atoi to convert it from ascii to integer. Then we can save it to sliderval and use that to analog/PWM write to our PWM pin