[SOLVED] Unable to connect Arduino ClearCore device to MQTT server hosted on raspberry pi

Issue

My Goal:

I am trying to communicate with an MQTT server (I'm using mosquitto) hosted on a raspberry pi from a ClearCore device which I have programmed using Arduino.

My Issue:

I have found numerous examples online which achieve what I want using similar devices and techniques. However I am unable to make a connection from my ClearCore device using my Arduino software to the MQTT broker hosted on my raspberry pi.

My Setup:

I am using an Ethernet connection from my clear core device to my raspberry pi. I am using a Teknic CLCR-4-13. I am not using DHCP. I am setting the IP address of the raspberry pi each time it reboots so I always know what it is (see command below). I have created the mosquitto.conf file (port: 1883) and the password_file where I define a "username" and "password".

I run this command whenever I reboot my pi so I don't have to make a static IP.

sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.23 netmask 255.255.255.0

What I have tried:

• From my PC - using an Ethernet connection and a python script I am able to connect, subscribe, and publish to my MQTT server using the IP address of the raspberry pi as the name of the MQTT server.

import paho.mqtt.publish as pub

MQTT_SERVER = "192.168.1.23"
MQTT_PATH = "dev/test"
credentials = {'username':"user",'password':"pass"}
import time
while True:
    pub.single(MQTT_PATH, "Hello Pi!", hostname = MQTT_SERVER, auth = credentials)
    time.sleep(3)
    print(".")

• To verify I can transmit data from the ClearCore device and raspberry pi using an Ethernet cable I have successfully sent UDP packages using an Arduino program. I use the same mac and IP address.
• I have tried changing the MQTT version by defining it in the Arduino program to older versions.
• I have used Wireshark to monitor the Ethernet traffic when I run the program to verify a connection attempt is being made.

My Arduino Program:

Note: everything compiles and program runs successfully, but it is unable to connect to MQTT server

#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>
#include <PubSubClient.h>

//#define MQTT_VERSION MQTT_VERSION_3_1
//#define MQTT_VERSION MQTT_VERSION_3_1_1
//#define MQTT_VERSION MQTT_VERSION_5_0

// Function prototypes
void subscribeReceive(char* topic, byte* payload, unsigned int length);
 
// Set your MAC address and IP address here
byte mac[] = {0x24, 0x15, 0x10, 0xb0, 0x00, 0x3f};
IPAddress ip(192, 168, 1, 23);
 
const char* server = "192.168.1.23";
 
// Ethernet and MQTT related objects
EthernetClient ethClient;
PubSubClient mqttClient(ethClient);

void setup() {
  // Useful for debugging purposes
  Serial.begin(9600);
  
  // Start the ethernet connection
  Ethernet.begin(mac, ip);              
  
  // Ethernet takes some time to boot!
  delay(3000);                          
 
  // Set the MQTT server to the server stated above ^
  mqttClient.setServer(server, 1883);   
 
  // Attempt to connect to the server with the ID "myClientID"
  if (mqttClient.connect("myClientID","user","pass")) 
  {
    Serial.println("Connection has been established, well done");
 
    // Establish the subscribe event
    mqttClient.setCallback(subscribeReceive);
  } 
  else 
  {
    Serial.println("Looks like the server connection failed...");
  }
}

void loop() {
  mqttClient.loop();
 
  mqttClient.subscribe("dev/test");
 
  if(mqttClient.publish("dev/test", "Hello World"))
  {
    Serial.println("Publish message success");
  }
  else
  {
    Serial.println("Could not send message :(");
  } 
  // Dont overload the server!
  delay(4000);
}

void subscribeReceive(char* topic, byte* payload, unsigned int length)
{
  // Print the topic
  Serial.print("Topic: ");
  Serial.println(topic);
 
  // Print the message
  Serial.print("Message: ");
  for(int i = 0; i < length; i ++)
  {
    Serial.print(char(payload[i]));
  } 
  // Print a newline
  Serial.println("");
}

Command from Raspberry Pi

mosquitto_sub -d -u user -P pass -t dev/test

I use this to see messages when they come in from the pi.

where it fails...

mqttClient.setServer(server, 1883); 

if (mqttClient.connect("myClientID","user","pass"))
{
    //error message
}

Thoughts of potential issues:

Most examples I have seen of similar projects - people are using "test.mosquitto.org" as their server name, but because I have configured my own MQTT server on my raspberry pi I instead use the IP address of the raspberry pi as the server name. This worked when I connected from my PC using a python script, but I don't know if this is an issue in my Arduino program.

I hope I provided enough information. Please let me know if I there is something else you might want to see that might help - I appreciate all feedback.

Solution

It looks like you are setting the IP address of your device to be the same as your raspberry pi server.

IPAddress ip(192, 168, 1, 23);
 
const char* server = "192.168.1.23";

That's not going to work. Make the device IP something different, like IPAddress ip(192, 168, 1, 24).

Answered By - CB_Ron

Answer Checked By - Katrina (WPSolving Volunteer)