// FSS Engineering Blog

Insights from the
hardware floor.

Real lessons from building connected devices for superyachts, luxury hotels, and industrial environments. No fluff — just engineering.

33 articles
Hardware

Building a SwiftUI Companion App for BLE IoT Devices: Patterns and Pitfalls

A practical guide to building production SwiftUI companion apps for BLE IoT devices: connection state machines, async/await CoreBluetooth wrappers, OTA flows, background limits, and App Store gotchas.

Apr 24, 2026 11 min read →
Hospitality

GEST in Action: How an IoT Service-Call System Cuts Hotel Response Time and Lifts Guest Satisfaction

A deep look at GEST, the wireless in-room service-call system that replaces phones and door tags with one-press buttons, staff apps, analytics dashboards, and measurable NPS lift in luxury hotels.

Apr 24, 2026 10 min read →
Cloud

Modbus RTU and TCP for Retrofit Industrial IoT: Bridging Legacy PLCs to Azure

A field-tested guide to bridging decades-old Modbus PLCs into Azure IoT Hub: protocol fundamentals, RS-485 wiring, ESP32 gateway code, polling strategy, and security for brownfield factories.

Apr 24, 2026 12 min read →
Cloud

Kubernetes (AKS) for IoT Backends: Multi-Tenant Architecture That Scales to Millions of Devices

An engineering guide to running multi-tenant IoT backends on Azure Kubernetes Service: ingest, processing, KEDA autoscaling, GitOps, time-series storage and cost control at millions-of-devices scale.

Apr 24, 2026 11 min read →
Hardware

Cold-Chain IoT: LoRa-Based Temperature Monitoring for Pharma and Food

How to design LoRaWAN cold-chain monitoring for pharmaceuticals and food: sensor selection, enclosure design, gateway placement, compliance, alerting and a real 50-truck cost breakdown.

Apr 24, 2026 11 min read →
Hospitality

PMS Integration for Smart Hotels: Connecting Opera, Mews and Apaleo to IoT Room Controls

A practical engineering guide to connecting Oracle Opera Cloud, Mews and Apaleo with IoT room controls, GEST service-call workflows, energy management and guest preference automation.

Apr 24, 2026 12 min read →
Cloud

LoRaWAN vs NB-IoT vs LTE-M: Choosing the Right Network for Asset Tracking

LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and LTE-M each win different asset-tracking scenarios. A side-by-side technical comparison with TCO numbers and reference architectures.

Apr 24, 2026 9 min read →
Cloud

TinyML on ESP32-S3: Running TensorFlow Lite Micro for Edge AI Inference

Edge ML on ESP32-S3 is no longer a science project. Here is how to deploy TFLite Micro models for keyword spotting and anomaly detection with real benchmarks.

Apr 24, 2026 10 min read →
Firmware

CI/CD for Embedded Firmware: GitHub Actions + PlatformIO Pipeline for ESP32

Firmware deserves the same CI/CD discipline as cloud code. Here is a battle-tested GitHub Actions pipeline for ESP32 and STM32 with matrix builds, HIL, and signed OTA delivery.

Apr 24, 2026 10 min read →
Cloud

AI Agents in Industrial IoT: From Predictive Maintenance to Autonomous Operations

AI agents move IoT beyond dashboards into systems that perceive, reason, and act. Here is how to architect them safely across factories, hotels, and yachts.

Apr 24, 2026 10 min read →
Marine

Marine Navigation Technology: AIS, GPS and Vessel Monitoring with IoT

How modern superyachts use AIS, GPS, and IoT sensor monitoring for navigation, safety, and fleet management — the YIS platform from FSS Technology.

Dec 6, 2025 3 min read →
Security

X.509 Certificates for IoT: Zero-Trust Device Authentication

How to implement X.509 certificate-based device authentication for IoT — CA hierarchy, device provisioning, mutual TLS, certificate rotation, and Azure IoT Hub DPS integration.

Dec 3, 2025 3 min read →
Cloud

Real-Time IoT Dashboard with WebSockets and React: Architecture Guide

How to build a real-time IoT monitoring dashboard — WebSocket architecture with Azure SignalR, React state management for high-frequency updates, and live charts.

Nov 30, 2025 2 min read →
Marine

Smart Superyacht Technology: IoT on Luxury Vessels

How FSS Technology builds connected superyachts — GEST service calls, OMNIYON A/V control, YIS vessel monitoring, and Nuvlock smart access in a single stack.

Nov 27, 2025 3 min read →
Security

Smart Access Control: Beyond the RFID Card with Nuvlock

How next-generation smart access control combines WiFi 6, NFC, biometrics, and mobile apps — the Nuvlock system from FSS Technology for luxury hotels and superyachts.

Nov 24, 2025 3 min read →
Process

IoT Prototype to Production: Scaling from 10 to 10,000 Units

The practical challenges of scaling IoT hardware from prototype to mass production — DFM, component sourcing, manufacturing partner selection, test strategy, and yield improvement.

Nov 21, 2025 3 min read →
Firmware

OTA Firmware Updates at Scale: IoT Fleet Update Architecture

How to implement reliable OTA firmware updates for large IoT fleets — staged rollouts, rollback, delta updates, and Azure IoT Hub Device Twin integration.

Nov 18, 2025 3 min read →
Cloud

MQTT Protocol for IoT: QoS, Retained Messages and Last Will Explained

Complete guide to MQTT for IoT — QoS levels, retained messages, Last Will and Testament, topic design, and broker selection for production deployments.

Nov 15, 2025 3 min read →
Marine

Luxury Yacht A/V Control: How OMNIYON Unifies Entertainment and Comfort

How unified A/V and comfort control works on superyachts — streaming integration, multi-zone audio, climate and lighting control, and the OMNIYON system from FSS Technology.

Nov 12, 2025 3 min read →
Process

Testing IoT Devices: From Unit Tests to Field Validation

Comprehensive testing strategy for IoT hardware and firmware — unit tests, hardware-in-loop testing, network simulation, field validation, and regression testing for production releases.

Nov 9, 2025 3 min read →
Security

IoT Security Best Practices: Protecting Connected Devices from Attack

Practical IoT security checklist — device authentication, encrypted firmware, secure boot, TLS 1.3, hardware security modules, network segmentation for production devices.

Nov 6, 2025 3 min read →
Process

From Idea to Shipped IoT Product: The Complete Development Guide

End-to-end guide to IoT product development — from concept through PCB design, firmware, cloud, mobile app, manufacturing, and post-launch support.

Nov 3, 2025 3 min read →
Cloud

Building an IoT Data Pipeline with Azure Event Hubs and Azure Functions

Step-by-step guide to scalable IoT data pipelines on Azure — from IoT Hub routing to Event Hubs, Azure Functions processing, and Time Series storage.

Oct 31, 2025 3 min read →
Process

CE and FCC Certification for IoT Devices: What Manufacturers Need to Know

Practical guide to CE and FCC certification for IoT hardware — RED directive, FCC Part 15, pre-compliance testing, test houses, timelines, and certification strategies.

Oct 28, 2025 3 min read →
Hospitality

Smart Hotel Technology: IoT Service Call Systems for Luxury Hospitality

How modern luxury hotels deploy IoT wireless service call systems — BLE buttons, real-time staff routing, PMS integration, and analytics with GEST.

Oct 25, 2025 3 min read →
Firmware

FreeRTOS for IoT: Real-Time Operating System on ESP32 and STM32

How to use FreeRTOS in IoT firmware — tasks, queues, semaphores, watchdog patterns, and real-world multi-task architecture.

Oct 22, 2025 3 min read →
Hardware

ESP32 vs STM32: Which MCU for Your IoT Project?

Practical comparison of ESP32 and STM32 for IoT hardware — power, connectivity, ecosystem, and when to choose each based on 10+ years deploying both.

Oct 19, 2025 3 min read →
Security

Protecting IoT Firmware: Signing, Encryption and Secure Boot

How to protect IoT firmware from reverse engineering and tampering — firmware signing, flash encryption, secure boot chains, and OTA security for ESP32 and STM32 devices.

Oct 16, 2025 3 min read →
Cloud

Edge Computing for IoT: When to Process on Device vs in the Cloud

Decision framework for IoT edge vs cloud processing — latency requirements, bandwidth costs, offline operation, privacy constraints, and ML inference at the edge on ESP32-S3.

Oct 13, 2025 3 min read →
Hardware

How to Design a Custom IoT PCB: From Schematic to Fabrication

Step-by-step guide to custom IoT PCB design — schematic capture, component selection, RF antenna layout, power design, DFM rules, and fabrication file generation.

Oct 10, 2025 4 min read →
Hardware

BLE vs WiFi for IoT Devices: Power, Range, and When to Use Each

Practical comparison of BLE and WiFi for IoT — power consumption, range, mesh capabilities, and real battery life data from deployed FSS devices.

Oct 7, 2025 3 min read →
Hardware

Designing Battery-Powered IoT Devices for 5-Year Runtime

How to design IoT hardware that runs for years on a single battery — power profiling, MCU sleep modes, duty cycle optimisation, and real results from FSS deployed devices.

Oct 4, 2025 3 min read →
Cloud

Azure IoT Hub for Device Manufacturers: Complete Integration Guide

How device manufacturers use Azure IoT Hub — device provisioning, D2C messaging, Device Twins, direct methods, and production-grade architecture patterns.

Oct 1, 2025 3 min read →