Build a Live Parking Occupancy Sensor with ESP8266, HC-SR04, and MQTT Dashboard

Every part needed, pre-tested for compatibility, with an AI build companion trained on this exact project. Shipped from Bengaluru in 3-5 days.

Imagine a parking space that automatically reports whether it’s free or occupied—without a camera or complex sensor network. With this kit, you’ll build a single‑space smart parking sensor that uses an HC‑SR04 ultrasonic module to detect a vehicle’s presence and instantly publishes the status to an MQTT broker over Wi‑Fi. A lightweight web dashboard then shows the space as free or occupied in real time, just like the systems used in modern smart buildings. It’s a complete IoT chain on a breadboard, perfect for school innovation fairs, CBSE science practicals, or as a foundation for a multi‑sensor campus parking project.

What You'll Build

You’ll wire an HC‑SR04 sensor and two‑color indicator LEDs (red for occupied, green for free) to an ESP8266 NodeMCU, then program it to publish `occupied` or `free` messages to a user‑defined MQTT topic. A responsive HTML dashboard—provided with the kit—subscribes to that topic and updates a visual parking slot in real time. The build teaches you to take a physical measurement, encode it into a digital state, and deliver that through a structured cloud message, giving you a hands‑on understanding of IoT telemetry that you can immediately extend to other distance‑based applications.

What You'll Learn

• Calibrate and interface an HC‑SR04 ultrasonic sensor for precise distance thresholds
• Program the ESP8266 NodeMCU to connect to Wi‑Fi and publish MQTT payloads
• Construct a live web dashboard using HTML, CSS, and MQTT.js for real‑time occupancy updates
• Use local LED status indicators alongside cloud‑connected monitoring for robust feedback

Kit Contents

Why Buy This Kit Instead of Sourcing Parts Separately

Who This Kit Is For

This intermediate IoT kit is designed for CBSE Class 11–12 students building sensor‑driven science projects, B.Tech ECE/EEE undergraduates prototyping for Smart India Hackathon or mini‑projects, and ATL Tinkering Lab facilitators who want a ready‑to‑run IoT workshop module. It’s also used by engineering students from IIT, NIT, VIT, and BITS campuses who need a reliable MQTT testbed to demonstrate parking automation or as a stepping stone to larger cloud‑dashboards. If you’ve tinkered with Arduino before and want to step into Wi‑Fi‑enabled projects, this kit gives you the exact parts and guided code to achieve a working prototype in an afternoon.

Built and Backed by Compoden

Every Compoden kit ships with an AI build companion trained on this exact project — accessible via a QR code on the box, with WhatsApp and email backup. We've spent 10 years building projects for makers, schools, and institutions across India. If a part fails because of a manufacturing defect, replace it free within 7 days.