Rover Hackathon is a full‑stack control and telemetry platform for a Raspberry Pi Pico W rover. It connects a React dashboard to a Node.js MQTT gateway so browser interactions can drive hardware in real time.

React frontend → Node backend → MQTT broker → Pico W

• Built the Node.js MQTT bridge that brokers browser events to the rover.
• Integrated the React UI with the backend socket/MQTT pipeline.
• Implemented Pico W networking and MQTT helpers for subscribing/publishing topics.
• Packaged the project for reproducible local runs with clear setup steps.

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Node.js, MQTT
• Hardware: Raspberry Pi Pico W (MicroPython)
• Broker: HiveMQ (or compatible MQTT broker)

1. cd backend
2. Create backend/.env with broker credentials (see Security note below).
3. npm install
4. node index.js

1. cd frontend
2. npm install
3. npm start

1. Flash MicroPython to the Pico W (if not already).
2. Open the pico/ files in Thonny.
3. Update Wi‑Fi + MQTT credentials in your runtime config.
4. Run pico/main.py to connect and publish/subscribe.

Environment variables belong in .env files and are intentionally excluded from version control.