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HotLoop Edge

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HotLoop IoT plus what a box at the machine needs.

Category: HotLoop

HotLoop Edge does everything HotLoop IoT does, and adds two things for a box that sits next to the equipment with an uplink that is allowed to die: an OPC UA server, so a SCADA package or an HMI can read the box's tags, and Sparkplug B edge publishing with store and forward, so an hour without the uplink loses nothing.

What it does​

  • Everything in HotLoop IoT: every HotLoop driver, entities, automations, scripts, the logbook, notifications, MCP, MQTT with discovery, ISA-18.2 alarms and backups.
  • Serves the box's tags over OPC UA to anything that reads OPC UA.
  • Publishes to a Sparkplug B broker and buffers on disk while the link is down, then forwards what it kept.
  • Keeps history in TimescaleDB (the default), plain PostgreSQL, or a SQLite file.
  • Runs on amd64, arm64 and 32-bit arm.

When to use it​

Use HotLoop Edge on a machine-side box that has to keep working, and keep reporting, when the link to the site drops. If the box only needs to read and forward, with no database or web interface, the HotLoop Edge Relay is smaller. If it only needs the automation base, use HotLoop IoT. For fleet management, multi-site roll-ups and scheduled reports, use the HotLoop Gateway.

Running on EmberNet​

  • HotLoop Edge deploys as a single instance per node.
  • The OPC UA server and Sparkplug edge publishing are both off by default in the chart. Turn them on in the chart's values: the OPC UA server listens on port 4840, and edge publishing needs the broker address and a Sparkplug group id.
  • The web interface is on port 8080 inside the cluster.
  • With the default database, the chart runs TimescaleDB alongside it in the same release. Choose SQLite and there is no database pod.
  • Device passwords are encrypted at rest with a key the chart generates into a Secret named <release>-secret-key and keeps across upgrades. That Secret is part of your data: back it up somewhere other than next to your backups.
  • Edge publishing needs a broker both ends can reach. Mosquitto is in the App Store if you don't have one.

Licensing​

HotLoop Edge is under the HotLoop Business Source License 1.1, the same as the Gateway. Home and lab use is free, and so is use by schools, nonprofits, and government. Business use runs through EmberNet, where signing up is free and running HotLoop is free. Each version converts to GPL-3.0 or later four years after it's first made publicly available. See Using HotLoop in a business.

Learn more​

EmberNet packages and deploys this application; HotLoop is developed by HotLoop. Product names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners.