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HotLoop IoT

HotLoop logo

The HotLoop automation base, small enough for a Raspberry Pi.

Category: HotLoop

HotLoop IoT is the smallest HotLoop product that does the whole automation job. It reads equipment in its own protocols, keeps a history with quality on every reading, raises alarms, runs automations against all of it, and hands the plant to agents over the Model Context Protocol. It's one static Go binary with no sidecar, running as non-root with every capability dropped.

What it does​

  • Reads over OPC UA, Modbus TCP and RTU, MQTT with Sparkplug B, EtherNet/IP, S7comm, MTConnect, HTTP/REST and UniFi Network. Every HotLoop product speaks every protocol, so a driver fix reaches IoT as it reaches the Gateway.
  • Runs entities, automations, helpers, scripts, recipes and blueprints, and keeps a logbook of every state change, write, alarm and config change.
  • Evaluates ISA-18.2 alarms, sends notifications, and takes backups.
  • Speaks MQTT with discovery and exposes the plant over MCP.
  • Keeps history in plain PostgreSQL, 30 days of it by default, or in a SQLite file with no database pod at all.
  • Runs on amd64, arm64 and 32-bit arm.

When to use it​

Use HotLoop IoT when you want the automation and alarm engine on a small box and you don't need an OPC UA server or Sparkplug edge publishing. It's a build, not a setting: what IoT doesn't have isn't switched off, it isn't in the image. Ask it for something the Gateway does, such as scheduled reports, and the API answers with a clear 404 that names the product that has it.

When the box sits at the machine and needs to serve its tags to a SCADA package or survive an uplink outage, step up to HotLoop Edge. For a site-wide brain with fleet management and reports, use the HotLoop Gateway.

Running on EmberNet​

  • HotLoop IoT deploys as a single instance per node.
  • With the default database, the chart runs PostgreSQL alongside it in the same release. Choose SQLite instead and there is no database pod.
  • The web interface is on port 8080 inside the cluster.
  • 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.
  • IoT offers PostgreSQL and SQLite only. Asking its chart for TimescaleDB fails the install.

Licensing​

HotLoop IoT 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.