January 2, 2026
Robots vs passwords!
ThingsBoard: Open-Source IoT Platform
Not a “board”: robot hype meets security side‑eye and LabView nostalgia
TLDR: ThingsBoard is an open-source tool to manage and visualize connected devices, with demos and industrial dashboards. Comments split between confusion over the “board” name, robot-fueled excitement, and security pros asking if it can spot risky behavior—highlighting the hype vs. hardening debate for real-world IoT.
ThingsBoard dropped with promises of slick real‑time dashboards, alarms, and a “rule engine” to wrangle data from internet‑connected devices. It’s open-source, runs in the cloud or on your own servers, and even has a live demo — but the comments instantly turned into a naming debate. One early clicker confessed they expected an actual “board,” then discovered it’s software, pointing newcomers to the more helpful website. Cue the chorus: half the crowd exploring features like SCADA (industrial process dashboards), the other half asking, “So… where’s the hardware?”
Meanwhile, the vibe check whiplashed. The fun faction cheered, “IoT is a blast now with robots,” while nostalgic engineers chimed in with “LabView vibes,” comparing ThingsBoard’s widgets and flows to the classic drag‑and‑drop tool. Then security folks crashed the party. A team building an open security platform asked how ThingsBoard handles risky account behavior and what analytics are missing — a polite way of saying: great dashboards, but can it catch sketchy logins and operator mistakes? That set up a mini tug‑of‑war: hype vs. hard questions. Fans love the “build fast” promise; skeptics want proof it’s safe for factories and fleets. Either way, the demo’s getting clicks. The robot people brought popcorn.
Key Points
- •ThingsBoard is an open-source IoT platform for device data collection, processing, visualization, and management.
- •It offers on‑premise deployment, a managed cloud option (ThingsBoard Cloud), and a live demo.
- •A Getting Started guide covers connecting devices, pushing data, building dashboards, setting thresholds/alarms, and configuring notifications.
- •Features include device/asset provisioning, scalable telemetry storage, flexible dashboards, SCADA dashboards, and a rule engine with Rule Chains.
- •Support is available via GitHub issues, and the project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.