A Simple, Scalable Automation Engine

Official Website

Modern prototyping tools make it easy to build a demo but extremely hard to transition that prototype into a stable, maintainable industrial product. Teams often redesign hardware from the ground up after using Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or similar prototyping boards, a costly and time-consuming process that burdens long-term support.

The Make Things Happy platform eliminates this gap by standardizing I/O hardware through the IoTextra module family and providing two clear integration paths:

IoTbase for full-featured, serial-ready solutions using SoMs, and IoTsmart for compact wireless MCU nodes. All modules are Open Hardware, well-documented, and usable independently.

To unify these hardware options on the software side, we created IoTflow, a lightweight orchestration layer that defines message topology, automation behavior, and Node-RED communication patterns. IoTflow enables predictable, scalable automation across diverse modules without requiring custom firmware for each device.

IoTflow is a lightweight workflow orchestration system designed to unify automation across IoTextra Digital, Analog and Combo I/O modules and IoTsmart or IoTbase MCU nodes.

It enables no-code programming for distributed MCU nodes, providing a consistent structure for MQTT-based communication and Node-RED automation.

IoTflow is not firmware itself, it is an orchestration layer that defines:

• Message topology
• Workflow behavior
• Automation patterns
• Topic conventions
• Node-RED flow organization

This ensures reliable, scalable, and easily maintainable automation across multiple IoTextra, IoTsmart and IoTbase devices.

• IoTbase PICO - Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico, Pico 2, Pico W, Pico 2W, Waveshare ESP32-S3 PICO
• IoTbase NANO - Arduino Nano ESP32 or ESP32-S3 or Waveshare ESP32-S3 Nano
• IoTbase Feather - Coming Soon
• IoTsmart ESP32-S3 - Tiny Adaptor Board with Cable is required for flashing
• IoTsmart RP2040 or IoTsmart RP2350A - Tiny Adaptor Board with Cable is required for flashing
• IoTsmart XIAO - Supports multiple Seeed XIAO-compatible SoMs — Coming Soon

IoTsmart modules are System-on-Module (SOM) microcontroller boards that provide the primary compute and control functionality for the system. Each module integrates a complete MCU environment, and different form factors (soldered SoM, slot-based modules such as the IoTsmart XIAO, etc.) are treated as implementation variations rather than separate device classes.

Legend:

• Open — available, click to open
• — — not applicable
• 🔶 — Coming Soon
• 🔲 — Planned

Digital I/O Boards

• IoTextra Input
• IoTextra Relay2
• IoTextra SSR Small
• IoTextra MOSFET2
• IoTextra Quadro — Planned
• IoTextra Octal
• IoTextra Octal2
• IoTextra Octal3 — Planned
• Custom digital mezzanines

Analog I/O Boards

• IoTextra Analog
• IoTextra Analog2 — Coming Soon
• IoTextra Analog3 — Coming Soon
• Custom analog mezzanines

Combo I/O Boards

• IoTextra Combo
• IoTextra Combo2 — Coming Soon
• Custom combo mezzanines

Legend:

• Example — available, click to open
• 🔶 — Coming Soon
• 🔲 — Planned

Legend:

• Template — available, click to open
• 🔶 — Coming Soon
• 🔲 — Planned

IoTflow is optimized for:

• MQTT-driven event automation
• Multi-module digital, analog and combo I/O routing
• Structured topic hierarchies for distributed MCU nodes
• Node-RED automation flows (import-ready)
• State-change event pipelines
• Raspberry Pi, Linux gateways, and ESP32-S3 edge automation
• Consistent MCU-to-gateway communication patterns

These workflows allow developers to build stable systems without custom firmware logic for each device.

IoTflow provides import-ready Node-RED flows demonstrating how to implement reliable, event-driven automation across IoTextra and IoTsmart modules:

• State-change detection and conditional logic
• Input → event → output control logic and mapping
• MQTT communication handling and topic parsing
• Multi-device orchestration and routing patterns
• Timed action automations, triggers, notifications and actuator chains
• Integration of IoTextra Digital, Analog and Combo modules with IoTsmart and IoTbase MCU nodes

Examples are stored inside the repository:

/Node-RED Examples/

These flows are compatible with any Node-RED environment and illustrate how to structure topics, triggers, and actions for predictable, scalable automation. Ideal for learning and rapid prototyping.

Legend:

• Example — available, click to open
• 🔶 — Coming Soon
• 🔲 — Planned

MQTT is the core transport layer used by IoTflow.

• Well-defined, hierarchical MQTT topics
• Event-driven reporting from IoTsmart and IoTbase nodes
• Structured commands for digital, analog and combo I/O
• Consistent multi-module routing
• Compatibility with Mosquitto, EMQX, Aedes, and similar brokers

This repository does not provide standalone MQTT client code, only the automation structure used to implement workflows.

See full setup instructions in:

📄 SETUP.md

1. Clone or download this repository.
2. Upload IoTflow Kernel MicroPython files to your MCU (via Thonny or any IDE).
3. Use IoTflow Forge to configure workflow parameters and module definitions.
4. Ensure an MQTT broker is active on your network.
5. Install Node-RED on your gateway (Raspberry Pi or Linux host).
6. Import flows from /Node-RED Examples/.
7. Configure MQTT topics, device IDs, and automation logic.
8. Deploy to activate automation.

IoTflow is intentionally lightweight and compatible with any MQTT + Node-RED stack.

• ▶️ IoTflow Hardware Demo
• ▶️ IoTflow Workflow Demo
• ▶️ IoTflow Workflow Demo - IoTextra Analog
• ▶️ IoTflow Workflow Demo - IoTextra Analog 3
• ▶️ IoTflow Workflow Demo - IoTextra Combo

IoTflow/
 ├─ Documentation/
 ├─ IoTflow Forge/
 ├─ IoTflow Kernel/
 ├─ Node-RED Examples/
 ├─ node-red-contrib-iotextra/
 └─ Media/

• Documentation — Architecture notes, guides, and workflow documentation
• IoTflow Forge — Configuration generator for MCU nodes
• IoTflow Kernel — Core MicroPython workflow engine
• Node-RED Examples — Node-RED automation flows
• node-red-contrib-iotextra — Node-RED IoTextra integration nodes
• Media — Images and example materials

GPIO reference examples for IoTextra and IoTsmart will be added in future updates by the development team.

These examples are not yet part of the hardware repositories.

Available inside each IoTsmart module folder:

• RP2040/docs/
• RP2350A/docs/
• ESP32-S3/docs/

• IoTextra-Digital: SKU Digital IoTextra.pdf
• IoTsmart: SKU IoTsmart.pdf

(Located in each repository root.)

• node-red-contrib-iotextra on flows.nodered.org

Future additions may include:

• Extended automation templates
• Expanded MQTT topic models
• Enhanced IoTextra module integration
• Secure MQTT authentication options
• Additional distributed workflow examples

All updates will follow the unified documentation and versioning model.

All IoTflow code, documentation, and media are licensed under:

📄 LICENSE

Hardware licenses do not apply, this is a software-only repository.