Thingsboard Industrial: SCADA Master Guide and Rule Chains

Thingsboard has become the “Android of IIoT platforms”: it’s powerful, open-source, and highly customizable. But there is a huge difference between having a pretty dashboard and having a mission-critical industrial SCADA running in production.

In this guide, we’ll look at how to set up Thingsboard for real industrial environments, from data normalization to containerized deployment.

1. Deployment: Docker and Persistence

Never use the “demo” image for production. You need an external database (PostgreSQL) and to configure volumes so that your data doesn’t disappear after a restart.

I have prepared an optimized docker-compose.yml for industrial environments:

👉 GitHub: thingsboard-industrial-starter

2. The Rule Engine: The Plant Brain

The Rule Engine is where the magic happens. Don’t send raw data to the dashboard; normalize it first.

Practical Case: Unit Conversion

If a sensor sends you temperature in Fahrenheit but your plant operates in Celsius, don’t change it in the PLC (don’t touch the control logic). Do it in the Rule Chain:

Use a Script node.
Write: output.temp_c = (msg.temp_f - 32) * 5/9;.
Save the result as telemetry.

[!NOTE] In Thingsboard version 4.1, there is now a native Unit Conversion function that drastically simplifies this.

3. Non-distracting Dashboards

A common mistake is to fill the dashboard with analog clocks and bright colors.

High-Performance HMI Philosophy: Use grey colors for normal states and vibrant colors (red, yellow) only for alarms.
Context: A number alone (25.4) means nothing. Always show the current value next to a historical trend line.

4. Device Management (Device Provisioning)

When you have 5 or 10 machines, you can create them by hand. When you have 500, you need to automate. You can use the Thingsboard REST API to create device profiles and assign them tokens automatically.

# Provisioning snippet
requests.post(f"{HOST}/api/device", headers=AUTH, json={"name": "STATION_01", "type": "OPC_UA_NODE"})

Conclusion

Thingsboard is the perfect tool for democratizing plant floor data. If you correctly separate business logic (Rule Chains) from visualization (Dashboards) and ensure data persistence (Docker + Postgres), you have a system that can compete with SCADAs costing thousands of dollars.

Technical Sources: