node-red-azure-iot-central 0.0.2

Node-RED node for Azure IoT Central — telemetry, commands, and device twin via MQTT/AMQP/HTTP using the official Azure IoT SDK

npm install node-red-azure-iot-central

node-red-azure-iot-central

A Node-RED node for connecting devices to Azure IoT Central using the official Azure IoT SDKs. Supports DPS auto-provisioning, telemetry, cloud-to-device commands, and device twin (desired/reported properties) over MQTT, AMQP, or HTTP.

Features

• DPS auto-provisioning — register devices automatically through global.azure-devices-provisioning.net
• Persistent connection with exponential-backoff reconnection (2 s → 60 s)
• Multiple transports — MQTT (recommended), AMQP, HTTP
• Authentication — SAS Symmetric Key or X.509 certificates
• Telemetry — send JSON payloads device → cloud
• Cloud commands — receive method invocations from IoT Central with auto-ACK on timeout
• Device twin — desired-property delta with automatic version-stamped acknowledgment, plus reported properties
• IoT Plug and Play — optional componentName for component-scoped telemetry
• Per-instance state — multiple device nodes run independent connections

Install

From the Node-RED UI: Manage palette → Install and search for node-red-azure-iot-central.

Or from the user data directory (~/.node-red):

npm install node-red-azure-iot-central

Requires Node.js ≥ 18 and Node-RED ≥ 3.0.

Nodes

azure-iot-central-config (configuration node)

Holds device credentials, reusable across multiple device nodes.

azure-iot-central-device

Maintains the persistent connection. 1 input, 3 outputs.

Usage

1. Send telemetry

Wire any node (e.g. inject, function) into the input. Default msg.topic is telemetry.

msg.payload = { temperature: 22.5, humidity: 47 };
return msg;

Optional fields:

2. Update reported properties

msg.topic   = 'reported';
msg.payload = { firmwareVersion: '1.4.2', uptime: 3600 };
return msg;

Reported properties require MQTT or AMQP — HTTP transport is telemetry-only.

3. Handle cloud commands (Output 1)

In the device node config, list the command names (one per line). Wire Output 1 into a function node and call msg._respond(statusCode, payload) to acknowledge:

if (msg.methodName === 'reboot') {
    // do work...
    msg._respond(200, { status: 'rebooting' });
}
return null; // do not forward downstream

If you do not respond within 30 seconds, the node auto-ACKs with status 200 and payload { status: 'ack_timeout' } to prevent hung requests on the IoT Central side.

4. React to desired-property changes (Output 2)

// msg.topic   === 'desired'
// msg.payload === { setpoint: 21, mode: 'auto' }
// msg.version === <twin version>

Acknowledgment back to IoT Central is automatic — each property is reported with { value, ad: 'success', ac: 200, av: <version> }.

5. Monitor status (Output 3)

{ topic: 'connected',      payload: { hub, deviceId } }
{ topic: 'telemetry_sent', payload: { payload } }
{ topic: 'reported_sent',  payload: { payload } }
{ topic: 'error',          payload: { operation, error } }

Example flow

[
  {"id":"f1","type":"tab","label":"IoT Central","disabled":false,"info":""},
  {"id":"i1","type":"inject","z":"f1","name":"every 30s","props":[{"p":"payload"}],"repeat":"30","payload":"{\"temperature\":22.5}","payloadType":"json","x":160,"y":120,"wires":[["d1"]]},
  {"id":"d1","type":"azure-iot-central-device","z":"f1","name":"Device","server":"cfg1","commands":"reboot\nfirmwareUpdate","x":380,"y":160,"wires":[["cmd"],["desired"],["status"]]},
  {"id":"cmd","type":"debug","z":"f1","name":"Command","active":true,"x":600,"y":120,"wires":[]},
  {"id":"desired","type":"debug","z":"f1","name":"Desired","active":true,"x":600,"y":160,"wires":[]},
  {"id":"status","type":"debug","z":"f1","name":"Status","active":true,"x":600,"y":200,"wires":[]},
  {"id":"cfg1","type":"azure-iot-central-config","name":"my-device-01","scopeid":"0ne00000000","deviceid":"my-device-01","transport":"mqtt","auth":"sas"}
]

Replace scopeid, deviceid, and the SAS primary key (set in the config node UI) with values from your IoT Central application.

Transport feature matrix

MQTT is the default and recommended transport.

Troubleshooting

Enable verbose logging by setting Node-RED's log level to debug in settings.js.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub.

License

MIT © Robert Benavides