Dear readers whereever you are in the world,
2025 is almost over. Let’s take a step back and reflect all the stuff we did this year! So many topics, so many new ideas…. the best Peakboard year ever… at least so far.
Hub Flows grow up
If 2025 had a mascot for this blog, it would probably be a little Flow diagram scribbled on a napkin. With the new Hub Flows, we spent an entire mini-season turning background automation from “nice idea” into actual production patterns. We started with the basics in Hub Flows I - Getting started and learning how to historize MQTT messages, then immediately pushed them into the SAP world with Hub Flows II - Cache Me If You Can - Data Distribution for SAP Capacity Data. From there, we let one PLC feed an entire factory in Hub Flows III - One PLC to Feed Them All - Using Peakboard Flows to share and distribute Siemens S7 values, moved to asynchronous SAP confirmation queues in Hub Flows IV - Peakboard Flows in Production - Asynchronous SAP Confirmation Processing, and finally tackled high-volume telemetry with pre-aggregation and archiving in Hub Flows V - Condense, Archive, Optimize - Use Hub Flows to Pre-Aggregate and Archive High-Volume Transaction Data. This topic turned Hub Flows from “yet another feature” into a toolbox of repeatable patterns for real factories.
Peakboard Hub API everywhere
The second big topic was the Peakboard Hub API and what happens when you treat your Hub as a programmable control plane instead of a nice admin UI. In Cracking the code - Part II - Calling functions remotely by using Peakboard Hub API, we used the API to fire alarms on boxes from the outside world. Then we went full Python in Sssslithering Through APIs - Python Unleashed for Peakboard Hub, turning the Hub into a playground for scripts, tables, and ad-hoc SQL over lists. With Cloud to Factory - Building an Azure Logic App to Access Peakboard Boxes with Peakboard Hub, we bridged Microsoft’s cloud workflows straight into shop-floor boxes, and Cracking the code - Part III - Reading and writing lists with Peakboard Hub API showed how to treat Hub lists like a lightweight database. Finally, Peak-a-Boo! Revealing Peakboard Hub List Data in your Power BI Dashboards closed the loop by piping that data into BI dashboards, making the Hub API the central backbone between cloud services, factory apps, and analytics.
SAP from inventory to BTP
Of course, no Peakboard year is complete without a lot of SAP, and 2025 added a few more bricks to the SAP wall. In Because Nobody Likes MI05 - How to handle SAP Inventory, we tried to rescue warehouse workers from paper-based physical inventory processes by replacing the MI05 workflow with a tablet app that talks BAPIs directly. Breaking the Ice - How SAP Integration Suite and Peakboard Hub Became Best Friends took a step back and looked at how SAP BTP and Integration Suite fit into a future where everything is cloud-based and the Hub is just another peer in the landscape. On the more nerdy side, SAP Hana Meets Peakboard - Mastering ODBC Integration Step-by-Step showed how to talk to SAP Hana “raw” through ODBC, while Mission RFC Possible – Executing Custom Function Modules with Integration Flows demonstrated how to wrap classic RFCs in modern HTTP endpoints via Integration Suite. The topic this year was less “one more SAP connector” and more “how do we make SAP behave nicely in a hybrid, Hub-centric architecture?”
Hardware, sensors, and an army of printers
On the hardware side, 2025 was the year of “things that blink, beep, or spit out labels.” We kicked off with The Art of Printing - Getting started with label printing on Seiko SLP720RT, followed by a deep-dive into ESC/POS trickery in The Art of Printing - Mastering Bixolon SRP-Q300 Series receipt printer with with enhanced ESC/POS commands and tables. Once the basics were sorted, we went full label-wizard mode with Print Charming - How ZPL Turns Your Bixolon XD5-40 printer into a Label Wizard. Beyond printing, Lights On - A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing a Pick-by-Light System with Captron and Peakboard explored pick-by-light systems as part of intralogistics, while Peakboard Meets Shelly - Building a Smart Dashboard for Tracking Temperature and Humidity revisited Shelly devices with a more grown-up, production-ready dashboard. And because every hardware adventure needs a messaging backbone, DIY Guide - Transform Your Peakboard Box into an MQTT Server showed how to turn the box itself into the hub for all those sensors and gadgets.
Office 365, extensions, and a 4.1-sized jump
The last big topic of the year was “everything around the box” – the parts that make Peakboard feel like a platform rather than a single tool. With the Office 365 and Graph stories, we moved collaboration data closer to the shop floor in Getting started with the new Office 365 Data Sources, extended the Graph approach in Reading and writing SharePoint lists with Graph extension, and pushed list automation further with SharePoint Lists in Beast Mode – Powered by Peakboard. A more process-driven perspective followed in Elevate Your Workflow - Building a Next-Gen Continuous Improvement Board with Office 365 ToDo.
On the developer side, Plug-in, Baby - The ultimate guide to build your own Peakboard extensions - The Basics finally put custom extensions on a proper, documented track, and Influx and Chill - Writing and Querying Time Series Data with Peakboard gave time-series workloads a clean, reproducible pattern.
All of this culminated in the release recap Peakboard 4.1 Is Here – And It’s a Game Changer, where BACnet, AI helpers, the new drawing tool, improved debugging, and smarter Hub internals landed in one drop. Taken together, this topic turned 2025 into the year where Peakboard grew sideways just as much as it grew up – broader integrations, richer platform features, and a much more powerful toolbox for the people who build with it.
To alle the readers out there, have a wonderful Christmas!!!
See you next year!!
Love, Michelle
