Erqos has introduced the EQSP32CE, a CE-certified, industrial-grade MQTT MicroPLC built to solve one of automation’s biggest pain points: connecting machine-level control and industrial I/O directly to modern IP and MQTT-based systems.

Conventional MicroPLCs were created for an era when control systems lived entirely inside the panel and typically require gateways, protocol converters, or polling servers to participate in connected architectures. The EQSP32CE brings Internet-era communication directly into the controller, eliminating much of this complexity.

A defining feature of the EQSP32CE is its flexible I/O architecture. Each of its 16 I/O terminals can be assigned by software rather than being fixed at the factory as a dedicated input or output.

The EQSP32CE’s native-wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi provide direct IP connectivity for Modbus TCP, MQTT, cloud storage, AI analytics, remote diagnostics, OTA firmware updates, and supervisory integration. For industrial communication, the controller includes protected RS485, RS232, and CAN bus interfaces, enabling Modbus RTU, DMX512, custom serial protocols, and CAN-based machine communication.

A defining feature of the EQSP32CE is its flexible I/O architecture. Each of its 16 I/O terminals can be assigned by software rather than being fixed at the factory as a dedicated input or output. All terminals can operate as digital inputs or solid-state outputs, while the first eight terminals also support analog modes including 0–10 V, 4–20 mA, relative analog input, and thermistor temperature sensing.

The I/O system also includes features normally associated with more specialized controllers, including debounce handling, high-speed TTL output up to 1 MHz, hardware pulse counters, encoder interfaces, PWM generation, smart coil drive, protected solid-state outputs up to 1 A, integrated flyback protection for inductive loads, and power-supply monitoring. This gives the EQSP32CE one of the broadest real-world I/O capabilities available in the MicroPLC class, allowing it to drive and monitor relays, valves, pumps, actuators, sensors, counters, meters, and other field devices directly.

At the heart of the EQSP32CE is a dual-core 240 MHz system-on-chip with 8 MB of Flash memory and 512 KB of RAM, giving the controller processing power far beyond what is typically available in conventional MicroPLCs. This allows the EQSP32CE to handle local control, communication, data formatting, edge automation, remote services, and protocol integration directly on the controller. Unlike closed MicroPLC platforms that restrict developers to fixed runtimes and vendor-controlled function blocks, the EQSP32CE uses an open architecture that gives engineers direct access to processing, timing, networking, and communication resources. It also taps into the world’s largest pool of free, open-source tools, software libraries, and working examples, shortening development cycles and enabling custom protocols, advanced data formatting, local intelligence, remote services, and integrations that are difficult, costly, or outright impossible to implement on conventional MicroPLCs.

The EQSP32CE is supported by a broad and growing range of expansion modules, including digital I/O, analog input, analog output, thermocouple, PT100/RTD, pH, relay, and GSM/GPRS cellular modules. Modules are installed simply by mounting them side by side with the controller and connecting them through the EQSP32 expansion port. Once connected, they are automatically enumerated and made available to the application as if they were local I/O, using the same software model as the onboard terminals. Additional expansion functions are already planned as part of the Erqos roadmap.

The EQSP32CE also introduces a programming environment that is revolutionary in capability yet familiar in use. Through EQ-AI, Erqos’s generative AI development system for connected control applications, automation engineers can describe the control behavior in the terms they already use: plain-language steps, ladder-style sequences, state machines, or simple cause-and-effect logic. EQ-AI then generates hardware-aware EQSP32CE code that implements both the local control logic and the connectivity layer, including MQTT messaging, JSON payloads, REST APIs, cloud interaction, remote diagnostics, and coordination across distributed subsystems. This allows engineers to keep their familiar way of thinking for automation logic while gaining access to modern connected-system capabilities even without specialized background in network programming, web protocols, or cloud integration.

The EQSP32CE also addresses another common pain point in connected automation: field commissioning. Using the controller’s built-in Bluetooth capability, the EQConnect smartphone app establishes a direct local connection to the EQSP32CE, allowing installers to provision WiFi credentials, set timezone information, configure MQTT broker credentials, and monitor I/O states and operating modes in real time. In many installations, these commissioning and diagnostic tasks can be performed from outside the cabinet, without opening the panel or connecting a programming cable.

“The shift in automation has been unmistakable,” said Cosma Pabouctsidis, CTO at Erqos. “Early adopters showed us that systems requiring cloud connectivity, MQTT integration, remote diagnostics, and AI-driven analytics are moving faster than traditional PLC architectures can technically and economically support. We built the EQSP32CE to deliver the rugged reliability of a MicroPLC with the native internet-era capabilities that automation engineers and system integrators now consider essential.”

The EQSP32CE is already being used in applications where connectivity, remote supervision, and distributed coordination are central, including smart irrigation, water treatment, HVAC, zero-export solar control, heliostat tracking, AGVs using CAN bus with MQTT telemetry, and pool and spa automation. Detailed write-ups of these real-world deployments are available in the Erqos applications blog.

The EQSP32CE is available now from the Erqos online store for worldwide shipping at 155 EUR / 185 USD in single-unit quantities, with volume pricing available for OEM customers. Manuals, software, libraries, and application examples are available at erqos.com.

Erqos