🎙 Automation Ladies | Weintek HMIs | OT SCADA CON | Life Enthusiast ✨
My play by play of Inductive Automation and Cirrus Link Solutions ProveIt session: 1️⃣ Starting at the Edge: Local Data Collection & HMI Visualization 🔹 The demo began at the machine level, where a press was connected to an OPC UA server. 🔹 An HMI provided real-time visualization, displaying temperature readings, setpoints, and alarms. 🔹 Using Unified Data Types (UDTs), they created a standard object model for the press, ensuring metadata (units, thresholds, alarms) was structured consistently. 2️⃣ Publishing Data to the Plant-Level SCADA System 🔹 The MQTT Transmission Module was configured to publish data from the edge to an Ignition Gateway running at the plant level. 🔹 Tags, UDTs, and metadata automatically appeared in the Ignition SCADA system—no manual configuration required. 🔹 A second press was added dynamically, proving that new devices could be integrated instantly while inheriting the standardized structure. 3️⃣ Aggregating Data at the Enterprise Level 🔹 Using MQTT Engine, the plant-level system subscribed to all incoming machine data. 🔹 Operators could now view all presses across the plant in a single dashboard. 🔹 Alarms and historical data were logged in SQL databases for local analysis. 4️⃣ Pushing Data to the Cloud for Enterprise Dashboards 🔹 The next step was sending data to Snowflake, a cloud-based data warehouse. 🔹 Using the Cirrus Link IoT Bridge, raw MQTT Sparkplug data was mapped into structured database tables—without writing a single line of code. 🔹 A live Snowflake dashboard displayed historical trends, alarms, and analytics, offering a unified enterprise-wide view. 5️⃣ Dynamic Expansion & Bi-Directional Control 🔹 A third press was added in real-time, demonstrating how new machines could seamlessly integrate without reconfiguring SCADA. 🔹 Operators could send commands back to machines using MQTT—changing setpoints from the enterprise dashboard and triggering alarms. 🔹 Alarm acknowledgments were synchronized across all levels (edge, plant, enterprise), ensuring a single source of truth. Q&A Highlights: ❓ If you already have a historian, why use Snowflake? 💬 Local historians ensure real-time visibility, but Snowflake enables enterprise-wide analytics and long-term data retention. ❓ What happens if multiple edge gateways publish UDTs with the same name? 💬 Each edge node has a unique MQTT topic, preventing conflicts. UDT versioning ensures updates are managed properly. ❓ How long did this implementation take? 💬 The demo infrastructure was set up in a few days. Real-world projects can vary from days to months, depending on scale. Key Takeaways: ✔ Open standards (MQTT, OPC UA) enable true interoperability ✔ Automatic tag discovery reduces manual configuration ✔ Edge-to-cloud connectivity provides full operational visibility ✔ Scalable architecture allows new devices to be integrated instantly PS. Weintek USA, Inc. has offered MQTT and OPC UA for a decade and our new web panels are coming soon!