ABB 800xA DCS communication with ignition

Ignition
1

Hi everyone,

I am working with an ABB System 800xA Version 4.1 DCS.

Our existing control system uses:

  • ABB AC 800M controllers
  • PM861A CPUs, with primary/secondary redundancy
  • CI854A PROFIBUS communication interfaces
  • S800 I/O
  • Multiple AC 800M controller pairs for different plant sections such as boiler, turbine, mill, etc.

The existing DCS is an older installation, and the PM861A application memory is becoming a limitation for adding new control logic. We expect the control logic to continue increasing as the plant expands every year.

We are investigating whether we can keep the existing ABB 800xA 4.1 system and use Ignition as a common supervisory platform for the existing ABB DCS and future PLC/DCS systems.

I have a few questions:

  1. What is the recommended way to connect ABB 800xA 4.1 to Ignition?
  2. Does 800xA 4.1 normally provide an ABB OPC Server / OPC DA interface for AC 800M? If so, can Ignition connect to it directly using the OPC COM module / OPC-DA connection?
  3. If OPC DA is not available on our system, can we connect to the AC 800M/PM861A over Ethernet using another protocol, such as Modbus TCP or another supported interface, for both read and write?
  4. Can Ignition provide a common operator interface for the existing ABB DCS and new PLC/DCS systems
  5. We would keep the real-time control logic, PID, sequences and critical interlocks inside the respective controllers. Ignition would mainly provide the common supervisory/operator layer. Is this a recommended architecture?
  6. Has anyone implemented ABB 800xA 4.1 + Ignition specifically, particularly using the older ABB OPC interface? We would be very interested in a case study or actual project experience.
  7. Finally, if the existing ABB DCS/controller application memory is full, can a new PLC or controller system be added outside the existing control application and integrated into Ignition, so that the new process logic does not consume the existing PM861A application memory?

Our goal is to retain the existing ABB 800xA 4.1 installation, add new control systems as the plant expands, and provide one common operator view through Ignition, rather than replacing the existing DCS.

2

Hi Slovelsri,

Below i have some answers/info that will hopefully help you out.

1 and 2)You would need to check the documentation provided from ABB but form my search it looks there is an AC 800 M OPC Server available that would server OPC DA. If this is the case, you could connect into Ignition via OPC DA which can be achieved through the OPC COM Module.

  1. If the AC800M has Modbuc TCP capabilities (maybe through the CI867 com module) then you would be able to connect it to Ignition through the Modbus TCP Driver.

  2. Yes. A common operator interface across different vendors' systems is one of Ignition's core use cases, since it can pull the ABB OPC data and new PLCs or DCSs into one tag model, HMI, alarming and historian.

  3. Yes, that's the recommended architecture. Real-time control, PID, sequences and safety interlocks should stay in the controllers, with Ignition as the supervisory, visualization and data layer.

  4. I don't know of a published 800xA 4.1 case study.

  5. Yes. A new PLC or controller can sit completely outside the PM861A application, with its own logic and memory, and connect to Ignition directly through a native driver or OPC UA.

3

Hello Slovelsri,

I think @jfranz has already explained this very accurately, but I just wanted to share another example from my experience for reference.

I have previously worked on a project where this model was connected via OPC-DA.

The project involved polling data from an ABB AC800M via OPC-DA and then distributing the data globally through OPC-UA.

1, 2. We were able to collect data via OPC-DA without any issues.

  1. I haven't tried using Modbus TCP, but reading and writing data through OPC-DA worked smoothly.

4–6. Regarding these items, I don't see any obvious limitations in Ignition. If I were working on this project, I believe I could put together a sufficient implementation plan.