Communication Between Ignition Edge and ESP32

Ignition
1

Looking into making a production capable package of a test rig that uses an ESP32 to run different tests.

The easiest way i can think of to connect to the ESP32 is using an Industrial Panel PC running Ignition Edge. This way I can have a GUI for the operator to run the tests and look at feedback and also a device to communicate with the ESP32 to run tests and collect data.

So my question: is there a better communication option to talk to the ESP32 from Ignition than serial? I typically deal with Ethernet IP and PLCs and robots, so i’m pretty clueless when it comes to other protocols. Last time I used serial was over 10 years ago and it wasn’t the easiest protocol to work with, so looking to see if there are other options that could save me from serial!

2

Are you in control of the ESP32? i.e. are you the one writing and compiling code and deciding what it actually does?

3

I’m not the one who wrote all the code on the ESP32, but I will have control of it and can modify it as needed to get it to work how I need it to. It is all written in Python

4

Well any other communication option you have will depend on whether somebody has implemented that or is willing to implement it. Modbus might be a good choice. It depends what kind of data you need to get out of it.

5

Does modbus work over USB? Or would i need an ethernet connection for that to work?

6

The ESP32 has wifi, if that’s an option for you its pretty easy to get it communicating using modbus tcpip.

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7

Ethernet or Serial. Preferably Ethernet.

8

Wifi wouldn’t be an option due to IT restrictions unfortunately

9

There may be a hardware limitation on the PCB with adding an ethernet port. So we might be stuck with serial

10

Well Ignition does have a Modbus RTU/Serial driver.

Otherwise you'll probably just end up doing your own custom protocol / conversation over serial using the system.serial scripting functions or something.

So to answer your original question: yes there are better options than serial, but you have just ruled them all out.

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