This follows on from another thread but I think deserves its own not to confuse the OP’s question.
Lets say hypothetical I have 100 machines with edge installed, all mobile and travel the world. The machines have a internet connection when in use, mostly cell modems. I want to use MQTT transmission to publish data back to the main ignition server to reduce over head. Some machines will have a mobile HMI so will use a android tablet with the app, connected locally to the machine over wifi. I don’t need any retention as the MQTT messages are more for monitoring purposes for wear and predicting services etc, so doesn’t matter if any messages get lost as the newest message will pull that last stored value from the PLC DB
Of these 100 machines there is 10 different types, So say Machine A, Machine B etc. They are all PLC controlled (siemens) and data will be polled from the PLC using OPC. Each machine category has different tags.
My thinking was (since edge can only support one project) was to create one master project. When the user opens the app and log’s in, If possible I can pull the machine type from the PLC database and direct to that particular page (mostly one page per machine type, with maybe some pop ups). Or there can be a welcome page which gives the app time to poll the database then the button can get that parameter then pass to the navigation. So the operator will only ever see the page of the machine he is connected to.
This means that the ‘master’ project needs all the OPC values of all the machines, even if some may be faulted or polling wrong data. As for example Machine A could poll OPC value 1 to get say control panel temp, but Machine B could poll OPC value 1 and get ambient temp. But in my mind that wont matter as the only page the operator can see is the one applicable to that machine.
So, now the real question and the reason for posting. What is the best way to create that master project, in a designer directed to one of the machines, or in a designer directed to the main server? My thinking was the main server as using EAM I can push the project to the edge devices. But in the main server designer I cant see any OPC tags. What is the best way to build that tag list from 10 different machines not being able to browse and add. Can I just create a list with OPC value 1 – OPC value 200 and what ever is not used will be faulted or will that drag the whole OPC connection down with faulted values?. Machine A might only poll 20 OPC tags where as Machine B may poll 50. Same goes for the MQTT, I would need to set up the message for the machine with the most tags. Unless there was a way to pull the machine type from the database then tailor the OPC connection and MQTT message from that value?
Or is it best to create 10 different projects applicable to each machine ? Again, where do I design this as I want it really in the main server so I can push it out with EAM, But again from there I cant see the OPC tags or set up up transmission. Or design it for starters in the machine designer then import it to the main server ?
Edited to add, all the PLC’s have the same IP address etc. So the OPC set to 192.168.50.200 for example will be able to access any of the PLC’s and all with the same login credentials.