Ignition Edge or Ignition for a small HMI/supervisory?

Ignition
1

I am new to Ignition and have never used it before (used some other packages in the past, such as InTouch / Citect), but looking currently for a small, modern HMI package for a control panel.
It should be a standalone (non-redundant) device running on an embedded Windows PC fitted in the panel.

I will need the following functionality:

  • two slave devices (flow computers) talking Modbus TCP,
  • a number of displays for process data, calculated values, totalizers, etc.,
  • a couple of trend displays.
    From what I have seen, Ignition Edge should suffice in this instance.

However, I may also need the following functionality on top:

  • PDF reporting (hourly / daily reports to be generated with totalizer values and averages, etc.),
  • Modbus TCP or Modbus RTU handoff to an external system, so the Ignition package should act as a Modbus slave.

Does it mean I would need to go for the full-blown Ignition with custom modules, i.e. the Reporting module and 3rd party Modbus module (to support slave functionality)?

2

Ignition Edge doesn't support any database access, and only holds data for 35 days (at most). Edge is not commonly deployed without a central standard gateway to which to push permanent history. I don't know if you can run the Reporting module on it.

Modbus slave functionality is available in a 3rd party module (mine, fwiw) and in an open source project. (The latter not available in Edge, and not supporting RTU, but likely to become part of the platform eventually.)