Ignition with Direct PLC & UNIX-based system also

Ignition
1

Hi,
Thanks for your reply of factory PMI . I am working on it. This is related to IGNITION which has fascility to communicate with PLC.

I wanted to know how to directly communicate IGNITION with PLC .I am going to use some of the PLC which I wanted to communicate with IGNITION. I have gone through some of the forums, but I was unable to get an answer for the driver software. I am going to use :

GE FANUC PLC
ABB PLC
SIEMENS PLC
VIPA PLC
SCHNEIDER PLC
HONEYWELL PLC

These are main PLC ‘s I am working on it. In IGNITION I find a way to add a device ( Allen Bradley PLC ) which I did not find it in the lower version software. But I am unable to find an option to add a device for other PLC ‘s  in IGNITION . In OPC-UA -> DEVICE -> ADD A DEVICE you have option only for Allen Bradley PLC . But if I am using GE FANUC OR ABB PLC, do I require a driver software for ABB or GE FANUC.If it is there how to use it.

     For example In Siemens WinCc SCADA software you can find driver software with in the software ( available in [b].dll[/b] format ). You need to only install it from the file. So the same way I need driver software to communicate with PLC.

    I have the driver software of SIEMENS WINCC SCADA and I tried to ADD it in IGNITION software, but there is no result .The main reason I do not know how to add it. If it is possible please let me know how to use it. And how to get the other PLC driver software which I mentioned above and how to install it.

     If it is available how to find it and how to install it. I could n’t find any area to ADD  the correspondent driver software. 

    And We have already raised this question before regarding UNIX BASED SYSTEM. If i wanted to communicate with UNIX based system, i have to use the same settings or do i require any other special settings for this. Can you tell me about this also.
2

I can help a bit ...

Correct, only those devices listed are natively supporting using Ignition's OPC-UA server ... support for other devices is under development. If you wish to influence development, I suggest you visit this thread ...

In the meantime, you can communicate to unsupported devices through an OPC-DA server and Ignition's OPC COM module. For example, I've communicated with an ABB controller in the past using the approach I discussed in this thread ...

I believe you will not be able to import any DLL into Ignition ...

An API will be released which allows developers to create drivers for Ignition, however it has not yet been released. If you wish to be notified of it's release, visit this page and fill out the form ...

3

Right, Bryan’s post pretty well sums it up.

You’ll need to use OPC to connect to 3rd party servers for all of the other device types. Currently, none of the vendors that I’m aware of are offer cross-platform products, so you’ll need a Windows machine, at least to drive the data.

In my opinion, the best option would be to use Kepware 5.2, which supports OPC-UA and many many drivers. That way, you benefit from their drivers, and get to connect over UA, which is much better than working with COM.

Our newsletter this next month will feature an article outlining all of the ways to connect to Kepware with UA. The easiest way to get connected to set it up with all security settings set to “None”, meaning that you don’t use encryption and signing. Using encryption isn’t hard, but requires a few more steps that will be outlined in the article (and I believe are already on the forum somewhere).

Regards,