Installing Designer Launcher and Vision client Launchers on Ignition Edge on Raspberry Pi

Ignition
1

Hello There

I have been trying to install Designer Launcher and Vision Client Launchers on a Raspberry Pi that has the edge gateway installed. What is presented doesn’t reflect what is in the manual but disregarding that i follow the instructions as per the manual and the prompts on the gateway web page.

I extract the file that is in the downloads folder.
i navigate to the file and double click it. it gives a 4 options: 1. execute 2. execute in terminal 3. open 4 . cancel. 1. & 2. run a egg timer cursor for about 20seconds and do nothing. 3. opens a txt file with this in it.

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=True
Icon=/home/pi/Downloads/designerlauncher_1/app/launcher.png
Name=Designer Launcher
Exec=bash -c ‘cd “$(dirname “$1”)/app” && ./designerlauncher.sh &’ . %k
Path=.

Has anyone a how to on this?
Thanks
Regards
Stephen

2

More information usually results in better answers. :wink:

  • What version of Pi?
  • What OS do you have on the Pi?
  • Which version of Edge?
3

I’m pretty sure RPi can’t run the designer. At all. Due to javafx, IIRC.

4

Yes this is correct. Launchers and the Designer will not run on the RPi, you have to run them elsewhere.

RPi can run the gateway, a Perspective session, and a manually launched Vision Client if you’re willing to get your hands dirty.

5

Can we use the RPI to run a vision window as a HMI?

6

yes you can. there are some shell scripts available at ${GW_ADDRESS}/system/nativelaunch?type=legacy&os=linux to help with launching a vision client on systems where the launchers themselves won’t work. You will need to install your own java (version 11) but any Web Browser component usage will likely not function on these devices. You may also need to do some modification to these scripts depending on your environment as well.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan C

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7

Help dumb this down for a total newbie. I’ve got an RPi 3b running a 64bit OS. I’ve installed JavaJDK v11. What more needs done to allow the client launcher to load?

8

It isn’t really for newbies–RPis aren’t really a supported platform. But it isn’t rocket science. Start by getting that script from your installed gateway. Save it locally in your RPi. Read it.

Edit it if you want to change some of the variable defaults. Change its permissions to executable. Run it with suitable arguments. Rinse and repeat until you’ve got it.

Note that launching a designer requires JavaFx, which isn’t available for typical ARM JDKs.

2 Likes
9

Hi Kevin,

I am facing the same issue.

When you say RPI, do you mean the RPI NOOBS OS or do you mean the ARM system?
I cannot run the designer launcher on the RPI installed with NOOBS OS, but if I reinstall the RPI with ubuntu, will it be OK to run the designer launcher?

10

The launchers (Designer Launcher, Vision Client Launcher) do not work in ARM systems.

11

emmm, that's an issue.

My thought is to run a RPI IPC as a complete edge solution, installed with ignition edge. Anytime if I want to make site edge changes, I can just teamviewer to this edge station to change the ignition tags, scripts.

Now, It looks like that I need to setup a VPN connection to remote access the site ignition edge to achieve this function.

Any better solution to have a nice complete Edge solution on a RPI system?

Thanks

12

Pick one.

This situation has long been documented:

(Though a manually-launched Vision Client is possible, as noted above.)

2 Likes
13

Thanks for the advice.

Sadly the only hurdle preventing the RPI to be a complete ignition edge solution is the designer launcher issue.

To keep on using the RPI platform, I need to look for VPN connection, so I can open the site edge remotely from a windows platform.

Beside OpenVPN, is there any other budget VPN solution that can fit my requirements:

  1. up to 10 edge devices for various projects.
  2. occasionally I need to make edge side changes, tag changes, scripting changes, etc. It means I need to connect to site ignition designer remotely via the VPN connection.
  3. I still have teamviewer desktop access to all of the site edge devices.
14

Wireguard is a popular VPN tool (it is the foundation of Tailscale, but can be configured on its own). I find it more difficult at that fundamental level than OpenVPN. (I run my own OpenVPN host for customer support purposes.)

15

thanks for the reply.

Correct me if I am wrong. To setup a OpenVPN server on a RPI, as per the statement from OpenVPN, I can have two free connections to OpenVPN Access Server, any concurrent connection beyond 2, I will need to start paying for the connection. 10 connections is around 75/mth. It's no longer considered as a budget solution to me anymore.

Is there any open source VPN package to install on a RPI that I can setup a self host VPN server, so I can have any number of VPN connections for free?

16

While googling RPI VPN,
I found the following link:
https://www.pivpn.io/

Is it something worth testing?

17

That's the commercial offering. Use the open source version instead (included in most Linux distros). No limits. Also, you should be installing such on a publicly reachable cloud server, and using the OpenVPN client on your scattered leaf nodes.

Note: the OpenVPN open source executable handles both client and server. The difference is solely in the configuration. In SystemD, there are two configs tailored for each, using the @ notation to allow multiple instances.

1 Like