With a fairly large experience in the field of industrial automation, we are always looking for the best options to solve our problems. Depending on the terms of reference of the customer, it was necessary to stop at one or another software and hardware base. And if there were no strict requirements for installing Siemens equipment in conjunction with the TIA-portal, then, as a rule, the choice fell on MasterSCADA 3.XX. However, nothing lasts forever under the moon...
About my experience of switching to MasterSCADA 4D, prerequisites, features of its work on embedded computers of ARM architecture under the cut of this article.
BACKGROUND
We started testing a relatively new development from Insat - MasterSCADA 4D - not so long ago. There were several reasons for this. First, we conducted several independent surveys among specialists in the field of industrial automation in order to find out which SCADA systems are the most popular (Figure 1). According to the results of the survey, the first place among domestic systems is occupied by the MasterSCADA system.
Figure 1 - Results of a survey of the most popular SCADA systems (the picture is clickable)
The second prerequisite is...
Now let's go directly to MasterSCADA 4D itself. It consists of two software products, namely the development environment and the runtime environment. We will talk about the work of each of these parts below.
Development environment
The system project is created in the MasterSCADA 4D development environment, for this you need to get a free version on the Insat website and install it following the prompts.
Figure 2 - Interface of the development environment (the picture is clickable)
The first thing that catches your eye is a pleasant development environment interface and a convenient hierarchical structure for building a project. Now, in one project, you can create a program not only for the workstation, but also for the entire object, starting with the controller - ending with the server or operator's workplace.
The development environment works only on Windows OS, it is relatively familiar and tolerable, but the runtime environment (RunTime) pleasantly surprised me with its ability to integrate into various operating systems and processor architectures, but more on that later.
Also pleased with the large library of visualization elements. Experts from various fields will be able to find visualization elements for themselves without resorting to drawing or searching for icons on the Internet.
Figure 3 - Visualization elements (the picture is clickable)
Communication protocols
The system supports various drivers (exchange protocols), which are integrated into MasterSCADA 4D by default:
- Modbus TCP/RTU, RTU over TCP
- DCON
- OPCUA/DA/HDA
- IEC61850
- SNMP
- PostgreSQL
- MQTT
- IEC104
- MSSQL
- MySQL
- Mercury (separate library), etc.
Runtime
The runtime environment can be run on various operating systems and architectures of personal computers, you can also run RunTime on a local machine, it is installed together with the development environment and operates for an hour (or 32 tags) without restrictions.
AntexGate device
MasterSCADA Runtime is pre-installed as a separate option on the AntexGate embedded PC with ARM processor architecture and Debian operating system, we will conduct tests on this device.
Figure 4 - AntexGate device
Features:
- CPU: 4-core x64 ARM v8 Cortex-A53
- 1.2Mhz RAM: LPDDR2 1024MB
- Non-volatile memory: 8/16/32GB eMMC
You can read more about the device .
Let's run the program in the executive device. For example, we created a poll and device control using the Modbus RTU protocol, the poll setup process is intuitive and somewhat similar to setting up a familiar OPC server. True, now RunTime has built-in protocol drivers for data exchange.
As an example, let's create a simple project to control three pumps and two valves required for an abstract manufacturing process. In the development environment, it looks as follows, as in Figure 5.
Figure 5 - Project in the development environment (the picture is clickable)
As a result, we have a simple mimic (Figure 6) that works in any browser with HTML5 support.
Figure 6 - Mnemonic diagram (GIF-animation is clickable)
HMI information display options
It is possible to connect to the execution environment via the WEB, this option does not limit us in choosing a client to view data on a mnemonic diagram.
In our case, the device provides information output via HDMI, Ethernet, 3G.
When connecting via HDMI, we access LocalHost 127.0 0.1:8043 through the built-in browser in AntexGate, or connect to a fixed IP:8043 address on the Internet or the local network of an enterprise with another Thin Client.
Figure 7 β WEB monitoring structure (the picture is clickable)
The interesting news was the long-awaited MQTT protocol, which was usually not enough to monitor remote objects in SCADA systems.
Today, everyone has the opportunity to get an inexpensive VDS server on the Internet with a fixed IP address (for example, a company website server) and deploy an MQTT Broker (for example, Mosquito) on it.
Having received one server with an MQTT broker, we can easily get rid of expensive operator services - a fixed IP and pay 900 rubles a year instead of 4000 rubles for a 3G connection.
Figure 8 - MQTT monitoring structure (the picture is clickable)
Such a construction of the network will not only save on traffic, but also secure data, since data transmission via the Modbus TCP protocol on the Internet does not guarantee the security and quality of communication.
Thus, you can sell replicated projects in which the client himself chooses the Internet provider. And no one has a headache with setting up and allocating IP addresses: the client himself inserts any SIM card or connects to a router with a DHCP server.
Performance
For the project, the main thing is speed, the so-called "Tasks" will help us with this. By default, each node, when it is created, has only one - Primary Task. The project developer can create as many of them as necessary for the operation of a particular project. Features of the calculation, for example, the calculation cycle, will depend on the settings of a particular task. Each of them will work independently of the others in the device. It is advisable to create several tasks if it is necessary to provide different calculation cycles for different programs of the project.
This feature is especially interesting for devices that have a processor with multiple cores. Each "Task" is launched as a separate process in the system and the load is distributed evenly to the processor. The AntexGate device has an ARM processor with 4 cores of 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM, which allows you to create at least 4 large tasks and distribute the load among the cores. Compared to a PLC, the AntexGate device can provide at least 4 times more computing power for the same price.
Figure 9 - Loading the computational capabilities of AntexGate in runtime (the picture is clickable)
As we can see from Figure 9, the CPU usage is no more than 2,5%, and only 61MB of memory is allocated. Thus, a small runtime project consumes very few built-in resources.
The device can be used not only as a controller, but also as a full-fledged server with polling more than 2000 I/O points and the ability to support more than 100 WEB clients.
For example, let's connect 9 WEB clients to the device and see the progress of resource consumption (Figure 10).
Figure 10 - Loading AntexGate computing capabilities when 9 WEB clients are connected (the picture is clickable)
As you can see from the figure above, CPU usage has risen from an average of 2,5% to 6%, and the memory allocated is only 3MB more.
Due to the large reserve of computing resources of the device, the developer does not need to save on the quality of the program created in MasterSCADA 4D.
Cross Platform
I would also like to note the cross-platform nature of the SCADA system under consideration, which gives integrators a huge choice of platforms for implementing their projects. Thanks to this approach, the transition between operating systems or PC architectures is very simple.
Conclusion
MasterSCADA 4D is a relatively new product from Insat. To date, there is not as much information on working with this software product as we would like. However, you can download a free development environment from the official website of the company, it has a very detailed help on working with the program.
Figure 11 - Help window (the picture is clickable)
In conclusion, I would like to say that this article has an introduction to the MasterSCADA 4D software product and a lot of things are not said. However, with your support, we will release more detailed examples and tutorials on working with this software product.
I would like to see in the comments what questions interest you the most. And we will, if possible, turn the most frequently asked questions into a lesson on creating projects in MasterSCADA 4D.
Source: habr.com