IIoT Router & Data Gateway
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
In today’s competitive and high demanding industrial environment, every machine builder recognises the need to Remotely Access (Remote programming of field devices) its machines and equipment in the field to reduce machine downtime, increase machine uptime, reduce operational cost, reduce planned and unplanned site visits and provide a very good service to the end customer. Indeed, Remote Access allows them to stay competitive, whether by drastically reducing maintenance costs, optimising customers’ machines uptime or by offering better after sales service.
This trend can be seen through the figures. Indeed, HMS Industrial Networks, leader in industrial remote access, sees impressive statistics coming from their IIoT cloud platform ‘Talk2M’.
As of today, 150,000+ eWON VPN routers are registered in Talk2M. These having established a total of 10+ million VPN connections. “In 4 years, the total number of connections has been multiplied by 10,” explains Santosh, Country Manager at HMS.
According to eWON experts, more than a must-have, Remote Access is also a ticket for the future and IIoT; especially if the customers opt for eWON Remote Data solution, which combines Remote Access with Data Services.
Indeed, using the eWON FlexyIIoT router and data gateway, machine builders have the possibility to immediately benefit from the Remote Access advantages while having the data services required for their future or ongoing IIoT projects.
IIoT Router and Data Gateway – for remote maintenance technology
eWONFlexy is an IIoT router and data gateway designed for remote maintenance engineers who will use the device for their operational needs. Tailored for this purpose, the device operates independently from any other connected device.
Primary design of the product is to remotely access industrial machines over the internet. This means that it is possible to troubleshoot/check variables and re-program the Automation Devices on the machine (PLC/DCS/Drives/SCADA/Controllers, etc), view and control the machine’s HMI by remote or even access through an IP Camera with real time live images for on-site assistance.
Secondary, the product allows collecting data from the PLC/DCS/Drives/Controller. The purpose is to create dashboards out of these data, being either localised in the Flexy or, for data provided by multiple devices, on a web portal platform. The data can also feed edge computing applications such as performance monitoring and predictive maintenance, provided by third-party applications.
Unlock remote machines’ data!
Alongside with the Remote Access feature, the Flexy can also be used to collect and aggregate field data. The machine builder can connect his machines to Cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Predix, ThingWorx, Amazon web services, IBM Bluemix, MindSphere, SAP and many more.
Remote sensing of machine data
The Flexy data Gateway can connect to a wide range of industrial devices, mostly PLCs but also drives, DCS, remote I/Os, meters and sensors.
Even though, the Ethernet port is mostly used to connect to PLCs/DCS/Drives, a serial port is also available for legacy devices/PLCs. The Flexy supports all major PLC brands’ communication protocols allowing to poll the PLC registers such as Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, Profibus, MELSEC, etc. The only thing that is required is to select the right PLC protocol, define how to gather data inside the device (a register, a data block, etc) and connect!
Save the data into tags
A tag is a variable or a register that contains a numeric value coming from the PLC. It is used to identify the origin of the data (examples of tag names: ‘Tank level’, ‘eWON Memory1’, ‘Siemens_MW100’, etc).
Once field data are stored into tags in the Flexy, these can be used to:
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Manage Alarms (alarms triggering and notifications based on the machine condition)
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Create a customised remote web dashboard to monitor machine status on Smart phones/Laptop remotely
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Record Data (Historical logging - > 10,00,000 date and time-stamped records)
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Push live or historical data to a central/user’s server via FTP or HTTP(S) (CSV files) or via the Talk2M DataMailBox or using MQTT, and
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Publish the Tags into Modbus TCP or OPCUA for the local SCADA access.
In other words, tags are the root of the Flexy application.
Alarm management – meaningful integration
Alarm management is a major asset for machine builders and end-users as it offers the opportunity to effectively decrease machines downtime by optimising reactivity. Alarms also help in avoiding any serious damages to the machines by helping in addressing the problems proactively.
Moreover, by instantly receiving the right information, Alarm notifications avoid spending unnecessary time watching the machines status.
The operation is very simple. For each tag created in the Flexy, it is possible to trigger Alarms by defining thresholds, activation delays, etc. If the tag value exceeds any threshold level, the Flexy raises the Alarm.
For every Alarm defined, the eWON can send out notifications in the form of an e-mail, an SMS or a file sent on an FTP server or even data sent though HTTP(S).
Notifications can be sent upon different Alarm status; when the Alarm is raised, when someone acknowledge the Alarm, when the situation is returned to normal or when the Alarm ends.
To ensure that the delivered message is meaningful to each user, these are fully customisable. This includes dynamic content such as; tag name, alarm status and level, tag description, time stamp and value at this time, Alarm action, information about the eWON, etc. Flexy can send Alarms to multiple users over mobile phone and/or e-mails.
Software editor for Web Dashboards
The Flexy can store Web pages. This means that every user, whether he is on the customer or on the machine builder side, can remotely access its own personalised web dashboard, stored in the Flexy, displaying specific information about the machine.
This requires of course the design of web dashboards. For this purpose, eWON also developed a free software called viewON. It is a web HMI editor that allows to design animated web dashboards such as production dashboards, performance indicators, manufacturing counters, data trending graphs, alarm viewers, etc. The free software then uploads the dashboards, as HTML5.0 pages, into the eWON Flexy, making those accessible from any web browser.
Finally, eWON also offers the possibility to personalise the M2Web portal, giving Marketers the opportunity to apply their brand identity and optimise customers’ experience.
Fast commissioning and basis for new services
Simple turnkey solutions such as remote access with Alarm management and web HMIs allows to save big amounts of money and reduce machines downtime while offering nice value-added services to End-Users.
However, the IIoT wouldn’t make such a fuzz if it would have stopped there. The good news is, real IIoT applications, such as data trends or performance monitoring dashboards, are many more easy to set up features in Flexy.
The Flexy is also capable of collecting data from different machines, aggregate them into a central server and analyse them using third-party monitoring software, conveniently and easily. The user can be assured of not missing any machine data collected by Flexy. Materialising field data into nice data trends and performance monitoring dashboards only takes to know the right third-party software.
HMS and eWON
Through its ‘eWON’ brand for Remote Solutions, HMS has become the worldwide market leader for intelligent Internet remote access routers for PLCs and automation systems.
eWON Remote Data Solutions are Industrial Internet of Things in its purest form. By connecting an eWON router to an industrial machine, the machine gets connected to the Internet giving users access to it at any time, from anywhere.
HMS Industrial Networks India Private Ltd
Pune