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  • Author Author: rscasny
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What Are Your Thoughts about RoadTesting a Node-Red IoT Appliance

I've wanted to broaden the selection of products (hardware, software or both) that I offer for RoadTests. We've done a lot of great test equipment lately. And I've tried to expand our dev board offerings with FPGA-SoCs. But this one is a little different. It's from Opto 22 and it's called the groov Box.

 

groov is a a way to build operator interfaces to monitor and control systems and equipment using mobile devices and other computer-based systems. These operator interfaces can be viewed on almost any mobile device or computer. From the looks of it, you may think it's some kind of automation controller. Hmm... not quite. It is used in automation systems. I am told the company has used their products in test automation. But the product itself is an operator interface appliance on the network's edge to provide visualization, data handling, and connectivity to automation systems, software, databases, and devices.image

 

The groov Box includes two independent 1-GB Ethernet interfaces and USB expansion for wireless LAN interfaces. It brings data from process control, OEM machines, manufacturing and building systems, and IoT systems to the Cloud so others can use it if they have a need to.

 

What can it do?

  • Visualization: With browser-based groov View, you can build an operator interface to see and interact with data from sensors and automation systems, cloud applications, databases, web services, and more. You can view the interface on any brand device, from a smartphone to a computer to a web-enabled big-screen TV.
  • Data Handling: The key to IoT usefulness is getting the right systems and people access to the data so they can benefit from it. Built into the groov Box are Node-RED, an IoT rapid application development environment, and RESTful APIs to groov Data Stores. When a Enterprise license is added, you will have available Ignition EdgeRegistered with OPC UA and MQTT/Sparkplug.
  • Connectivity: You can connect to all kinds of devices and systems to monitor and control them and move data between them. Devices typically include:ModbusRegistered/TCP devices, Opto 22 SNAP PAC controllers, Cloud applications, IoT platforms, on-premises databases, and external web services, Allen-BradleyRegistered and SiemensRegistered PLCs using OPC UA (Requires a groov Enterprise license).

 

What does it include?

  • - groov View for building and using your own custom operator interface to the sensors, data, devices, and systems you need to see, monitor, and control.
  • - Node-RED, an open-source, multi-platform software tool for wiring together databases, cloud applications, and APIs to produce IoT applications quickly and inexpensively. Learn more about Node-RED.
  • - Ignition Edge (requires a groov Enterprise license), a product of Inductive AutomationRegistered, providing an internal OPC-UA server and drivers plus an MQTT Transmission module with Sparkplug payload. More about OPC and MQTT in IoT applications.
  • - groov Admin for configuring networks and security, backing up and restoring projects, using Node-RED, configuring Ignition Edge, updating groov software, and viewing system status.
  • groov is available as either the standalone groov Box hardware appliance or the PC-based groov Server for Windows software.

 

image

 

I'm adding a bunch of documentation for those of you who want more information.

User Manual

Quick Start Guide

Node-Red for groov

Tutorial

 

What do you think about roadtesting this product?

  • in reply to jomoenginer

      wrote:

     

     

    I am already learning about SCADA ...

    Ow Jon, it would be great if you could dedicate some blogs about the subject. Industrial topic !!

  • Oh, yes please. Absolutely.

     

    I am already learning about SCADA through some classes and I have Inductive Automation Ignition Edge running on a Raspberry Pi and Pine64 with Mosquito MQTT broker.  The Opto 22 groov is already supported with the Ignition software so running with an actual groov would be groov-y.  Adding in OpenPLC and I could see creating a nice cloud based controller environment for something like a Robotic ARM.

  • I feel like a Webinar and a practical example/demo of this device will be very useful.

     

    Luis

  • I will be very interested to this kind of device. Recently I have developed a client-server structure based on node-red and node-js + mongoDB + LAN rest server. All the equipment is suitable for a networked data exchange from an IoT collection system vs the local server then the cloud. The goal of this architecture is to created a secure communication between the data collection of the IoT system and the data processing local server (that will interface the cloud, eventually). The principle follows an automatic token exchange between the client and the server, also with a very short life time or the same behaviour of a OTP (one time password). The tokenisation is randomised then the securing process is automated. This means that not event the user knows the token during a data transfer period.

    The (maybe) interesting aspect of this project is that it is thought to run on a BBB client while the server can run on a Raspberry PI (need more resources and flexibility).

    Inside this design this component, just to collect data from a certain kind of environment will fit well as it support strong networking and is the correct front-end to the IoT sensors networks (e.g. home automation, critical processes controls etc.)

     

    The project mentioned above has already been set and tested working, and it is available with basic documentation on the following GitHub repositories:

    https://alicemirror.github.io/LukasJ_Server/

    https://alicemirror.github.io/LukasJ_Client/

     

    More details on this product will contribute to a complete integration design.

     

    Enrico