BacNet

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)
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  • #908
    phuszar
    Participant

    Hi, Are there any plans to add BacNet driver to the project?

    #909
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    Hi,

    BACnet implementation is not currently in our plans. It can be included in the plans if we find a sponsor of this feature. Also I can help an external developer to integrate BACnet driver with Rapid SCADA if someone decides to develop it.

    #910
    phuszar
    Participant

    Hi,I have ported a Bacnet stack to TI RTOS and was wondering what would be the scale of the project to make it work with your Scada implementation. Rgds.

    #911
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    It would be great ))
    In terms of SCADA, communication with devices is implemented by drivers. In Rapid SCADA driver is .NET assembly, to put it simply, it is DLL written in C#.
    I think, first of all you should see Modbus driver implementation on GitHub.

    Let’s continue our communication.

    #912
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    Raspberry Pi and other Linux systems are very popular. So drivers also should work on RPi under Mono .NET Framework.

    #913
    phuszar
    Participant

    I have also ported a Modbus driver to the TI RTOS which seems to be working fine with your Scada. I think it would only worth the effort if some additional functionality can be delegated to the device, like alarms or discovery of features etc. Do you see any possibility to make use of the added functionality provided by Bacnet?

    On an other note, I happen to have a second generation Raspberry Pi lying around. It is running Debian, but putting your stuff on it is definitely worth looking into. Thanks.

    #914
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    I think it would only worth the effort if some additional functionality can be delegated to the device, like alarms or discovery of features etc.

    Please provide more details about the idea.

    What programming language you use to BACnet implementation? It is possible to see the source code on GitHub or somewhere else?

    #915
    phuszar
    Participant

    I am using Bacnet stack developed by Steve Karg: http://bacnet.sourceforge.net/
    I use TI RTOS, and TIVA on Cortex M4, modified the code to suite TI NDK (native networking), added tasks to make use of the RTOS. I am planning at first on home automation, primarily to control heating, shades and make better use of energy.

    What I am also thinking of is for a while is to make the jump to IoT, but there are too many protocol options to explore. For transport I am looking into ZigBee. Lately I am coding in Java, but have experience in C, C++. Bacnet implementation is C/C++.

    #916
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    Task of creating BACnet driver consists of 2 main subtasks:
    1. Port BACnet stack to .NET or find the existing one.
    As an idea you can use C++/CLI for porting.

    2. Implement driver logic using Rapid SCADA base classes.
    In this subtask I can help to explore the internal structure of Rapid SCADA source code.

    For home automation the price of harware modules is important. Have you compared the prices of different hardware depending on communication interface and protocols?

    C# is similar to C++ and Java. I think it is easy to start coding C# if you know C++ and Java.

    #917
    phuszar
    Participant

    My decision to implement bacnet at the moment largely depends on the possible added functionality compared to modus. If all I can do is read some data, modbus will do. Do You see any advantage in Bacnet,ég alarms that could be implemented downstream that would be reasonable use of programming resources?

    #918
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    Advantages depend on the user case. Could you describe your specific case to compare Modbus and BACnet?

    #922
    phuszar
    Participant

    The picture is not as clear as it is ought to be.

    The first is that I have a computerized heating that is ailing and the manufacturer has abandoned it. To replace the controller I need to find out how a good or bad is it performing. I have run MathWork (Simulink) simulation on the house, but need to collect more information to make the model more accurate (and also many time need to visualize what is happening).
    To make a long story short, I looked around for a full featured, well known protocol that is standardized and has widespread use. This happened to be the BacNet. However after I ported the driver it turned that there is hardly any free support for the protocol.

    I think I have two option with Scada: use Modbus with no additional effort, or implement BacNet if it is not a big effort. If it is a big effort I would skip it and go directly to IoT, since I have been toying with the idea for quite a while. If I have to learn, I would like to learn something that is up and coming
    (Also, I was attending Cebit and got a lot of good input on how to go by creating a system).

    #923
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    Modbus or BACnet is just an instrument to collect data from devices. If you know what input and output signals are contained by your system, what sensors are required, then you can choose the most cheap and easy to use devices.

    As for me, IoT is a beautiful word created for increasing sales. Anyway an automated system physically allows to do a set of measurements and receives a set of commands.

    #924
    Mikhail
    Moderator

    Modbus doesn’t include standardized implementation of events (alarms). But in most cases events are generated by SCADA-Server.

    You could start using Modbus, because it is easy. If you realize that it is not enough for you, search for another protocol.

    #925
    phuszar
    Participant

    Thanks for your advice. I’ll stick with Modbus for the time being.

    IoT, the way I understand it, has great potential as I already know some of the technologies behind it. I am pretty much set on using it in my home, and hopefully in other projects later. However this does not change the fact that I would like to monitor/process sensor data.

    Do I assume correctly that your Scada can collect data from a server through TCP/IP socket? Should I wish to implement a frontend server to provide sensor data, what mechanism would you recommend to use to transfer data to rapid Scada server?

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