If you would like to connect your Ignition SCADA solution to a Canary Server, you have lots of options.  Let's explore each of them.

Canary's Module for Ignition

The Canary team developed a module that is featured on Ignition's Module Showcase that allows you to:

  • Historize Ignition tags directly to Canary
  • Publish Canary history back to Ignition projects and controls
  • Use as many of Ignition's native features as possible when writing/reading tag history

This module is free and requires no license.  The module will work only with Ignition 8 gateways and requires the Tag Historian module be installed on your Ignition server.  Support is offered by Canary.

Get Module

 

Chirp! Module by 4.0 Solutions

Module developer 4.0 Solutions offers the Chirp! Module for connecting Ignition and Canary and can be downloaded from Ignition's Third Party Module Showcase.  It provides the following functionality:

  • Historize Ignition tags directly to Canary
  • Publish last known Canary tag values in 'real-time' back to Ignition
  • Provides Ignition web browser component for embedding Canary's trending tool Axiom

This module is free and will require a license from 4.0 Solutions which can be requested here.  The module has two versions, one for Ignition 7 projects and another for Ignition 8 projects.  It also requires the Tag Historian module be installed on your Ignition server.  Support is offered by 4.0 Solutions.

 

MQTT Sparkplug Sub/Pub

Canary and Ignition both support MQTT Sparkplug for subscribing and publishing data, giving you the option to use the Cirrus Link MQTT modules to provide data from Ignition to Canary.  The Canary MQTT Collector can be used to subscribe to the Ignition Gateway, and in turn, the Canary Publisher can then provide last known tag values data back to Ignition via MQTT.  The Canary software necessary to make this architecture work is unlicensed and free.  The MQTT modules for Ignition will need to be purchased and licensed.

 

OPC Connectivity

You could also historize Ignition tags using the Ignition OPC UA Server and Canary's OPC UA Collector.  Once historized in Canary, tag history can then be provided to Ignition by using Canary's included OPC HDA Server.  Note, this solution will require the OPC Com module as well as the OPC UA module be installed on your Ignition gateway.  Additionally, reading data via OPC HDA from Canary will provide access to the historical archive only and not grant access to the Canary Virtual Views (asset modeling).

 

Custom Builds Using Web APIs

Canary provides free access to the Web APIs for both reading and writing data.  This allows you to build your own custom solutions as needed for creating data connectivity.  The write API uses the Canary Sender service and provides store and forward technology.  To read data you can choose between raw or processed historical values, as well as last known values for 'real-time' data values.

 

Any Combination Works

Want to use several architectures?  No problem.  Pick and choose different solutions and pair them together, the choice is yours.