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What is SCADA system ? its Application in IoT Projects

SCADA projects and system

In this article, our Industrial Automation and IoT developers have helped us understand various features of a SCADA system PLC RTU and what are its applications in Home and Industrial automation based IoT projects.

We will also share brief information about technologies, frameworks and platforms that power a fully-functional SCADA system.

SCADA project solutions for industrial hardware

What is a SCADA software system? – An Introduction

SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. SCADA software system is a device monitoring and controlling framework. The supervisory control includes, taking action and control through remote locations for various control mechanisms and processes.

Various kinds of data can be acquired from network of devious (connected through wireless/wired communication systems) for storage, processing and analytics to aid decision making.

Frontend of a SCADA system PLC RTU is a graphical user interface (GUI/UI).

In a nutshell, a SCADA software solution is a real time monitoring, supervision and control system from remote and/or local physical location.

How does The SCADA software system work:

Let’s try to understand the functional blocks of a SCADA project based IoT system, with the help of the simplified IoT framework as shown above

  • The User Interface(UI) of Mobile App or Web based dashboard represented above is the HMI of the SCADA system.
  • This, along with the backend business logic, database (cloud server) and a Gateway constitutes of a SCADA solution for control and monitoring of devices in an IoT network.
  • The IoT gateway ensures compatibility between IoT sensor network and cloud server. Through the gateway, the sensor data is stored in the cloud server.
  • The cloud server is the hosting spot for the algorithms that implement the business logic.
  • The sensor unit detects the change in the environment like change in temperature, sound and also acts as a data accumulating unit.

There can be a number of devices or machines connected within a SCADA solution based IoT project. For an instance, in case of home automation system, various home appliances such as AC, lights, refrigerator can be a part of connected smart home.

Hence SCADA solution is an intelligent software system with an intuitive UI (for data representation) connected with cloud server for data processing and predictive and descriptive analysis.

Usually Acura8mm, Embedded Linux boards, Embedded boards, Embedded single board system, Embedded cellular modem perform the low level tasks.

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FreeRTOS

FreeRTOS

  • FreeRTOS ESP32 Cortex M7 Provides a single and independent solution for many different architectures and development tools.
  • Is known to be reliable. Confidence is assured by the activities undertaken by the SafeRTOS sister project.
  • Is feature rich and still undergoing continuous active development.
  • Has a minimal ROM, RAM and processing overhead. Typically an FreeRTOS ESP32 Cortex M7 kernel binary image will be in the region of 6K to 12K bytes.
  • Is very simple – the core of the RTOS kernel is contained in only 3 C files. The majority of the many files included in the .zip file download relate only to the numerous demonstration applications.
  • Is truly free for use in commercial applications (see license conditions for details).
  • Has commercial licensing, professional support and porting services available in the form of OPENRTOS from our partner WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems.
  • Has a migration path to SafeRTOS, which includes certifications for the medical, automotive and industrial sectors.
  • Is well established with a large and ever growing user base.
  • Contains a pre-configured example for each port. No need to figure out how to setup a project – just download and compile!
  • Has an excellent, monitored, and active free support forum.
  • Has the assurance that commercial support is available should it be required.
  • Provides ample documentation.
  • Is very scalable, simple and easy to use.
  • FreeRTOS offers a smaller and easier real time processing alternative for applications where eCOS, embedded Linux (or Real Time Linux) and even uCLinux won’t fit, are not appropriate, or are not available.
  • FreeRTOS is designed to be small and simple. The kernel itself consists of only three C files. To make the code readable, easy to port, and maintainable, it is written mostly in C, but there are a few assembly functions included where needed (mostly in architecture-specific scheduler routines).FreeRTOS provides methods for multiple threads or tasks, mutexes, semaphores and software timers. A tick-less mode is provided for low power applications. Thread priorities are supported. FreeRTOS applications can be completely statically allocated. Alternatively RTOS objects can be dynamically allocated with five schemes of memory allocation provided:
    • allocate only;
    • allocate and free with a very simple, fast, algorithm;
    • a more complex but fast allocate and free algorithm with memory coalescence;
    • an alternative to the more complex scheme that includes memory coalescence that allows a heap to be broken across multiple memory areas.
    • and C library allocate and free with some mutual exclusion protection.
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Embedded hardware

Embedded hardware with LTE modem

  • Finding the right Embedded Single board computer and software platform for a chosen semiconductor SoC takes time and patience. especially when you need a custom hardware that fits you requirement and also you want to make sure to speed up software development process. if you want a really good fit and need the solution to be highly optimised for cost and performance.  It is sometimes difficult to find a single hardware hardware that is right for your project and that serves all the functionality

  • With all these requirements and variables, selecting the right combination of Operating System, middleware, and CPU can be problem. At SSLA Embedded, we have made available multiple known-good combinations where we have ported and optimised embedded operating systems and middleware onto specific hardware platforms. additionally apart from that at SSLA we can listen to your need and implement your customised hardware software that fits your requirement.

  • For example, the SCADA hardware platform makes a very versatile and capable target embedded evaluation board, particularly when combined with a multi-featured Linux OS.  One specific target for the SCADA embedded board with LTE modem is automotive design prototyping where the processor speed, flexible I/O and serial interfaces, CAN support.  This is particularly true in ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) or Control system applications where deterministic scheduling through the use of an Linux OS combined with flexible interfaces to the vehicle network are needed.  SCADA device can also be expanded using an P8 and P9 header interface in order to accommodate extendable prototypes.

  • To help with the overall design flow, SCADA provide software to capture embedded code, compile, debug and flash to the SCADA targets.  Fast iteration of design changes can be achieved and shorten the time to market, making this embedded software development environment both convenient and extremely practical.where as with customizing hardware software using acura8mm, raspberry pi, beaglebone black, Arduino, Adafruit, Intel, IMX8, IMX6, banana pi, orange pi, solid run, cubox-i, Embedded single board, Best embedded boards requires time and patience with huge resource

  • SSLA Embedded is pleased to announce a new hardware, iSCADA device is a embedded board for industrial application that runs on embedded linux. This product is designed to help clients in many fields of telecom, automotive, medical, remote automation, and industrial control. we provides clients with hardware that meets most of industrial requirements. Anchored by TI’s ARM cortex-A8 CPU 1-Ghz processor, sitara processor SCADA is integrated with the following on board: RS232/serial interface (2), RS485 interface (2), CAN interface, LTE modem, Wifi, Ethernet, eMMC, SD card, USB (2), 512MB SRAM, 1024K eprom, I2C, SPI, 8 LED’s, 4 switches and 20 GPIO’s.

  • SOFTWARE : SCADA software provided by us includes gnu arm embedded toolchain, compiler,RS485 device drivers, RS232 device drivers, CAN drivers,sd card , i2c, spi , lcd LTE modem wifi, ethernet drivers and all of the commonly needed device drivers

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BeagleBone

BeagleBone

  • The beaglebone black is tiny open-hardware (you could make one yourself), open-software computers that plug into whatever you have around the house.
  • Beagles mean big functionality in small packages because these little PCs can be used for all kinds of applications you’ve been tinkering with… and can handle many of the same tasks as your desktop PC.
  • The beaglebone black family is happiest when helping students to learn programming, hobbyists to push the bounderies of DIY and developers move to production quickly without excess noise, expense or bulk.
  • low-power world with the tiny, affordable, open-source Beagles Linux flavors at your fingertips, the Beagle family revs as high as 1GHz with flexible peripheral interfaces and a proven ecosystem of feature-rich “Cape” plug-in boards.
  • At a first glance, you may feel intimidated about grabbing such bare boards. They are so tiny and seemingly fragile, yet so powerful. Certainly, you’re curious to understand all the tiny components sitting on top of your BeagleBone.Following are the components featured in both the Original BeagleBone and the BeagleBone Black:

    • Processor: You can call the processor the “brains” of your BeagleBone. Both boards feature an ARM Cortex-A8 operating at a maximum speed of 720MHz for the Original BeagleBone and 1GHz for the BeagleBone Black. This means that the latter makes a decision/calculation every 0.000000001 second!

    • RAM: The Original BeagleBone has 256MB of DDR2 (Double Data Rate 2), whereas the BeagleBone Black has 512MB of DDR3.

    • microSD card slot: The Original BeagleBone doesn’t have any built-in memory, so it always needs to have a microSD card inside to be able to work. By default, it comes with a 4GB microSD card. The BeagleBone Black doesn’t come with a microSD card because it has built-in memory. Regardless, you can still insert a microSD card into it to install or update your operating system or because you want to have more available memory to play around with.

    • DC power connector: Your BeagleBone needs 5 volts (V) and 500 milliamps (mA) of direct current to power up.

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ATMEL-SAM4E

ATMEL-SAM4E

Microchip Atmel sam4e microcontroller SAM4E-EK Evaluation Board is an evaluation kit for the rapid development of the Microchip SAM4E microcontroller. It is based on the integration of an ARM®Cortex®-M4 processor with on-board NAND Flash and a set of popular peripherals. This evaluation board is designed to provide a high performance processor evaluation solution with high flexibility for various kinds of applications.

ARM® Cortex®-M4 processor-based microcontroller (MCU), the SAM4E16E features a floating point unit and a high data bandwidth architecture and is targeted at industrial automation and building control applications.

The device embeds 1MB Flash and features multiple networking/connectivity peripherals, including two 2.0A/B compatible CAN interfaces and an IEEE Std 1588-compatible 10/100Mbps Ethernet MAC. Additional communication interfaces include a FS USB device, a HS SDCard/SDIO/MMC interface, USARTs, SPIs and multiple TWIs.

Analog features include dual 1Msps, 16-bit ADCs of up to 24 channels with analog front end offering offset and gain error correction, and a 2-channel, 1Msps, 12-bit DAC.

  • SAM4E16 chip BGA144 package with optional socket footprint
  • 12MHz crystal
  • 32.768kHz crystal
  • Optional SMB connector for external system clock input
  • NAND Flash
  • 2.8 inch TFT color LCD display with touch panel and backlight
  • UART port with RS232 driver
  • USART port with RS232 driver multiplexed with RS485 function with driver
  • CAN port with driver
  • Mono/stereo headphone jack output
  • SD/MMC interface
  • Reset button: NRST
  • User buttons: WAKU, TAMP, Scroll-up, Scroll-down
  • QTouch® buttons: Left, Right and Slider
  • Full Speed USB device port
  • JTAG/ICE port
  • On-board power regulation
  • Three user LEDs
  • Power LED
  • BNC connector for ADC input
  • BNC connector for DAC output
  • User potentiometer connected to the ADC input
  • ZigBee® connector
  • PIO connection interfaces (PIOA, PIOC and PIOD with 32-bit, PIOB with 16-bit PIOE with 6-bit)
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DATA LOGGER

DATA LOGGER

Here’s a handy data logger temperature humidity Arduino shield: we’ve had a lot of people looking for a dedicated and well-designed data logging shield. We worked hard to engineer an inexpensive but well-rounded design. Not only is it easy to assemble and customize, it also comes with great documentation and libraries.

Our latest version of this popular shield has all the features of the popular original, and is “R3” compatible so you can use it with just about any Arduino or compatible. You can be up and running with it in less than 15 minutes – saving data to files on any FAT16 or FAT32 formatted SD card, to be read by any plotting, spreadsheet or analysis program. We even have a tutorial on how to use two free software programs to plot your data The included RTC (Real Time Clock) can be used to timestamp all your data with the current time, so that you know precisely what happened when!

Please note that this item does not come with an Arduino (you’ll need one to use with the shield), SD card or coin cell battery! The shield comes with all the components soldered on and tested but does not have headers installed. You’ll need some basic soldering skills to put it together, but even if you don’t have much experience you can get it done in under 15 minutes.

  • SD card interface works with FAT16 or FAT32 formatted cards. 3.3v level shifter circuitry prevents damage to your SD card
  • Real time clock (RTC) keeps the time going even when the Arduino is unplugged. The battery backup lasts for years
  • Included libraries and example code for both SD and RTC mean you can get going quickly
  • Prototyping area for soldering connectors, circuitry or sensors.
  • Onboard 3.3v regulator is both a reliable reference voltage and also reliably runs SD cards that require a lot of power to run

With this new version you can use it with:

  • data logger temperature humidity Arduino UNO or ATmega328 compatible – 4 analog channels at 10 bit resolution, 6 if RTC is not used
  • Arduino Leonardo or ATmega32u4 compatible – 12 analog channels at 10 bit resolution
  • Arduino Mega R3 or ATmega2560 compatible – 16 analog inputs (10-bit)
  • Arduino Zero or ATSAMD21 compatible – 6 analog inputs (12-bit)
  • Arduino Due – 12 analog inputs (12-bit)