Hello, not sure if this is the right place, but here goes. I’m currently involved in automating a wastewater treatment process using a PLC. I’m in need of a SCADA system to control equipment, visualize data, and monitor each step of the process.
I received a recommendation for a Windows-compatible SCADA, but I’m not a fan of Windows due to its slow performance on industrial computers. Are there any free Linux-friendly alternatives or solutions to achieve the same functionality? Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
ScadaBR is an open source and cross platform scada that was successfully deployed in a water treatment station. Check it out.
Nice!! Thank you!
Anytime! I might know someone that dealt with that, as I’ve been in the profession for a while and that project wasn’t too far from my alma mater. Let me know if you decide to go forward with it and need someone to talk to.
Great, I will try it for sure! É do Brasil, ne?
É sim!
Really? If it’s a big enough treatment works to warrant a SCADA, then I doubt an automation engineer with the experience to set it all up would be asking this question, but here goes. You’ve a couple of obstacles:
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every contract I’ve ever seen for industrial automation has either specified which control plane they want directly, or they’ll have a list of approved suppliers which you must use. Someone after you will have to maintain this. Those maintainers will only accept the things that they have been trained on. Those things are Windows PCs running Windows software. They will reject anything else. The people running network security on those machines will have a very short list of the acceptable operating systems for running SCADA systems. That list will be a couple of versions of Windows Server. They will also reject anything else.
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that’s not nearly enough information to make a recommendation. Which PLCs? Allen Bradley, Siemens, Mitsubishi, …? I can’t think of a job I’ve ever been on where the local HMI hasn’t matched the PLCs. The SCADA software almost invariably matches the PLCs used in the main motor control centre, with perhaps a couple of oddball PLCs for proprietary panels and such like. Could maybe ask the supplier if they’ve a Linux alternative? Siemens will laugh at you and Mitsi won’t understand the question, but AB just might.
Sorry - I’m a Linux evangelist, but I don’t think it’s a good fit for here. SCADA performance generally isn’t bad due to Windows Server - it’s fine, does what it’s intended to - but because eg. STEP 7 is an appallingly slow and bloated piece of software which would bring a mainframe to its knees. Which is bizarre - the over-the-wire protocol connecting the machines is generally a short binary blob described in the PLC configuration - these bits are the drive statuses, these bits are an int or a float for an instrument readout - and it shouldn’t be at all slow updating it all, but slow it is.
I am not an automation engineer. I am a chemical engineer specialized in water treatment, but I know little of SCADA. Programming a PLC is supper easy for my applications and usually all I need is to control a valve or two, to control dosing pumps, read modbus data, store it and make reports with it. That is also achievable with influx and grafana in an industrial computer.
But in this particular application I want to control other equipment with human input, thus a SCADA is needed.
I don’t like the proprietary software of Siemens or Schneider. That’s why I was wondering if there is another option.
Maybe I should be thinking in HMI and not a SCADA.
Offtopic question. Are you familiar with AVEVA (Wonderware) System Platform? We have been working on it for smart city command and control centre. The challenge is bringing in equipments from different OEMs under a single interface. Some projects want this to simplify operations. They prefer one application over many. What
Another thing is I saw you specified some OEMs. And most of the time they have some variant of an open protocol that only works with their PLC. Why does the SCADA/Automation not move into some universal standards? Is it because very few OEMs have significant market share? I am aware of OPC UA. But no universal support.
You can do some pretty cool things with WW SP, but I feel like working with it really makes me appreciate Linux and the Foss community so much more. WW always feels so proprietary.
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What you are looking for is Ignition SCADA. Specifically the perspective module. It is the best in the market in my opinion, has unlimited tags, great training videos and runs on almost anything. It also comes with the drivers needed to connect to most of the popular brands’ PLCs.
I have seen this implemented at wastewater and water treatment plants
However a SCADA will be pricey, if it’s a small plant rather consider an HMI, there are options available from Ignition’s side, but it’ll depend on how much it is worth to you
Are you just a casual SME and just found this question?
Honest question
Randomly found the question, but I work as a Automation Engineer / C&I / Integrator
Not an automation guy here either but I have worked with several, and my current workplace has a big boner for Ignition, which runs on both Linux and Windows and works with their Allen Bradley PLCs. They run the whole thing on Linux VMs on VMware, with their HMIs being mostly Windows PCs, but as far as I can tell all they really need is a web browser, so you could probably use anything for that.
Ignition isn’t free but they have trial versions and a free ‘maker’ version that I can only assume has commercial use exemptions or something in it.
As others have said, Inductive Automation 's Ignition is a fine SCADA platform that runs on Linux. I used it for years until my employer decided we should get rid of Ignition and use OSISoft Pi for data visualization. It’s a ridiculous idea, as they are different products with different use cases, but I lost that argument and have been told to drop it. Still salty, all those development hours and useful tools gone.
A new window into the linux@lemmy.ml community has appeared 😹
Just install Gentoo. It will fix your problems.
Honestly though I have no idea what you are asking. Maybe custom built software?
